MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE director STEPHEN KING makes a cameo appearance in his only directorial effort to date. — **MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE** director **STEPHEN KING** makes a cameo appearance in his only directorial effort to date.

In the coming attraction for MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE, director and writer STEPHEN KING announced that he decided to direct the film himself because: “If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself.” Years later, when asked why he hasn’t directed a movie since (he still has never directed another one of his adaptations), he responded, “just watch MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE.” Thirty-five years later, the movie has become infamous not only for its iconic AC/DC soundtrack, but also the fact that King has widely admitted that he was “coked out of my mind” the entire time while he was making the film. And thank God he did, because this narcotic-fueled, gas-soaked insanity became one of the wildest and funniest horror movies of the eighties decade.

In MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE, a rogue comet trailing through Earth turns all machines against humans. — In **MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE**, a rogue comet trailing through Earth turns all machines against humans.

PLOT:

Adapted from King’s short story, “Trucks” from his Night Shift collection, MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE tells the story of a comet named Rhea-M, whose tail passes through Earth, causing a bizarre anomaly for eight days, where machines come to life and turn against humans. A group of survivors, led by diner cook Bill Robinson (EMILIO ESTEVEZ), end up holed up in a truck stop in North Carolina, and must band together to fight off a mass of homicidal trucks that have descended onto their location.

Machines wreak havoc on the survivors at the Dixie Boy in MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE. — Machines wreak havoc on the survivors at the Dixie Boy in **MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE**.

KILLS:

The film instantly pops off in our opening scene, which sees a cameo by King himself walking up to an ATM outside a bank, who’s sign is flashing “fuck you” over and over. A nearby bridge full of commuters in their cars spontaneously starts to rise, sending both humans and vehicles into the water below. The film proceeds to zero into the Dixie Boy Diner and Truck Stop and it’s surrounding area, where we meet our main cast of characters, led by diner cook, Bill, played by a so-scruffy-he’s-oddly-kinda-hot EMILIO ESTEVEZ.

There are some pretty creative kills in the film, all that you know were definitely cooked up by King during a crazed, disco candy-fueled brainstorming session. We get the video game player at the truck stop (played by GIANCARLO ESPOSITO, later of BREAKING BAD fame) meeting his demise by electrocution at the hands of a Star Castle video game, and a waitress getting her arm slashed by an electric meat carver that suddenly springs to life. One kill in particular sees a little league coach heading to a soda machine right after a game, only to have the sodas start shooting out at him like mortar shells, one of them hitting him right in the head and killing him.

The wild kills were apparently just as wild to film too. Cinematographer ARMANDO NANNUZZI, was actually injured during the shooting of one of the scenes that involved a runaway lawnmower. While shooting in the suburb of Wilmington, North Carolina, a radio-controlled lawnmower went berserk and shot out wood splinters, injuring Nannuzzi, who ended up losing his right eye. In an oral history with Slashfilm.com, assistant camera operator, SILVIA GIULIETTI said that Nannuzzi asked King if they could take out the blade from the lawnmower before they shot the scene, but King insisted that the blade stay in. Nannuzzi ended up suing King for $18 million and the suit was settled out of court.

A group of menacing big rigs trap a band of survivors in MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE. — A group of menacing big rigs trap a band of survivors in **MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE**.

VISUALS/SFX:

Visuals-wise, MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE is pretty all over the place, and it's even been long rumored that GEORGE A. ROMERO ghost directed a large portion of the film, while King was seeking treatment for his cocaine addiction. It’s not hard to see why, as many scenes look similar to Romero’s famed distinct camera angles and editing choices. King has only confirmed that Romero was constantly on set and that he would often ask him for directing advice. But, to give credit to King, the first cut of the film was actually so gruesome that it reportedly made Romero almost throw up, as the original edit featured gorier scenes including a bible salesman’s face peeling off and a kid being run over by a steamroller (more on that in a minute).

