25) The Crater Lake Monster (1977)

"Do you know what impact this'll have on the scientific community?" 
"I don't give a damn about the scientific community!"

Director
William Stromberg

Cast
Richard Cardella - Sheriff Steve Hanson
Glenn Roberts - Arnie Chabot
Mark Siegal - Mitch Kowalski
Bob Hyman - Richard Calkins

I wonder how many people have visited Crater Lake National Park in Southern Oregon, and basked in the knowledge that they're in a place of cinematic legend as Crater Lake was the filming location for 1977's The Crater Lake Monster. My guess is very few. Despite being filmed at Crater Lake, the movie takes place at fictional Crater Lake in Northern California.  

This B-movie is quite the mixture of really bad acting, stop motion, and a little rip-off from Jaws. 
The monster looks like something out of Lake Loch Ness. According to Wikipedia, it's actually a plesiosaur, although I don't remember that little tidbit of info being mentioned in the movie. I could have missed it, though.
In the beginning of the movie, a fire ball falls from the sky, suggesting this is our monster coming from space. But if that's the case, how did a plesiosaur get in space? And how did it survive the fiery plummet through the earth's atmosphere, crash into the lake and develop under water for a long time before surfacing. Obviously, I wouldn't expect a low-budget film like this to be that informative, even in regards to its own plotline.
Sheriff Steve Hanson (Richard Cardella) witnesses the meteor fall and calls it into the police station.
Months later, he consults some scientists to dive into the lake and pull it out. However, the scientists determine the meteor is too hot for them to touch. It's so hot in fact, they deem it's actually heating up the water. That's some serious dinosaur meteor fireball!
One thing leads to another, as things do in B-monster movies, and the remains of a few people are found in the lake.
Will authorities link these deaths to a giant monster? Will they even find the monster? Spoiler- yes, to both!
Hanson is finally told that the wounds on the  remains of one of the victims were clearly caused by the teeth of a large animal (*whisper* just...like...in...Jaws.)
The Jaws inspiration is seen in the animal versus man close-up shots. Also, the plot seems loosely similar. In this case, a man-eating monster is tormenting the waters of a national park rather than a beach. A police officer is trying to keep people out of the water as tourists are mysteriously disappearing around the lake, and their bodies are washing up on shore.
Anyhow, a guy named Ferguson survives an attack from the monster, and runs into a diner. He tells the sheriff and the other people in there what happened. So, Hanson and others go to find this monster.
They find it outside a lot full of tractors and other farm vehicles. And then...it gets personal! This is as "B" a movie as a B-movie can be.
The stop-motion of the monster is just classic to watch...reminiscent of Ray Harryhausen's work, but certainly not as good as his.
Two characters, Arnie Chabot (Glenn Roberts) and Mitch Kowalski (Mark Siegal) are two guys running a boat dock. They're the comic relief of this shlockfest. But their comedy is just "yuck, yuck" funny, with lame gags, and slapstick pushing and shoving in the water. It's eye-rolling lame humor that adds absolutely nothing to the story. Nothing! It's just two grown men purposely trying to act childish just to get a laugh. That's it, and that's all.
The acting all around is plain and simply bad. It's like watching an elementary school stage production. The delivery is void of any respective inflection based on whatever is happening in the scene. It's just "say the line, and lets move on."
The audience for this flick would probably be made up of B-monster movie fans, although there are a lot better movies in the genre to watch.
For a giant monster flick, this is as cheap as they come. It's slow moving (both the movie and the monster, I mean) and lacks any emotion whatsoever. But I still had some fun watching it merely for its own sake.
Also, I'd like to use this platform to shout out to Richard Cardella's gorgeous 1977 walrus mustache. A thing of beauty is a treasure and a joy forever!

Memorable Roles in Horrific History - Tim Curry as the Brackett family in Tales from the Crypt

There are a load of performances out there in horrormovieland that may have been taken over by the weeds of time, and perhaps other performances. Still, many of those moments don't deserve to go unnoticed. No, they deserve to be swung back in the faces of audiences like Jack Torrence's ax to the bathroom door. I'll post those roles here as I find them, or remember them, or both.

