By now you would have noticed that movie adaptations of Stephen King novels are having a bit of a resurgence.
Thanks to the most recent adaptation of 'IT' and its insane box office performance, the work of Steven King is, once again, exploding all over our screens like so much blood from a plughole (or elevator if you're more into Kubrick).
As a King fan, this makes me SO happy. There have been some truly great Steven King adaptations and it's exciting to see more potential hits in the works.
That being said...
Nobody is perfect, and even within King's own body of work there are going to be some stories that aren't very good, so sooner or later we'll get an adaptation that's less 'IT' and more 'The Tommyknockers'.
That being said, uh... again...
Just because a movie is bad, doesn't mean it can't be fun.
Case in point: 'Maximum Overdrive'.
'Maximum Overdrive' is an adaptation of 'Trucks' a short story that you can find in 'Night Shift', a collection of King's short stories and novellas (because that man can turn anything into a goddamn 800 page novel) published in 1978.
It's about a group of people trapped in a roadside diner after semi-trailers, bulldozers, really any large, diesel powered vehicle, have come to life and are attacking humans.
It's a nutty concept with a bleak outlook. By the end of the story the narrator is left with a vision of the future where human beings are slaves to their machines and most of the world is being paved over to keep the trucks running.
Sort of like a 1970s version of all those thinkpieces about how we've been enslaved by social media.
In 1986 the story was adapted into a feature film by none other than King himself.
By that point there had been a few adaptations of King's work including 'Carrie', 'Christine' and, of course, Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining', but this was the first time that King had both written AND directed.
If any of the promo material was to be believed, this was a HUGE selling point for the movie.
Just look at the trailer:
See? It's weird, right? It feels like King's the main character, instead of Emilio Estevez.
The film more or less follows the plot of the short story, but with every piece of machinery coming to life. This is a fun little addition because it means that so much more is fair game.
One of the more confronting moments of schlock happens a when worker at the Dixie Boy Truck Stop is attacked by an electric breadknife.
Yes it's a person being attacked by a sentient knife, but it's one of those squirmy moments that bring to life the weird little fears we have constantly in the backs of our minds.
The main villain is a Western Star 4800 prime mover sporting a Green Goblin mask, which acts as the 'leader' of the group of trucks that stalk out the Dixie Boy Truck Stop. It's the one you saw in the background of the trailer.
Basically think the truck stop scene from 'Duel' but with even MORE evil trucks.
I won't spoil too much for you, but for a movie based on a bleak reflection of our reliance on technology and machinery, things get pretty wacky, pretty quickly, and not just because a certain scene expects you to believe that a diesel powered semi-trailer has the ability to SNEAK UP ON SOMEONE.
'Maximum Overdrive' gets a lot of hate (17 per cent 'Rotten' on Rotten Tomatoes if you trust that sort of thing), and that seems to be from people going into the movie expecting something they're not going to get.
If you watched the trailer then you probably got the feeling it was a bit goofy, but not in a self-aware way. King straight-up tells you he's going to scare the hell out of you, which is a bold claim for a movie that features a guy getting killed by an evil vending machine that shoots him in the balls with a can of soft drink.
That being said, both IMDb and Wikipedia classify the film as a sci-fi/horror/comedy. So... the wackiness is intentional then? Makes sense, I mean this is also the film where King had himself cameo as a guy that gets insulted by a sassy ATM.
The message of the human race being overly reliant on our machines gets lost in the execution, so don't go in expecting to come out questioning everything you've ever known about the world. But do expect to go in and get Emilio Estevez fighting evil trucks with a rocket launcher.
Put Maximum Overdrive at around second place in your watch schedule. Preferably with a few responsibly enjoyed alcoholic beverages that you should under absolutely NO circumstances operate heavy machinery after consuming. Seriously. Don't you do it.
Besides, you still have more movies to watch!
What machine would you be most afraid of coming to life? Tell us what you think in the comments.
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