Thursday, June 27, 2019

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?

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