If you ask me, which no one did but I'm saying it regardless, every appearance of Tim Curry in a movie is always great. He single-handedly made Muppet Treasure Island fun to watch. He made Home Alone 2: Lost in New York better than it would have been without him. His role in the movie Clue added some much needed energy. Curry is just cinema gold. And if he hadn't landed the role of Pennywise and terrorized the small town of Derry, Maine in the 1990 TV mini-series IT, that movie would have just been a big flop all around. His casting is really what made that movie!
And about two years later after he terrorized the town of Derry, he starred in another classic horror series - Tales from the Crypt.
Tales aired on HBO back in the late 1980s through the mid-1990s in seven seasons.
The first episode of season 5,  Death of Some Salesmen, starred Curry in three horrific roles.
This episode aired Oct. 2, 1993, and starred Ed Begley, Jr., as salesman Judd Campbell who's really out to con his customers.
He's successful at it until he meets the Bracketts - a family of rednecks who, little does Campbell know, hate salesmen.
Tim Curry plays the entire family - Ma and Pa Brackett, as well as their "lovely" daughter, Winona. 
When he rings their doorbell, thinking he's paying a visit to someone else, Ma Brackett answers and ends up inviting him inside. As Campbell discovers the real owners of the house dead and stuffed in awkward spaces throughout the house, he finds himself  held captive and using his con tactics to talk his way out, leaving him agreeing to marry Winona, with a shotgun in his back.
It's a cringe-saturated episode, and Curry looks like he's having fun playing these three roles.
He really tries to bolster up the exaggerated horror Tales from the Crypt is famous for.
It's certainly a great start to season 5, and Curry is fun and absorbing to watch.
Like many other episodes of Tales from the Crypt, this episode has the spirit and feel of the EC comic, and much of that is thanks to Curry's performance. Playing three roles in one story shows how versatile Curry is.

24) Warlock: The Armageddon (1993)

I'm not a man. I am a witch.

Director
Anthony Hickox

Cast
Julian Sands - Warlock
Chris Young - Kenny Travis
Paula Marshall - Samantha Ellison
Steve Kahan - Will Travis
R.G. Armstrong - Franks

Warlock: The Armageddon is a sequel to the 1989 movie Warlock. 
Julian Sands returns in the role of the dude witch himself! And as far as other returning cast, he's it. No one else from the first movie shows up in this one.
I confess it took me three attempts to get through this movie. I fell asleep the first two times. During the third time, I had to stand at parts so I could get through it.
In the first movie, the Warlock travels from 1691 to modern day Los Angeles to search for the Grand Grimoire hidden centuries before, and destroy all creation. In the sequel, he comes back to small town America to acquire some rune stones scattered centuries before, and destroy all creation.
It turns out the Warlock is actually the son of Satan himself.
In the past, Druids have regularly performed a ritual with the stones to stop the birth of Satan's son, which can only occur during a lunar eclipse.
During one of these rituals, Christians come and attack the Druids thinking they're performing some kind of Satanic ceremony. This causes the stones to be scattered far and wide.
The movie then cuts to modern day America where he's born again as a full grown adult (umm...ouch!) to a woman who has one of the stones in her possession.
The stone was an heirloom passed down through her family. She puts it on as she's getting ready for a date. But, to her detriment, she happens to see a lunar eclipse taking place at that moment while looking at herself in the mirror. And boom - she's instantly preggers with the warlock. Thank God it doesn't happen that easily in real life!
As the Warlock is born, he uses the woman's body as a conduit to speak with the devil, who tells him to go find the other stones.
Horror icon, Zack Galligan (Gremlins 1 and 2, Waxwork), makes a cameo as the girl's date. What's funny is that Galligan's character, who is on screen for about 30 seconds, has a name - Douglas. But the Warlock still doesn't have a name. Good for you, Billy from Gremlins!
Meanwhile, some Druids - they're still around - pick up on various signs taking place indicating the devil's son has come and do what they can to stop him before he brings the devil into the world.
Two Druids, Will Travis (Steve Kahan) and Franks (R.G. Armstrong - Dick Tracy, Children of the Corn) try to persuade fellow Druid and now Christian minister, Ted Ellison (Bruce Glover), to help them.
Part of their effort includes Travis and Franks killing Travis's son, Kenny, in order to raise him from the dead through Druid magic and make him a Warlock-killing Druid warrior.
Also, Kenny and Ellison's daughter, Samantha, are crazy in love. So, there's that.
Anyhow, the writing is laughable, and lacks consistency at times.
For instance, in one scene, Franks tells Will there's a ritual that can slow down the Warlock, and he starts to show him how to perform it. Will is skeptical, claiming it's just a lot of hocus pocus. He doubts there's magic, basically. This, by the way, takes place after Will killed his own son and used Druid magic to bring him back. And he had been trying to convince Ellison, who has been trying to turn a blind eye to everything, that various signs taking place (i.e. dead birds dropping from the sky) is proof that evil is about to commence. And now, he doubts there's magic! What a way to stay consistent with your beliefs, Will! I mean, seriously?
In the scene were Kenny wakes up after being killed (his dad shot him point blank with a shotgun, by the way), he naturally starts panicking. The last thing he saw was his own father pointing a shotgun at him. When he awakes, he starts running around the room yelling. As this is going on, Franks (again, himself being a Druid who was with Will when he shot Kenny) starts yelling "what's wrong with you?"
Are you kidding? The writers couldn't think of better dialogue for this scene? This kid was just shot by his dad, and he wonders what's wrong!
Sands plays his character with much less enthusiasm as before. He's even more uninteresting than he was in the first movie, making we wonder if he's only appearing as the Warlock again to fulfill a contract. He's just lifeless and monotone.
Even an evil character can have expression, substance, and dare I say, emotion. He just doesn't have much, if any, of those things. There are several times where he just stands and stares blankly at nothing as though he's concentrating on something. What that would be, I don't know! Maybe he's watching the stain Warlock: The Armageddon is leaving on his acting career.
But the skin crawling gore is certainly there just as it was in the first movie. It's enough to make the audience cringe, and cringe scenes comesup unexpectedly.
Fans of the first movie should be left satisfied if that's what they're looking for in this movie. The gore is all the movie has going for it. The rest seems rushed, poor, and not thought through very well.
And speaking of the first, Armageddon is only connected to the first with the presence of the main character. Otherwise, the two have nothing to do with each other in regards to plot. For those who liked Warlock can certainly watch the sequel, and find it enjoyable. But it certainly doesn't try as hard as the first.

