Funny Pics of Animals Ceral Killer
The Road of the Psychopaths
Warning: Spoilers
When a bus breaks down in a desert road surrounded by woods, the passenger Stacia (Fairuza Balk) decides to walk ahead 20 km to a cabin. The travelers Birdy (Laurene Landon) and Danny (Malcolm Kennard) become a elevator with the deranged serial-killer truck driver Jim Wheeler (Michael Moriarty) to return to a dinning place and are killed. The paranoid Marie (Kristie Marsden) and her husband stay in the motorbus with the driver waiting for help. When the sadistic series–killer hitchhiker Walker (Warren Kole) comes to the bus, he kills the trio. Later in the motel, Stacia is disputed by the 2 psychopaths.
"Pick Me Upwards" is a tale of very blackness sense of humor, where a ii-lane route is disputed by serial-killers in a very weird dispute. The moving-picture show uses all the clichés of the genre and is funny, and fifty-fifty the names of the two psychopaths (Walker and Wheeler) are hilarious. The surprising conclusion is a big joke and homage to Larry Cohen's "The Ambulance". My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "Estrada da Morte" ("Road of Decease")
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The "Rodney Dangerfield" of B-Flicks Shoots and Scores! Well, Virtually...
Warning: Spoilers
Poor Larry Cohen. The human being is responsible for establishing some of the most original B-pics in the cult moving picture firmament, (IT'S ALIVE!, Maniac COP, GOD TOLD ME TO, the listing goes on), yet he barely ever got the aforementioned respect as a Roger Corman or a Jonathan Demme. Whatsoever. He still has the chops to 'kick out the jams' with recent efforts similar CELLULAR and Telephone BOOTH, and he shows with this MOH entry that he'due south still going strong.
Screenwriter David Schow does him a large favor by providing a larger-than-life duo of mythic characters ripped directly from urban legend/campfire tales and plunked right down into your living room...where you can scout them from the grateful safety of your comfy couch.
A transit busload of unfortunate stereotypes breaks downwardly in the middle of Northeast Bumble-you-know-what, and accept the rotten luck of meeting cute with not one, only TWO psychopaths for the price of one! There's Wheeler, the affable curmudgeon of a trucker who has one helluva hobby: he loves to 86 people who inquire him for rides. The other is a ruggedly handsome Man-In-Blackness named Walker. His One thousand.O.? He'south a hitcher who kills people who pick him up.
Anybody worth their weight in Friday THE 13TH and NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET boxed sets knows how this is going to turn out, and for the bulk of the omnibus riders it does, save for one independent-minded Goth grrl named Stacy, played past Trivial Pursuit question extraordinaire Fairuza Cramp.
Yeah, PICK ME Upwards does have a kind of "been there, done that" experience to information technology, merely it'south also sort of comforting, later on some of the wild misfires that have come earlier in this series. Plus, Cohen knows how to piece of work with actors and become the best out of them. Where Balk is the but i who has a trend to grate on the nerves, (the whole Goth grrl thing is SOOO 'last decade'), it'southward so great to come across him team up with his old buddy from Q, THE WINGED SERPENT and THE STUFF, the wonderfully eccentric Michael Moriarty as the trucker, Wheeler. Like his contemporaries, Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken and of course, Jack Nicholson, you never know what to expect from Michael. Even in a movie that stinks to high heaven, he manages to keep his performances sharp, his characters interesting.
Ditto Warren Kole every bit Walker, whose piece of work I have never seen before at present. Information technology makes me wish that he'd somehow been discovered before any versions of Stephen Rex'due south THE Stand up had been filmed, because THIS is how Randall Flagg should've been played. His aw-shucks amuse even as he's skinning some poor immature thang makes Walker that much more chilling, and he holds his own well on-screen with the grizzled vet Moriarty in their scenes together. They are so continued in fact, that poor Fairuza merely fades into the woodwork.
The length of the ep is just about right, and information technology has i of those endings that makes you chuckle at your Television, "Oh, no! I can't believe they went THERE!" The point that every predator tin can go someone'south prey is crisply made with a Night GALLERY-style cease, and has me looking forward to what Larry Cohen, (teamed hopefully again with Moriarty), volition come with side by side. Though hardly the all-time of the bunch, yous can count on getting at least a little 'boost' from Selection ME UP. **1/2 out of **** stars.
