Maximum Overdrive

This fun 80s throwback horror thriller featured the rise of maniac mechanical devices before AI became a thing.

By Tracie Reddick

I love quirky horror films with unrealistic yet fun to imagine scenarios.

Like Maximum Overdrive (1986).

Directed by Stephen King, this comical fright flick takes place in North Carolina at the tail end of a comet’s eight-day journey over Earth.

It results in a change in the atmosphere, causing mechanical devices to short circuit, going on homicidal rampages.

It’s easy to confuse this tale with Director Chris Thomson’s 1998 film, Trucks, which is a similar themed story by King featuring driveless big rigs on a murder spree.

Both films are set at a diner, although Maximum Overdrive serves up an epic battle between man and machine that hasn’t been seen since the dawn of the Industrial Age, back when folk legend John Henry had a showdown with a steam engine.

OK, maybe not.

But, it does bring new meaning to the term, unplugged.

Its one thing to come across a malfunctioning ATM indiscriminately tossing out cash.

But, watch out for those deadly vending machines shooting out canned sodas like missiles.

Emilio Estervez plays the hero in this horredy while Yeardley Smith is hiliarious as the nit-wit newlywed, who, along with a handful of customers with over-the-top Southern dialects are trapped at truck stop.

With names like Bubba and Wanda June, this motley crew use home-spun wisdom to outsmart the convoy of road raging big wheelers led by a semi with a giant, green face, red-eyed demon mask attached to its front bumper.

Be sure to check out this blast from the past while it lasts on Tubi’s film rotation.