23) Warlock (1989)

All witches keep grimoires, yet one is indestructible, one is the bible of black magic - the Grand Grimoire.

Director
Steve Miner

Cast
Julian Sands - The Warlock
Lori Singer - Kassandra
Richard Grant - Giles Redferne

Warlock may not be as obscure as other movies as it seems well known among horror movie fans. Though it's no B-movie, it doesn't seem too well known among the general population.
I saw this movie probably 30 years ago and some scenes have stuck with me all this time since because of its shock value.
The last time I watched this was two nights ago after I found a VHS copy at a horror movie convention in St. Joseph, Mo., last weekend.
What makes Warlock stand out are scenes that really drive home the evil of the main antagonist, the Warlock (Julian Sands).
In the movie, the Grand Grimoire - an ancient book which has been separated into three parts and hidden in different locations - will reveal to him the true name of God. The devil himself has commanded the Warlock to reassemble to book and read aloud God's name backwards which will result in the destruction of all creation. Wow- what a low blow! I mean ALL OF CREATION. Not just someone's dog, or someone's grandma, or maybe a section in New York, or a few neighborhoods out in the burbs getting destroyed. Everything!
The movie starts out in 1691 Massachusetts where a witch-hunter named Giles Redferne (Richard Grant) has arrested the Warlock and sentenced him to death for all sorts of evil deeds, including the death of Redferne's wife.
Just before execution is to be carried out, the devil sends the Warlock into the future - 20th century Los Angeles to be exact. And what crazy shenanigans will this bad 17th century guy-witch get into out there in L.A.? Stay tuned to find out! In the meantime, the Grimoire has been hidden by monks in three separate places, which the Warlock now needs to go find.
He crash lands through the front room window of Kassandra (Lori Singer) and her gay roommate, Chas. Rather than have the police take this unconscious stranger out of their home, they lay him on a bed to care for him (Because L.A. folk are known for being that caring!)
Kassandra goes off to work the next morning while Chas stays home alone with the Warlock - oblivious to the fact that he is a Warlock, of course.
He attacks Chas by cutting off his finger to steal a ring, and then biting off his tongue, throwing it in a frying pan, and leaving him to die from the shock. Now we know who we're dealing with!
Somehow, the police are notified, pick Kassandra up while she's at work, and question her.
She then runs into Redferne who followed the Warlock into 1989s version of L.A. and insists she help him track down and destroy the Warlock before he finds all three pieces of the Grimoire and destroys creation.