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Choice up something else
Larry Cohen's entry into the serial has to do with a broken down autobus and the two serial killers who happen upon it. One of the killers is an former trucker (Cohen regular, Michael Moriarty) who kills anyone he gives a ride to, and the other is a hitchhiker (Warren Kole) who murders those who option him up. Both set up their sights on the solitary remaining rider (Fairuza Balk) of the motorbus, which leads to a battle of wills to see who can get her first.
This story of two dueling series killers is perfectly suited for the episodic "Masters of Horror" format, as information technology's just a fun little idea with inappreciably enough material to sustain a characteristic length pic. Throw in Cohen as the main behind this one, and I was expecting to sit down back for 1 of the more entertaining episodes of the serial. I have to say that I was disappointed. For starters, it had definite pacing problems. Yep, an hour-long episode dealing with an thought as threadbare as this one suffers from a poor footstep. Some of the performances also actually brought it downwards for me. All of the people from the omnibus (aside from the driver and Balk) were merely terrible. Worst interim of the series from these folks, and I wanted them to die immediately so I wouldn't have to put up with information technology.
Michael Moriarty was fantastic, though. He nailed his function, and Kole was quite good as well. I loved the interactions betwixt these two and how they would endeavour to one up each other. Nosotros also get a decent helping of morbid humor, and the skinned alive girl was a surprisingly gruesome bear upon in an otherwise tame episode. As for temper, it was sorely defective here. Maybe I've just seen likewise much of British Columbia from this series, and I know information technology's for budgetary reasons, only I felt that the locations weren't very plumbing equipment for the story at hand. Cohen's management is generally uninspired with the exception of an overhead pan of the rooms during the motel sequence. The absurd ending besides fails, all plausibility going right out the window.
"Pick Me Up" needed less of the omnibus passengers and more of the killers facing off. At least it would've been a bit more than entertaining that way. Two good performances, poor episode.
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Michael Moriarty carries this episode
Ahaaa, this is a special entry in the Masters Of Horrors series. There's about no blood to spot and still information technology'due south pure horror made just by characterisation and especially done by Michael Moriarty who plays the trucker. The way he acted levitates this episode to a higher level.
Even as the story is unproblematic and the catastrophe is predictable I even so enjoyed it. When a omnibus breaks down on a highway two serial killers are trying to help them just they don't know that they are both serial killers. It'due south a game of hunting down and existence hunted until the stop. Sure I said that at that place'south almost no blood and that'due south correct, but the two in the van are really slaughtered, ane sliced and the girl being tortured and skinned alive in a motel room. But information technology surely never becomes gory. This really needs the characters and information technology really worked out fine.
I of the better episodes.
Gore 1/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Furnishings 3/v Story 4/5 Comedy 0/5
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Everyone'southward a killer, baby!
Larry Cohen has been a 'Principal of Horror' especially during the lxx'due south and 80's (with sublime movies on his repertoire like "It's Alive", "God Told Me To" and "Q РThe Winged Serpent"), but starting from the 1990's, he only became the writer of popular mainstream thrillers similar "Guilty as Sin" and the more recent "Telephone Booth". It has actually been a while since Cohen delivered some 18-carat horror, so I didn't actually know what to expect from his contribution to this serial. His episode "Pick Me Upwardly" certainly isn't the all-time entry in the series, but all the same a very entertaining little movie with an original plot and a off-white share of gore. The plot revolves on a showdown between two sadistic serial killers and the stake is the last remaining passenger of a bus that broke down in the eye of nowhere. The oldest killer (deliciously played by Michael Moriarty) is a trucker whose victims are usually the hitch-hikers he picks up and the other one is a hitch-hiking drifter who kills the people that offer him a ride. A premise like this could have resulted in a very suspenseful cat-and-mouse game, but Larry Cohen and scriptwriter David Schow (creater of "The Crow") preferred to make information technology a sick black comedy with some grotesque plot twists and insane characters. Typical serial-killer situations and clich̩s seem to added on purpose and there are loads of subtle references towards classic horror films for the genre-specialist to find. The deserted ii-lane highway running through the weald forms a great setting. Sadly, the denouement goes ONE step beyond the acceptable.
