Awesomely Horrible Netflix Instant Films: “Maximum Overdrive”

There is no doubt that Stephen King is one of the masters of horror and suspense. His books have sold millions of copies and he has made mad bank off of it. He gave us classics like The Shining, Carrie, and Cujo. He also gave us this piece of crap. Maximum Overdrive is based on one of King's short stories and it feels like something that was meant to be twenty pages long getting stretched over an hour and a half. The movie asks the question of what happens when the machines turn on us and trap us inside a diner with Emilio Estevez.

It's pretty simple, really. A comet passes too close to the Earth, so naturally, this causes all machines to become sentient and want to kill humans. I'm not sure how a comet could cause cars and blenders to come to life, but there you go. The leader of the machines seems to be a psychotic semi with a giant Green Goblin head on the front that has it out for Emilio Estevez. He and a bunch of survivors hide inside a diner. The machines start driving around the place killing anyone who goes outside. You'd think that the answer would be, don't go outside. Especially once you realize that the damn things stop when they ran out of gas. The survivors plan to leave through a drain pipe and go to an island where there are no machines. They manage to escape and blow up the evil semi with a rocket launcher because yeah.

The movie was directed by Stephen King...which is part of the problem. The man is a great writer but that doesn't mean he knows how to direct a movie. The script is asinine, the effects ludicrous, and the acting is craptacular. Still, it's a fun silly movie about an evil truck. Also the entire soundtrack is AC/DC. That's awesome.