Unfortunately, Sands's performance seems bored. He's playing a 17th Century dude-witch hellbent on evil. And though he does a great job at conveying the evil that's in him - that makes him who he is - unhindered by any boundary, he's stoic with very little emotion. Evil doesn't mean bland.  
Richard Grant, however, is the opposite as he's all gung-ho on capturing and destroying the Warlock.
He's pretty animated, yet really serious, in his role.
The comic relief comes in the form of these 17th century folks not understanding 20th Century culture, yet they don't overdue it, which would otherwise be a distraction. Instead, Redferne just goes along with all the strangeness he's witnessing, keeping focused on the task at hand. He asks a few questions here and there, but doesn't allow himself to get so immersed in the strange new world he's entered. Meanwhile, the Warlock focuses on finding the Grand Grimoire, as he blah-blahs and stuff through the movie.
But the horror is what makes this an entertaining movie. It's imaginative. Granted the special effects are dated, but the effort is certainly there.
The producers pulled no punches in making sure the audience knew how evil the Warlock is.
His evil nature centers around Warlock folklore, based on a hatred for creation - obviously, since his goal is to destroy all of it.
In one scene, the Warlock puts a curse on Kassandra, causing her to age continually until the curse can be broken. The aging makeup is laughable, even in late 1980s movie makeup standards. It looks terrible, and ridiculous, even down to her red shoulder-length hair suddenly growing long and white.
Otherwise, it brings in the sinister and unsettling vibes of the supernatural well enough. The movie is a hidden gem overall among horror movies.
I have to mention one factual error I noticed. In one scene, while Kassandra is talking to Redferne, she references Glinda as the "Good Witch of the West" from The Wizard of Oz. Wrong, Kassandra...with a "K!" In the 1939 movie, Glinda was the Good Witch of the North. The Wicked Witch was from the West. C'mon!  
I didn't realize it at first, but famous voice actor Rob Paulsen makes a cameo as a gas station attendant. Paulsen has voice acted in well-know animated programs such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Animaniacs, and The Tick.
Director Steve Miner has other notable horror titles under his directing belt including Friday The 13th Parts 2 and 3,  House, and Halloween; H20. And Warlock definitely has enough good stuff to have become a bigger franchise! 
Julian Sands reprised the role in the sequel Warlock: The Armageddon (1993). Bruce Payne took on the role in 1999's Warlock III: The End of Innocence. I'll review those soon!

Another year, another Horror Convention

Some horrific dreams came true this year as I made my way again to St. Joseph, Mo., for Cyrpticon 2019.
I  was privileged to meet some notable names in the horror/thriller genre - Dee Wallace (Cujo, E.T.), Tsutomu Kitagawa (Godzilla 2000, Godzilla: Final Wars), Bin Furuya (Ghidorah; The Three Headed Monster, Invasion of Astro-Monster, Ultraman), and Tom Savini - actor, director, and make-up artist (Creepshow 1 and 2, Dawn of the Dead). All where just awesome to chat with, and I appreciated the opportunity to have them sign items for me.
I had hoped to meet Heather Langenkamp (A Nightmare on Elm Street 1 and 3, Wes Craven's New Nightmare) but I just didn't get the opportunity.
This was my second Crypticon-my second horror convention...ever. I was like a kid in a candy store...in a parallel universe...with monsters and stuff roaming around...and a random wrestling match taking place...some creepy old guy dressed as a creepy Santa Claus walking around...and LEGOs. A good number of vendors were selling horror movies, some of which were hard to find elsewhere. I guess if you go to a movie convention, you're going to want to buy movies.
I wish I picked out a few more titles than I did. Being nostalgic for VHS tapes, I picked up a copy of Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (1943), Warlock (1989), and a one of those DVD collections of 50 B-horror movies in one package. I have plans for that!
My next review will be the movie Warlock. In the mean time, Pictures!