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Twisted
I tin just judge, why not so many people seem to similar this 1. But it hit the correct button with me. I loved it (watched information technology with a friend of mine, who was as excited as I was). I thought it was unique, told something unlike and made the most out of it's time frame (had to be less than an hour long, for Tv set reasons), had fantabulous actors (some well known, others not so much).
Perhaps some call back, that it just has too much in information technology and therefor is does not concentrate on a straight path down the route. That's exactly what I loved. You probably will guess, what is going to happen quite a few times, but the mode it is played out, really got me going. Nicely written dialog and very self-aware (simply non to the point, where information technology gets annoying ... not to me anyway), this was one great episode, from i great author/director!
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Cohen: Pick me up-brilliant
So far, this is the best Chiliad.O.H. produced story nonetheless. I never heard of Cohen but he fabricated a good impression on me with this presentation.
If you don't know what this story's about well, it'south virtually ii serial killers (i a drifter and some other one who's a truck driver) who cantankerous paths in the midst of their killing sprees and then decide to compete for the one remaining person (Fairuza Cramp) who was the only ane willing to walk 14 miles to the motel instead of waiting for assist along with the residue of the passengers once their lease coach broke down.
The story takes place way up in N. America in which I believe to be the greater Washington area because I've either seen a sign that said "Spokane" or heard it in one of the character'southward dialog. I besides believe the truck driver character was one time a mafia striking-human considering of some said references to New York and the surrounding Borroughs and something virtually witnesses. Pretty good and the ending is even swell.
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Satire and character--not gore--drives 'Selection Me Up'
Like John Landis' 'Deer Adult female,' Larry Cohen's contribution to the "Masters of Horror" serial coasts on the director's pitch-perfect night sense of humor. There are few scares in 'Pick Me Up,' but a strong satire of serial-killer clichés (in this instance, the hitcher and the hitched) and a layered character study that is quite fun to watch unfold. Wheeler (Michael Moriarty) is a semi commuter who picks up hitchhikers and slaughters them; Walker (Warren Kole) is a hitcher who murders his rides; and Independent Woman Fairuza Cramp is the tough heroine who runs afoul of the duo. While Cohen may seem similar a wild-card addition to the serial, 'Choice Me Upwardly' injects an intellectual angle into the proceedings that is refreshing (especially in low-cal of the "gore = more" arroyo most of the episodes have taken). While this episode lacks Cohen'south trademark 'guerrila' style, he hits the right notes of irony and absurd one-act in David J. Schow'southward script, as when the two killers (united in Wheeler'southward truck) stop as a rattlesnake crosses the road; or when Walker tortures a woman in a motel room, putting a quarter in the 'Magic Fingers' equally porn plays on the TV; or a climactic fight between killers over their prey. The performances of Moriarty, Kole, and Balk are uniformly spectacular, possessing a true knowledge of graphic symbol that adds much to the episode as a whole.
(Side Annotation: anyone collecting the MOH DVDs has come up to wait the usual supplements, but 'Pick Me Upwardly' contains a highly entertaining interview with Cohen, plus a surprising number of past collaborators offering insightful and frequently hilarious recollections.)
6.5 out of 10
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Larry Cohen... Master of the B Horror Film
After a bus breaks down, the occupants end up being caught in a claret war between 2 series killers -- Walker, who hitchhikes and kills his victims, and Wheeler (Michael Moriarty), who drives a truck and picks up his victims. The stakes go higher when when one of the passengers turns out to exist Fairuza Balk, a tough-as-nails divorcée with a switchblade.
Maybe I just didn't go it, only when I first saw this film, I thought it was really stupid. Two goofball serial killers, admiring each other's piece of work. Merely no real plot, simply one against another. The moving-picture show doesn't move from A to B, it simply sits in one place like a painting. And this has to be a Picasso, considering halfway through I still had no idea what I was looking at.
