Maximum Overdrive * (1986, Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington) – Classic Movie Review 13,379

Machines come alive and begin killing people in Stephen King’s 1986 horror film Maximum Overdrive starring Emilio Estevez and Pat Hingle. It is King’s only film as director.

Writer/ director Stephen King’s 1986 American horror film Maximum Overdrive stars Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, Yeardley Smith, John Short, and Ellen McElduff. It is King’s only film as director, and he has a cameo as an ATM man.

This botched chiller is of much interest as the directorial debut of writer Stephen King. He fumbles his own typical short story Trucks about killer machines on the rampage on US highways, terrorising customers and staff at the Dixie Boy Truck Stop, a roadside café and gas garage outside Wilmington, North Carolina.

Stephen King was candid enough to call it a ‘moron movie’ and you may want to agree with him, though at least the tough action is exciting, better than its dark  humour and playful tone. The cast is capable enough, particularly Pat Hingle as the nasty Dixie Boy Truck Stop owner Bubba Hendershot, and Emilio Estevez as his cook Bill Robinson. There is interest here, but King fails to get his film into gear let alone overdrive.

There’s a noisy heavy metal soundtrack by King’s favourite band, the Australian band AC/DC, whose album Who Made Who is the Maximum Overdrive soundtrack. It includes the best-selling singles ‘Who Made Who’, ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’ and ‘Hells Bells.

Italian cinematographer Armando Nannuzzi handles the flashy visuals.

After its critical and commercial failure, King disowned the film, describing it as a learning experience after which he intended never to direct again.

It was released on July 25, 1986.

It was made by De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, Dino De Laurentiis’s first film after he took over Embassy Pictures. Principal photography began in early May 1985 in and around Wilmington, North Carolina. De Laurentiis operated a large studio complex in North Carolina, a ‘right-to-work state’ where he could hire non-union crews, slashing production costs.

The Dixie Boy Truck Stop set was built by US-17/74, across the Cape Fear River near Wilmington. Interior scenes were filmed at De Laurentiis’ Wilmington-based studio DEG.

Nannuzzi previously worked in Wilmington with De Laurentiis on Cat’s Eye (1985).

On 31 July 1985, during shooting in a suburb of Wilmington, North Carolina, a radio controlled lawnmower went out of control and struck a block of wood used as a camera support, shooting out wood splinters and injuring Nannuzzi, who lost his right eye. Nannuzzi sued Stephen King, De Laurentiis Production and 16 others on 18 February 1987 for $18 million in damages for alleged unsafe working practices and the suit was settled out of court.

Stephen King wanted Bruce Springsteen to play Bill Robinson, but De Laurentiis hadn’t heard of him and hired ‘Martin’s Sheen son’ Emilio Estevez instead, contributing to King’s disillusion with the production.

Pat Hingle moved permanently to Wilmington after filming and lived in nearby Carolina Beach until his death in January 2009.

The cast

The cast are Emilio Estevez as Bill Robinson, Pat Hingle as Bubba Hendershot, Laura Harrington as Brett Graham, Yeardley Smith as Connie, John Short as Curtis, Ellen McElduff as Wanda June, Frankie Faison as Handy, Leon Rippy as Brad, Christopher Murney as Camp Loman, J C Quinn as Duncan Keller, Holter Graham as Deke Keller, Barry Bell as Steve Gayton, Patrick Miller as Joey, J. Don Ferguson as Andy, Giancarlo Esposito as Videoplayer, Marla Maples as 2nd woman, and Stephen King (cameo) as ATM man.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,379

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