In making a film about sentient machines, the deck was already stacked against King logistically, financially and technologically. Several of the radio-controlled trucks used for the truck stop siege broke down throughout the film, which delayed production, as every time a truck would break down, another one would also go down and need repair. To add to the very real danger element that was present to the cast and crew filming this movie, there were several stunts that didn’t go to plan (even after the lawnmower incident). For a scene involving a menacing ice cream truck, a long wood beam was placed inside the vehicle so it would flip end over end, but the truck ended up only flipping once and sliding right into the camera. GENE POOLE, who was the dolly grip on the film, managed to pull the cameraman out of the way at the last second.

No one was safe from King’s hubris in regards to his vision of the film. While shooting a scene where a steamroller rampages across a baseball field, King requested that the SFX department place a bag of fake blood near the dummy that was supposed to stand in for a young player who would be hit by it. The effect King was hoping to achieve would be that the blood would appear on the steamroller and be re-smeared on the grass over and over in a sort of darkly comedic effect. However, while filming the scene the bag of blood exploded too soon and sprayed everywhere, making it look as though the boy’s head also exploded. King loved it, but censors demanded the shot be taken out of the final cut. In the years since the film’s release, rumors have persisted that King has the only copy of the original, uncut version.

A rouge’s gallery of survivors must band together to fight off murderous machines in MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE. — A rouge’s gallery of survivors must band together to fight off murderous machines in **MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE.**

PERFORMANCES:

Even given the terrible dialogue that pervades most of the film, all of the performers are absolutely playing to the back row. ELLEN McELDUFF is positively transcendent as Wanda June, the waitress at the Dixie Boy Diner. After getting her arm slashed by a now self-aware electric knife, she descends into a flabbergasted rage at these machines, giving different readings over and over of the line, “we made you!!!” Finally at her breaking point, she picks up a bazooka and gets gunned down by a sentient machine gun vehicle, but not before pulling off an amazing shot and blowing up one of the evil trucks.

EMILIO ESTEVEZ was fresh off of ST. ELMO’s FIRE and THE BREAKFAST CLUB fame when he made this film, and he had the perfect semi-bad boy chops to pull off the character of Bill, who we discover is on work probation at the truck stop after he robbed a grocery store. He ends up taking up the leadership role in the band of survivors at the Dixie Boy and hooking up with hitchhiker Brett (played by LAURA HARRINGTON) whose line delivery is something out of those Brazzers couch interview videos. And speaking of sex, she and Bill hook up within a few hours of meeting in a scene that made my ovaries dry up like the Nazi guy at the end of INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE. She tells him, “you sure do make love like a hero” as he wipes sweat off of her forehead with his finger and proceeds to lick it off. Ugh, just the worst. Estevez has singled out this film as one role he looks back on with regret, much like King himself. He has even said that the few times he connected with King over the years, King has asked him: “can you forgive me for that?”

But for me, the MVP of this movie is scrappy little league player, Deke (HOLTER GRAHAM). After his coach gets brained to death by a pissed-off soda machine, he smartly manages to evade a nefarious ice-cream truck, a homicidal lawnmower, and even a plane, making it all the way to the Dixie Boy, where he finds a storm drain that allows him to sneak into the truck stop from under the road, and thereby avoiding the killer trucks. Not only was he able to sneak past all these evil machines more effectively than most adults, but he had to deal with the fact that his dad (who was one of the mechanics at the truck stop) was killed by one of the constantly circling big rigs. When they finally escape the truck stop, they all have guns in hand, even Deke, who now has a machine gun and he proceeds to blast away a drive-thru speaker which starts saying “humans here, humans here!” (it’s a pretty banoonies scene, when you think about the fact that actual humans are the ones speaking through those and it’s not the speakers themselves that have voices). Even though he’s all of 13 years old, he keeps his head, and is the only person in the film that actually makes smart decisions.