At present, in that location are some nice touches. The gore is decent, specially one woman who is skinned and cut piece by slice apart. One of the more grisly scenes in a horror pic equally far as it being realistic. I mean, what I saw could have actually happened and probably has. And Fairuza Balk is a great casting choice for a darker film. I mean, "The Craft"? "Return to Oz"? She's got the skills. I am not a big fan or anything, but she has a natural goth appeal (although Christina Ricci would be better if you ignore "Cursed".)
Just the film has a streak of stupid, beginning to stop. The kickoff twenty minutes are wasted with a story that goes nowhere. The cease is light-headed (only fitting for such a empty-headed story). And it'due south Larry Cohen, so I expected some lack of seriousness... but come on. I actually enjoyed Michael Moriarty in Cohen's "Q" and the "Information technology's Alive" movie, but how did the two of them come together to brand this? It confounds me!
When my friend Jason and I went to pick it upwards, we were wondering why it had to exist a 2-pack with Joe Dante's "Homecoming" when pretty much all the episodes got their own special DVD. Perhaps because this film could never make its money back on DVD sales? Although I did later discover and purchase it on its own disc, which I plant to be a great deal (for $2.99).
And, in all fairness, the second viewing was amend received. I watched it with director'south commentary on, and Cohen was able to signal out lots of style shots I had missed, and changes he made from the original script. With this in mind, I remember the directing was great. The story still has some weaknesses, but the fashion information technology was presented deserves some respect. If you saw this and didn't much care for information technology, I urge you to requite it a 2nd chance and pay attention to the camera angles and imagery.
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Reviews of Landis', McGee's and Cohen's episodes
++++++++++Landis: "Deer Woman"- The pictures are really uncomplicated just still interesting. The approach is entertaining and humorist in just the right amounts. You can come across that here is a true professional person at work. The style fits perfectly in the tradition of episode-movies, but information technology also takes information technology frontwards and works as an independent movie. The acting is good plenty, the cutting, the "period" and the script are tight and thought. The actors are unknown (to me at least), merely undoubtedly because of good directing, interesting, and they do their bit of the work very well. This is the most humorous of these episodes this far. There is too a adept corporeality of sweet heart-processed (in the form of a adult female). Landis manages to fill his one hour-infinite with quite a lot of events, there is not a single boring moment. Again this shows how much you tin can include in such a relatively curt time. Fourth dimension flies when yous watch this kind of entertainment, and it leaves you wanting more.
++++++++++McGee: "Sick Girl"- Never heard of this managing director. In the beginning this movie looks and feels like some "young adults" lather opera series. There is some well made computer effects/visuals (I hateful the bugs). Again David Fischer'south production design looks skilful, this time there is a lot of pastel colours beingness used. Music is quite terrible (likewise kind of "immature adults"-poprock), but it fits to the context. The characters are repulsively impaired, I mean totally brainless. They are non very believable. The script is childish, I don't know what age the guy who wrote information technology is, and what he wanted to attain, if annihilation. Merely too the directing and acting is really bad and incompetent. For sure it is meant to be campy, but it'south campy in not at all funny or interesting style. There is a staged feeling likewise in the lighting and other visuals, which I don't quite sympathize, only I assume that information technology has something to practice with the idea of keeping it campy. Maybe there'south supposed to be some "humour" in the script likewise, only it don't make me express joy. And what's the well-nigh interesting matter: There is no horror, none, which makes it little hard to understand why this is included in the "Masters of Horror"-series in the first place. Useless fast-forward garbage. Just there ever has to exist some flops in this kinda series.
++++++++++Cohen: "Pick Me Upward"- I know Larry Cohen has done some interesting piece of work, but I haven't seen whatsoever of them. Again, correct from the kickoff, this seems to exist one of the amend (really almost of them are in this category) movies in this slap-up serial. Eye candy (this time in form of Fairuza Balk, seen earlier in American History X) intelligent-enough script. Once again you see that the manager is not a start-timer and he knows his instrument perfectly. Again the story takes place somewhere in the "deepest" parts of North-America, this time in the middle of beautiful nature. Good acting and casting. Strange, interesting, and multi-dimensional (=living and real) characters. Inventive and odd plot. I similar the liveliness and unpredictability of this movie, it really has it's own style. This manager conspicuously has his own vision of movie making. Small things make this more artistic horror than virtually of the horror you lot'll run into: Not necessarily the plot, just the very subtle nuances in the directing and interim. It actually takes some special skills to do something like this. The actor who is playing the truck commuter is really good, his character is maybe the near of import element in the succeeding of this work.
