21) Quicksilver Highway (1997) - Obscure Stephen King flick #5

"Do you have time for a story?."

Director
Mick Garris

Cast
Christopher Lloyd - Aaron Quicksilver
Matt Frewer- Charlie/ Dr. Charles George
Raphael Sbarge - Kerry Parker/Bill Hogan
Missy Crider - Olivia Parker/Lita Hogan

During a lecture I watched on YouTube sometime ago, I recall Stephen King saying to an auditorium of listeners that while the world considers him to be a deep, prolific, perhaps enigmatic writer, he on the other hand considers himself to be a casual guy who just writes for fun. With some of his short stories like You Know They Have a Hell of a Band (a story about a town inhabited by famous dead rock legends), or The Mangler (a story about a possessed laundry press), or Chattery Teeth (a story about a pair of novelty wind-up teeth that seeks revenge), it's easy to see that...yeah...King writes often for the fun of it. And he does it well.
Anyhow, Quicksilver Highway is a made-for-TV anthology movie based on King's short story Chattery Teeth published in his short story collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes. The second story in the film is based on Clive Barker's story The Body Politic found in his book collection Books of Blood. 
I think this movie title got lost in the mix of many other made-for-TV King movies aired the same decade.
The star of the movie is Aaron Quicksilver (Christopher Lloyd.)
When it comes to Christopher Lloyd, I get a strong impression he is an actor that just loves to act and take on different personas. Aside from his more notable roles in Back to the Future I, II, and III, The Addams Family, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Lloyd has taken on less notable roles in movies like, well... Quicksilver Highway, Dennis the Menace, Piranha 3DD, and Santa Buddies.
It seems that as long as he gets to act, he'll take a role for the fun of it. If this is the case - I'd be willing to be money it is - that's admirable. And no matter the role he's taken in his acting history, none of them have hurt his long-successful career.
There's a contrast between his on-screen performances and his personality during interviews and public appearances. He's generally soft spoken and reserved, and comes across as shy. He's just the opposite of his eccentric Back to the Future character Dr. Brown who's loquacious and animated.
So, like all other movies I've seen where Lloyd pops into frame, I was happy to see him appear in this movie. "Oh, right on...Christopher Lloyd is in this!" That's my customary reaction in his glorious screen presence. He's enjoyable and fun to watch.
The movie starts with a bride and groom, Kerry and Olivia (Raphael Sbarge and Missy Crider), stranded on the highway in the middle of a desert. Since traffic is nearly non-existent along this stretch of road, the groom decides he's going to have to hitchhike to find a gas station.
Olivia, meanwhile, has to wait..and wait.
Night falls, and finally headlights appear. It's a Silverline trailer-what else? Aaron Quicksilver gets out to assist, with his gentle yet strange mannerisms and clothing that looks like he shops at a geriatric Hot Topic. He invites her into his trailer so she can eat. Oddly, his trailer is more lavish, roomy, and luxurious than the outside would indicate.
He then starts to tell her a "true story" about a hitchhiker and some chattery teeth. I haven't yet read King's short story this segment is based on. I was told the TV version (as is customary with 90s horror television) is tamer. This part of the movie leans a little too much into the boring and completely predictable realm.

Chattery Teeth involves salesman Bill Hogan (Raphael Sbarge-again) who finds a pair of novelty wind-up teeth in a roadside gas station. The owner tells him they're broken, and lets him take the teeth free as it's Bill's son's birthday.
As he's getting back in his van, Bill reluctantly picks up a hitchhiker who, in the middle of their travels, decides to rob him. That's when Bill realizes there's more to those broken teeth than he realized.
The second story takes the audience to an amusement park where we witness Charlie (Matt Frewer) pickpocketing as many folks as he can.
This isn't the first time Frewer appeared in a made-for-TV King adaptation. He played the role of  "Trashcan Man" in The Stand - one of the best TV adaptations of a King novel, by the way!
I remember Frewer from Disney's Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. He's most well known for playing the iconic 80s character Max Headroom.
Charlie is the next person to run into Aaron. This time, it's inside a sideshow of unusual objects. Aaron shows Charlie his "hand of glory" - a candle made from a human hand, burning on each fingertip.
This takes the audience into the next story, The Body Politic. This tale, which plays out as silly when it probably isn't supposed to be, is much more fascinating to watch.
Frewer plays Dr. Charles George, who finds that both his hands have developed a mind of their own, and are plotting to rebel against him. They literally communicate to each other while he sleeps. It's hilarious to watch this "hand acting." Am I supposed to take this more seriously - watching two hands sign and speak in high pitched voices to each other.
He chops one off, and it runs away. Eventually, his missing hand convinces other hands inside a hospital to "be free" and leave the bodies they're attached to. And, they do. "Hands, everywhere- UNITE!"

