There would be one time during his career as a writer that Stephen King would step away from the pen and paper to direct a film and that would be in 1986 for a little picture called Maximum Overdrive, adapted from his own work. Suffice it to say, it never won any awards but it is an extremely fun feature that never takes itself too seriously.

Taken loosely from one of his short stories, King offers his audience a tale about machines coming alive and running wild thanks to a passing comet over the Earth. It all begins slowly at first and then as they gain free will and thought, people begin to die as the machines throw off their human overlords. Whether it is the pinball machine, the lawn mower, the electric knife or the transport truck, they have all decided that mankind has to go and they mean to make that happen. For those at a lonely roadside truck stop, the situation is desperate and while they hide at first and try to ride it out, they soon take the fight to the machines as they make a desperate escape.

While not necessarily light in tone, it is not as heavy as some of King’s other work despite the post-apocalyptic vibes this movie gives off. There is an end-of-the-world feel to it all as the machines come alive and start killing off every human being in sight. There is no escape as machines, electronics and the like are everywhere, made necessary by man to aid them in everyday life. Now that they have gained sentience, the machines find that they have been used and abused and there is no going back to that. Emilio Estevez leads the group of survivors at the truck stop which also includes Laura Harrington, Yeardley Smith, Pat Hingle and Frankie Faison among their number and together, they play a group of characters that are both at odds with the trucks and machines that have trapped them there as well as with each other. Estevez does a good job at being the hero, keeping his fellow man in line while trying to devise a way to escape their captors. King does a good job at capturing their desperation and fear as the group tries to survive the day, making use of both the actors and the simple, but effective visual of the transport trucks circling the building, waiting to strike.

Despite being a horror movie, it is also quite campy with some cheesy acting and a few plot holes that might make one think should they choose to do so. Even better are those moments when the machines find their target and while not overly bloody or gory, there are a couple of moments that are quite brutal and unintentionally funny such as the moment when a kid gets run over by a steamroller. King may or may not have meant to make it as silly as it gets sometimes but it all turns out to be highly enjoyable because of it. Tense, suspenseful, scary, preposterous, goofy and just plain solid entertainment, Maximum Overdrive is one of the better Stephen King films simply because it is unlike the rest of those that have been adapted for the big and small screen. Worth checking out.

3.5 out of 5