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Very bad episode
Alarm: Spoilers
I am very disappointed at Fairuza Cramp for existence in this episode. Although I haven't seen all the episodes of Masters Of Horror yet, this i is the one I've liked the least so far, mainly considering I find it empty of serious plot elements, merely full of gratuitous violence. The story is very lacking, and although I capeesh the main idea of this serial of horror made for TV films, the duration of the episodes seems to be a real problem not just for viewers but besides for directors and screenwriters who have to create a "scary" or gory picture that lasts effectually l minutes. What they will be tempted to practise, and do here, is to build their films on gratuitous and senseless violence. After the start 15 minutes of this one, when both the trucker and the hunter are definitely presented as being moronic killers and ill in the head, what is in that location to wait? Goose egg else happens than an increasing build-upward of violence, which not only is not scary, just fifty-fifty bores y'all to death considering it's so uninteresting and there's really zero at stake worth caring for. Ugly to picket, too, which is almost truthful for all the episodes. The cinematography seems inexistent, the music is crap. It's merely north-American Goggle box at its worst.
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So adept. Until...spoiler alert
Warning: Spoilers
I have to say I would have rated this as i of the best horror shorts of all time if it was not for the last 20 seconds.
Fairuza was Bang-up. Micheal was so fun every bit wheeler. I similar how both the killers were not sympathetic characters..information technology would have been cheap to make ane of them an antihero.
I take to admit that as a skillful lookout man, this is a Not bad movie. Neat pacing. The idea of ii dueling serial killers is a statistical stretch.
But I bought information technology.
The stretch I could not buy was the dumb ending. It was very tales of the crypt. The impaired ending really cheapened the moving picture. An ending similar that was beautiful for the first 100 tales of the crypt gotcha endings, only it is SO Cliché to cease a horror movie that manner.
four serial killers on the same stretch of highway? whatever
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Gory just nonsensical - 1 of the weakest episodes from Season one.
Cult director Larry Cohen and mediocre genre scribe David Schow team upwardly for "Pick Me Up," 1 of the weakest MOH episodes from Flavour One. The story follows a bunch of travelers whose bus breaks down in an isolated mountainous region. Some opt to go off to the nearest boondocks with a trucker (played by Michael Moriarty, even more obnoxious than usual), some stay at the bus, and one tough-equally-nails woman (Fairuza Balk) decides to walk off in the opposite direction on her own. She shortly realizes that she's go a killer'south casualty, but she's unsure of who the killer is. This episode plays with the fear of hitchhiking--of both the hitchhiker and the driver. The story-line starts off decent and it'due south suspenseful plenty, until y'all really effigy out what's going on. After that, information technology just descends into absurd nonsense, especially in its last 10 minutes or and then. Cohen's trademark sense of black sense of humor doesn't really pop up until the end, and by that point I was set to throw the towel in. It does accept it's high points -- it'south fairly vehement and the gore effects are well done. And Balk is first-class, as usual, though underused here. And then it's gross enough to please horror fans, but it's not particularly original and the twists and turns are stupid, especially considering its otherwise serious tone.
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One of my favorites of the first season
Warning: Spoilers
I've never been a real fan of Larry Cohen'due south work. I like it, simply it'due south not remarkable. In fact, it's only really recognized because he manages to brand some dumb ideas into very fun (at least for nearly half of information technology) movies. I rented The Stuff a long time ago, and information technology's a memorable movie, at least for the outset half. After it moved further, it didn't seem that not bad. I too rented Information technology's Alive during college, and idea that was probably his nigh clever piece of work. There'due south been a fair amount written about that one, and so I don't experience a demand to reiterate the important aspects of that. What'southward more important about Cohen is that he has more writing credits than directorial credits. His ideas are non outright horror, normally. He seems to have dabbled in information technology, but his more contempo efforts (Phone Booth, Cellular) have been closer to the suspense vein. I had read a few comments on IMDb complaining about this episode. I'm not sure what they found wrong with it. The pacing was far better than annihilation else I've seen Cohen do. There were strong sequences of gore, although they were spaced out, and the intent was far more to focus on the relationship between the three main characters.
