October 14th, 2004
You know the old Hollywood adage, "But what I really want to do is direct...". This month's grab bag takes that saying and presents to you three people mostly known for your favourite genre that went from acting (and in one case writing) to directing. And, to be honest, for the most part they didn't do too badly but oddly enough all three of our participants made one movie, and never directed again...
It doesn't get much more generic than this one, folks - and it would mark the only time Hess would go behind the camera but he seems to have a alright grip on making a slasher movie and tries to use shadows to his advantage. It's just the movie itself is too blandly predictable and the deaths are almost as dull. But if you can find this obscure movie at least give it a view, especially if you're on a quest to see every slasher movie ever made.
The most prolific horror writer in history, King's stories were brought to the screen with such regularity that the guy could write a check and they'd make a mini-series out of it. But here producer Dino De Laurentis decided to let King adapt his short story "Trucks" promising fans that the only person to properly film a King story, is King himself. Little did he mention that Steve had absolutely no directing experience going into it. Emilio Estevez heads-up the cast for this extremely dopey "machines gone bad" movie that has a passing comet causing all the vehicles (and various other gadgets, where the script calls for a "set piece") to have minds of their own. This follows the plight of a group of people trapped in the Dixie Boy truck stop who have to try and fight their way out while under the watchful eye of the eighteen-wheeler that's branded with a kick-ass Green Goblin grill (and seems to be the leader). This isn't rocket science and King acknowledged that fact. It's a stupid, stupid movie that gets more ridiculous as it goes along and the script isn't any great shakes either. But there's some sort of goofy charm behind it and the soundtrack is by AC/DC (can't get much better than that!).
While the movie was a bit muddled at times and the finale got too dumb for its own good, Englund has a good enough grip on what makes a horror movie work, there's enough alright effects, and Geoffrey's shows the same off-beat charm he did in Fright Night for this to be an entertaining effort. It's just too bad that our main character started to come across too much like a wisecracking Freddy clone in the final third. |
To All A Goodnight [1980] marked cult favourite actor David Hess's directorial debut. You all hated him as Krug in Wes Craven's debut film, The Last House On The Left, and he was a hissable baddie in Craven's adaptation of Swamp Thing, but here he takes the reigns for a completely standard slasher movie that has a group of girls (who, of course, sneak in the boyfriends after drugging-up the housemother) staying behind during Christmas vacation getting knocked off one-by-one by a psychopath.
Maximum Overdrive [1986] was probably more of a "dare" than a desire by Stephen King to go behind the camera.
976-Evil [1988] had Robert Englund stepping away from his Freddy Krueger persona long enough to direct this potboiler about a Satanic "HorrorScope" 976 number that transforms geeky Stephen Geoffreys into a murderous (and hip, can't forget hip) demonically possessed teen who sets-out for revenge on people who've been bullying him.