Bill Richardson (played by EMILIO ESTEVEZ) faces off against the Green Goblin truck. — Bill Richardson (played by **EMILIO ESTEVEZ**) faces off against the Green Goblin truck.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS:

It feels like King is trying to read our dependence and worship of technology to filth, on how it wouldn’t take long for everything to go to hell once we lost it, but ultimately there is no staying power to the shade. It also doesn’t help that we are not really given a definition as to what kind of “machines” are effected, as we have vehicles, ATM’s, and even sprinklers coming to life (the latter of which, unless I’m wrong, is extremely puzzling, as sprinklers rely only on water pressure to operate and not any kind of electricity). The big rigs constantly circling the truck stop are also supposed to be this menacing, malevolent presence, but come off about as scary as those stupid trees swaying ominously in M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN’s wretched 2008 film, THE HAPPENING. I will give a pass to the Green Goblin truck though, because that one is actually badass. Add to that, the fact that the owner of the Dixie Boy had a weapons cache under the truck stop that could take down a third-world country. Why not have them blow the tires of the trucks or grenade-blast the vehicles into bits? And conversely, why don’t the trucks just drive right into the truck stop at the outset? But, when you are Stephen King with a synapse full of white lightning bouncing between your frontal and occipital lobes, you know that logic was never going to be in the cards for this film.

King himself later denounced MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE, calling it a “moron movie.” I think that’s being a little hard on himself. MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE is not a great film, but it is a fun one, because it is so insane and crazy. It looks like it was dangerous to film, and knowing what we do know about the making of it only cements that energy to the movie. There’s something to be said for an off-the-rails, first-time director making a film with an equally off-the-rails story. SILVIA GIULIETTI further remarked in her interview with Slashfilm.com that it was precisely this unpredictable energy that King brought that made the film so memorable to be a part of: “He didn’t know where to put the cameras, how to do this….Stephen King had a very strong idea about the movie, but he was not able to translate in images. He liked very much the extreme danger. Every day, we had security because the movie was a very dangerous movie. I was scared, sometimes. I was scared because I remember Stephen King had a kind of pleasure to see difficult situations.”

Even though that kind of kid-burning-ants-with-a-microscope mentality doesn’t really fly in movie productions as much these days, it is a blast to watch, because like most eighties films, they just don’t make stuff like this anymore (as trite as that sound bite may be). Add to that a soundtrack by AC/DC which, in my opinion, took this film from an “eh” movie to a kick-ass one, and you’ve got a film with enough ballsy, berserk, insanity crazy energy to still entertain even 35 years later.

Joe (PAT MILLER) and Hendershot (PAT HINGLE) bring out the big guns in MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE. — Joe (**PAT MILLER**) and Hendershot (**PAT HINGLE**) bring out the big guns in **MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE**.

THE GORY DETAILS:

About a year after the movie was released, the Green Goblin truck was taken to Silent Rick's Towing and Salvage in Wilmington, NC. The jaw, lower teeth, tongue and tops of the ears were gone and what was left was burnt severely. John Allison of Wilmington, NC saw it there and purchased it. He later had to sell it and Tim Shockey of Piketon, Ohio purchased it on February 19, 1987. Tim displayed it in his video store, Uncle Jim's Videoland, in Waverly, Ohio for several years until he sold the business. He moved it to his back yard for about 20 years. It was then moved into his garage and he started restoring it in 2011. Tim spent 2 years, nights and weekends restoring the head. He now travels across the USA and Canada taking it to horror & comic cons.

STEPHEN KING originally wanted to cast BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN in the lead.

It is because of this movie that EVIL DEAD became a franchise. STEPHEN KING loved THE EVIL DEAD (1981) and his high praise of the film is largely credited with its success. While making this film he heard SAM RAIMI and the other creators were having difficulty making a sequel. King brought this to the attention of producer DINO DE LAURENTIIS who helped Raimi make EVIL DEAD II (1987). Had King not been working with De Laurentiis on this movie at the time the horror franchise may never have gotten past the original.