The story deals with two killers and their potential victim. One of the killers is a hitchhiker, who kills more often than not whoever is willing to pick him upwards (although information technology is shown that he doesn't limit himself to those). He is a slim, youngish, bonny human being. The other killer is a truck driver, (at least to our knowledge; in that location'due south no real proof that he owns the truck, aside from the decoration of information technology, and his cognition of truck driving) who kills hitchhikers he picks up. The potential victim's character is near unimportant. We know that she's generally cautious, and any other traits are incidental. You can probably gauge the direction that the story takes. The important thing is that the killers seem to have a disdain for each other. The trucker feels the hitchhiker is sloppy and overconfident in his work. The hitchhiker expresses at some point that the trucker is not as brutal a killer as he should be (or something like that). They both feel that they accept rights to impale this potential victim, and wind up fighting information technology out. Information technology's a moderate level of balance betwixt straightforward horror (in the vein of Incident On and Off a Mountain Road) and the psychological stop of horror (Chocolate). I suppose that the idea of horror, as expressed in this film, is being trapped betwixt the bottom of 2 evils. Knowing that doom is impending, regardless of how things turn out is a hellish feel, which is only augmented by the winding roads of the middle of nowhere.
Some other interesting affair is the mode that the trucker is portrayed. He talks in a depression vocalism, slowly, deliberately, only nonetheless sounding sluggish, virtually drugged. He gives the implied operation of a psycho, but balances the line more closely than the hitchhiker does, who is a more imposing grapheme. Every bit a result, I viewed the trucker equally the bottom risk, considering that he would be the sort who could mayhap be reasoned with. Yes? No? Who knows! It's a adept episode, and I liked it enough to probably rewatch periodically.
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Decent plenty, but non vintage Cohen
Well, I have to say that I haven't been overly impressed with what I've seen from the Masters of Horrors series, with only Lucky McKee's Ill Daughter and William Malone's The Fair-Haired Kid actually continuing out upwardly until episode 11. Larry Cohen'southward effort was one of the episodes I'd picked out as the well-nigh promising, every bit even though Cohen hasn't directed much worth seeing since the mid-eighties (with the excellent 'The Stuff'), he certainly has an eye for entertainment; equally shown past scripts for the likes of Cellular and Telephone Booth. The plot for Pick Me Up sounds like it volition pb to an entertaining thriller; as we follow a young girl who inadvertently finds herself in the centre of a turf war betwixt 2 sick series killers. The casting of Michael Moriarty every bit the older of the pair was an bodacious move, as Moriarty is a sadly underused player that does well with offbeat roles like this one. However, other than Moriarty'southward performance; there actually isn't much to say near this instalment. Fairuza Baulk is given nothing to exercise, and despite the night potential of the plot line; Cohen has put the focus squarely on black comedy, and while it's sometimes funny...by and large it just reminded me how good this could take been. The fact that the story is somewhat unpredictable makes it worth watching; but information technology never really gets going, and the catastrophe comes out of nowhere and pretty much reminds you that this series is simply meant to give the viewers a quick horror prepare. Overall; not terrible, simply hardly great either.