It's a crazy idea for a story, in a nice way I mean. There's surely some underlying statement being made - the hand rebelling against the body. It's an interesting take on what if the hand did actually rebel!
The entire movie is what I call "made for TV scary." It's tame. Very tame, making the scare factor more laughable than anything. I can't really blame the movie for that though. Television censors where what they were in 1997. But despite all that, the second act of the movie was much more enjoyable than the King portion. The story was much more interesting. It was like watching a fan film for Thing from the Addam's Family.
Outside of Lloyd's presence in the film, The Body Politic is the only other memorable thing about Quicksilver Highway. Haunted wind-up teeth just didn't do anything for me.
All in all, this Stephen King movie funny in parts where I'm sure it's not supposed to be. I could easily see these stories played out on a Friday night thriller program on 90s Nickelodeon like Are you Afraid of the Dark - yeah, remember that show?
King really hit a high peak in the 90s with TV movie adaptations. A large number of series based on his material aired back in this decade- It, The Langoliers, The Stand, The Tommyknockers, The Shining, Sometimes They Come Back, Trucks. All this on top of the 12 theatrical releases between 1990 and 1999 that were based on his work.
But these prime-time movies were either hit, or miss - wide miss (cough, cough, Langoliers). I just don't think prime time television, with its censors and what not, was ready to, or capable of, really making a solid King TV movie. Quicksilver Highway seems like proof to me. There were a few exceptions (i.e. It and The Stand).
Director Mick Garris had previously directed another Stephen King adaptation in 1992 - Sleepwalkers (I might get to this one later). His name as a writer can also be found in the credits of Critters 2, Batteries Not Included, and Hocus Pocus.
Quicksilver Highway is worth watching for audiences who are fans of King. Otherwise, it leans a little too far in the ridiculous category to be taken as a serious thriller. If it's not meant to be taken as ridiculous, then bravo!

Why this?

20) Metalface (2015)

"The work starts now."

Director
Rene Perez

Cast
Natasha Blasick - Cindy
Richard Tyson - The Watcher
David Lockhart - Burnett
Charlie Glackin - The Killer (Metalface)

There's a nice rogues gallery of horror icons out there in HorrorMovie Land - Freddy Kreuger, Jason Vorhees, Chucky the Doll, Candyman, Pennywise... again, and Michael Myers for the bajillionth time. And then there's Metalface.
I never heard of "Metalface" until perusing the Suspense/Thriller section of DVDs at my local public library and finding a movie called "Metalface." The cover showed a maniac that looked like a poor man's Jason from the Friday the 13th movies, dawning some kind of mask made from a sack or human skin (I don't know) and wrapped in barbed wire. He sported some tattered clothes and a bloody hand print on his chest. Not a lot of metal in the face area per his namesake, but nevertheless, I've been officially introduced to Metalface. (Dun, dun, duuun).
Across the top of the cover was the claim this monster is "the world's most ruthless serial killer." Wow! I mean, the world's most! That's covering a lot of territory. And there have been a lot...A  LOT...of ruthless serial killers in film history. So, for this unheard of guy to be the most ruthless? This must really be full of blood and guts and ruthless...maniacal...scary...ummm...carnage - the kind only a man with barely a metal face can wreak.
To be fair, he does look pretty knarly and crazy on the cover. Actually, he looks absolutely maniacal. So, initially I was sold on that much. Plus, this blog is dedicated to the obscure in the genre. If I'm supposed to know who the world's most ruthless serial killer is in the horror genre, thank God I'm discovering that character at the public library where it won't cost me any cash.
This is an independent movie from a company called Uncork'd Entertainment whom I found out gave the horror movie world such titles as Pet Graveyard, The Amityville Murders, Krampus Origins, Dawning of the Dead, Gremlin, The 13th Friday and other titles that may or may not be milking off other, more successful and popular movie franchises.
Again, to be fair, they do have a nice library of original titles. One of their movies, Room for Rent stars actress and horror icon Lin Shaye who starred in A Nightmare on Elm Street and the Insidious movies.
Right off the spikey blood-stained bat, Metalface isn't a completely terrible movie. It has some redeeming qualities, such as its storyline.
It also goes by the title Playing With Dolls with sequels working off that title. In the UK, it was released as Leatherface (again...certainly not milking off popular franchises - *end sarcasm.)
It's a unique take on the slasher genre, but it really comes across as being an independent movie. It has that feel to it with the often bad acting, weird pacing, and abrupt beginning and ending.
The movie begins with a young girl not dressed for winter weather running through a snow-covered forest as prisoner AYO-886 (also known as Metalface) pursues. At the same time, we see a cop in the middle of a shootout with some group somewhere else in the forest.
Metalface catches up with the girl, and she wakes up tied to a tree. It's not long before we see what kind of maniac Metalface is.
Next, we meet a gorgeous girl named Cindy (Natasha Blasick) who just lost her job. On top of that, her roommate moved out without warning, leaving her with an empty apartment and a pervert of a landlord demanding overdue rent, or "something else" (wink, wink; nudge, nudge) as compensation.
Trying desperately to come up with a plan, Cindy gets a call from a woman who offers her a job Cindy applied for.
When Cindy accepts, she's given instructions to get into an SUV parked outside her apartment and drive to a location specified on a GPS system. That location is a secluded, well-furnished and fully stocked cabin. The job, as Cindy understands it, is a caretaker position for the cabin. However, she'll be there completely by herself. She'll also have no access to a phone, her cell phone service will be non-existent out there in the wilderness, and she'll be far from civilization (save for the cabins next to hers, which we don't know if they're occupied or not.)
Obviously, being in seclusion with no outside contact, we pretty much know Metalface is going to be paying her a visit...or two.