Dee Wallace

Bin Furuya

Midland Empire Ghostbusters

Tsutomu Kitagawa

Crypticon 2018 highlights

22) Hellfest (2018)

The more scared you seem, the more they're gonna come after you

Director
Gregory Plotkin

Cast
Stephen Conroy - The Unknown Killer
Amy Forsyth - Natalie
Bex Taylor-Klaus - Taylor
Reign Edwards - Brooke
Christian James - Quinn

I came across Hellfest as I was putting DVDs on the shelf at my library job.
Its title and cover seemed like all the other commonly looked-over horror titles found on Netflix or Hulu. Just check out the horror titles on these streaming services. Who ever heard of these titles?
Picking one title to watch on a Friday night in those streaming line-ups is more difficult than it needs to be. So, when this title crossed my path with no other horror titles trying to grab my attention, I was set. I was determined to watch this.
I don't remember Hellfest's release in the theater. I doubt it played at a theater near me.
It's really a movie that should be judged on its entertainment factor and not much else.
The Candyman himself, Tony Todd, makes a cameo in this movie. Chalk one up for Hellfest. I always love a good nod to a horror classic, especially by means of an honorary cameo.
Hellfest is a travelling Halloween scare park. The mood is set as the movie starts with a girl wandering through a haunted maze where she's confronted by a person in a mask she immediately recognizes as the same person whose been following her all night. You see where this is going?
This unknown person stabs and hangs her, leaving her corpse among the haunted house props where other visitors think she's just part of the décor. This first scare sets the tone of the movie.
Next, the audience is introduced to Natalie (Amy Forsyth) as she arrives at her friend Brooke's (Reign Edwards), apartment. The two engage in typical initial exposition disguised as college girl jibberish. The two make plans to hook up with some other ditzy friends for a night of scares as Hellfest has come to town.
While they're at the fest, Natalie comes across the masked person inside one of the haunted mazes as he's about to stab another girl. Thinking it's part of the act, she lags behind to watch it play out as her friends move on. As she stands their, the masked man stairs at her, while his victim begs for help. She asks him what he's waiting for, and tells him to "do it." He does.
And as she watches, it seems as though she's concerned with just how real it all looks. The girl's scream. The knife entering the flesh, and the blood that leaks out looks too real. The masked killer starts following her throughout the night, making her more and more terrified. He doesn't speak. He just stares through the eye holes of his emotionless dirty white mask. Where does that sound familiar?

The typical horror movie tropes come with this package deal - the "don't go in there" scenes, the security that doesn't believe a word anyone is saying, the villain more elusive than a leprechaun. Some of it plays out sensibly. I mean, a group claiming they're being chased by someone in a mask...at a Halloween attraction... who may have killed someone when that very scenario is being re-enacted in every attraction at the park. The security's disbelief is not unreasonable.
The suspense grows through the movie.
This is a typical slasher film-the bad man chasing the helpless teens.
But the setting inside a Halloween horror attraction makes the peril and helplessness a little more believable, and fantastic.
Other than the setting, it's really a cookie cutter horror movie. That didn't stop it from being intriguing, keeping me invested from beginning to end.
Hellfest offers little originality to the old story of the boogie man chasing the clueless, helpless teens. There were more shots of this mystery villain staring at Natalie from a distance (just as Michael Myers stared at Laurie Strode in Halloween. I'm sure the similarity there was no coincidence) than there was horror.
One particular scene had one of the friends taking part in a mock execution scene by guillotine. After the performance, the curtains close and we find the villain is dressed as the executioner. He locks her into the guillotine and attempts to really slice her head off. After it doesn't work, she manages to escape. It's a pivotal scene that plays out fairly well, taking the intrigue into a more serious realm. It's the segue to what I call the "now what" act. Ok- things just got real. Now what?
The movie is a  Friday night popcorn picture, boiling it down to how the bad guy will get the good guys. The movie needs more, though. It lacks in horror and effort, focusing too much on the suspense. It's a movie that either could or couldn't catch on. I don't think it caught on.
Director Gregory Plotkin has his name in a few notable movies in the genre. He worked as an editor for Jordan Peele's fantastic movie Get Out. He also worked on Happy Death Day and directed Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension.
The acting is scripted. The plot is as predictable as can be. But this isn't a movie where audiences would watch for a deep Kubrick-esque story line, or acting that's The Godfather quality. This movie somehow managed to satisfy my thirst for a good scare. And what's more, it left me with really wanting to know just who this masked killer was. The ending did that for me. I'd watch a sequel.

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?