It’s no secret that I am a massive Stephen King fan. He creates a state of dread that’s incomparable and unique, and you don’t have to look hard to find a film adaptation of one of his hundreds of stories. Sadly, though, you do have to look harder to find a worthwhile adaptation of one of his stories. Many of them lack the heart and the fully developed story of the novelizations, often falling flat when it comes to building a sense of foreboding and horror.
Maximum Overdrive is a different beast altogether. Not exactly horror, but written and directed by the man himself, it’s a high-octane thrill ride that really goes there in terms of action and grisly murders. While it is admittedly a mess overall, I think its redeeming qualities make it a fun action-horror experience.
Maximum Overdrive follows a group of folks stuck at a North Carolina truck stop when all machines on earth come to life and start attacking people. Now, if you know anything about King’s past, you’ve probably already guessed correctly that this was written and directed during his non-sober days. King, by his own admission, was “coked out of his mind” during the film production, according to his interview with Tony Magistrale. This makes some of the movie’s wilder choices make a lot of sense, particularly the nearly constant barrage of explosions and heavy metal music.
I’d argue though that Maximum Overdrive’s opening scene rules, full stop. We’re given a title card premise, then we dive right in. Cars on a suspension bridge that rises on its own, people being thrown through windows and vehicles falling into the water. Watermelons everywhere! All this while the fantastic ACDC soundtrack frames the scene with “Who Made Who,” an original song written for the movie. Hell, I’d pay to see this movie in theaters just for this scene.
This movie’s action scenes and goopy killings are where it shines brightest, and most of the movie’s runtime is dedicated to picking off random people in the most creative of ways. Everything from a lawnmower chase scene to a little league baseball team being hounded by a murderous Coke machine are shot in bombastic and indulgent detail. Buckets of blood soak nearly every moment, and it’s goofy in a way that almost feels intentional. Almost.
It’s the story and dialogue that really let this movie down. Writing for the screen is a different animal than novel writing, and I think the characters in this film are so flat because they’re missing the complex inner world often shown through his first-person prose. Because of this, what we’re left with is a bunch of people who just do stuff for no reason. I can’t really even spoil this movie because nothing really happens. The electronics come alive, some of them die and some of them escape. That’s it. The romance writing is particularly cringe, but all of King’s stereotypes make an appearance, including the manic religious guy. The cast isn’t terrible though, and I particularly enjoyed Pat Hingle as the mustache-twirling villain of the story. He just basked in how evil he was, and it was fun to watch him ham it up in all of his scenes.
Sadly, the dialogue-heavy sections are what take Maximum Overdrive from a so-bad-it’s-good classic to a mostly forgettable slog with some fun moments. I still really like it, but I think you have to really like King as a writer. There are some scenes in this where he’s really cooking, and I think with some really good direction, he could do some good stuff on the big screen. Sadly though, I think we’re not going to see much more from him in the future. There will be no shortage of King adaptations though, even if they don’t feature any rocket launchers.