The interesting take in all this is, is that Metalface is being told what to do and what not to do from Cindy's "boss" who's watching all this through surveillance cameras placed all around the house for his own sick pleasure. It's a different, and welcomed, take on the slasher genre. Normally the monsters are acting on their own accord.
What's funny about the cameras is that despite how blatant they are-visible in plain sight (some even at eye level) Cindy is either completely oblivious to them, or just ignores them. It's not made clear. But in the middle of the movie, she finally looks at one as though she's noticing it for the first time. It was right there, were she could see it - a big black camera with a blinking red light, right there looking at her. Yet she notices it only in the middle of the movie. And after that, doesn't seem much to worry about being surveillance.
So, the production quality is rather poor and not very well thought through.

At various points in the movie, the audience can see Metalface walking behind Cindy who doesn't realize he's there.
In one scene, we see Cindy hesitantly checking the house late at night as she thinks she heard something. She checks the front door, which is locked, and then turns to check the living room. There's nothing out of the ordinary, so she turns back around towards the camera - the front door is right next to her. Metalface then walks behind her coming from the front door and heading into the house. That means he would have had to open the locked front door, or forced it open somehow. This obviously would have gotten Cindy's attention because SHE'S STANDING RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE DOOR! But no...he just suddenly appears behind her, walks through the frame, and Cindy doesn't notice or react. Meanwhile, the door remains locked.
It does drag a bit. We see a lot of Cindy in this movie. And I mean we see *a lot of Cindy. We see her day to day routines while she's secluded. We see her making dinner, getting ready for a shower, sleeping, making coffee, checking stuff out, trying on outfits-list goes on. Metalface's appearances and jump scares build toward a climactic scene of sorts. It would have been great, I'm sure, if the movie's budget (I'm guessing) didn't run out.
The ending comes across as being a victim of the film's depleted budget. The movie finishes abruptly. Once Roll credits. We're done here. I literally shouted "That's it? What happened next?" at the TV. Yeah...literally. That makes my disappointment serious.
Sadly, I didn't get a response. I even Googled the synopsis for the second movie to see if I could get an answer to what happened next. I guess the resolution will remain in production hell forever, and ever...and ever.
Despite the sometimes laughable production quality, the movie's story pulled me in right away with it's originality - something new for the slasher genre.
It was entertaining, and the effort (again, despite the production value and sometimes poor delivery of lines) to make something different and scary was apparent. That's what this whole blog is dedicated to - starting a project and finishing it. Metalface is a fantastic example of that mindset. It's a good watch for a Friday night of horror movies.