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Masters Of Horror: Pick Me Up (Tv set) (Larry Cohen, 2006) **
This episode of the pop horror Television series is probably the weakest I have seen so far – which is a compassion since it marked the reunion of manager Larry Cohen with his regular star of the 1980s, Michael Moriarty. The latter, in typically eccentric mode, plays a homicidal truck commuter whose old-fashioned murderous ways are beingness outclassed in artistic sadism by a new and younger serial killer. The 2 disturbed loners haunt a stretch of road that is occasionally frequented by tourists and things are kickstarted by a breakdown of just such a bus in the middle of nowhere. The scattering of passengers and the bus commuter are swiftly dealt with by the 2 of them working separately only they effigy without rebellious Fairuza Cramp who has quitted her political party early on and reaches the nearest town on human foot. The killers converge at a dingy hotel to claim their prey but things soon come to a caput and spin out of command, necessitating the intervention of two ambulance drivers who – surprise, surprise – take their own heinous agenda! Despite the gore redolent of modern horror fare and the darkly humorous touches typical of earlier Cohen movies, the mixture falls apartment on its face up thank you to the sheerly unsympathetic nature of the 3 main characters which quickly depletes any kind of suspense or interest the narrative may have generated.
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A deliciously demented entry in the ever-popular "danger on the route" horror sub-genre
Warning: Spoilers
Affable, eccentric twisted trucker Wheeler (a marvelously quirky portrayal by the always fantabulous Michael Moriarty) and vicious drawling hillbilly homicidal hitchhiker Walker (robustly essayed with lip-smacking fiendish savour past Warren Kole) appoint in a ferocious territorial dispute on a remote stretch of backroads highway. Brassy, fiercely self-reliant Stacia (a fabulously fiery'n'feisty performance by Fairuza Balk) gets caught in the centre of this lethal battle of wit and wills between two radically different, even so every bit mortiferous afoot psychos. Ace B-horror flick director Larry Cohen, working from a wickedly clever and witty script by acclaimed splatterpunk author David J. Schow (pitting two major scary icons of the "danger on the route" fearfulness film sub-genre confronting each other is an inspired stroke of pure deranged genius), ably sustains a steady snappy pace throughout and effectively creates a creepily unnerving atmosphere that's punctuated past occasional outbursts of startling cruel violence and culminates in ane doozy of a surprise twist ending. Brian Pearson'due south crisp, handsome cinematography (the overhead camera shots are especially scenic), Jay Chattaway's brooding, ominous, just harmonic land score, a pitch-black sense of morbidly funny macabre humor, and a welcome appearance by Laurene Landon as a friendly lady who gets bumped off by Wheeler add substantially to the overall warped fun of this nicely ill and perverse little treat.
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Slowwww Going, Lame Ending, but Two Actually Good Performances
Pick Me Up is the eleventh episode of Masters of Horror, directed by Larry Cohen (The Stuff) and written by David Schow, adapted from his own short story. It details a turf war between ii serial killers played by Michael Moriarty and Warren Kole, and plays a lot similar a western horror. Which is really cool and a change of stride for this serial.
This movie is a actually odd addition to the Masters of Horror series considering I actually think that this at times is the scariest episodes. Or rather, the opening sequence has at least 30 seconds that truly unnerved me. A lot of that rests on the shoulders of Moriarty and Kole, both of whom are different types of unsettling as their corresponding series killers. Moriarty is especially good, basically playing the American version of the killer from Wolf Creek, mannerly then terrifying in a matter of seconds. Kole has a dissimilar blazon of amuse to him, but in a way that matches his grapheme. I really actually like that the two killers are and then far apart in age, so their victims and MO compliment their ages.
The third major graphic symbol is Stacia, a woman who finds herself caught in the middle between the ii of them unwittingly. She's played past Fairuza Balk, who does as much as she tin with the little she has to do. The very footling, in all honesty. She seems to exist being set up as a major thespian, just so by and large ends upwards as only another victim.
There are a few scenes that are actually gross out disturbing (a motel room scene that has no warning seems to get on forever) left me with a pit in my stomach. It does take this overall sense of dread, and darkness that the moving-picture show is clearly going for. I hateful, information technology does run into the Masters of Horror problem where the budget makes the whole matter look like a 90s pic that was lost to the ages, merely Brian Pearson (the film's cinematographer) manages to pull off a very dark, nihilistic feel to everything. Except there is this ane shot that is clearly very old stock footage of the woods that looks SOOOO BAD in comparison to the residue of the film.
It'due south pacing is pretty tiresome, there's very little forward momentum, and the catastrophe shell is so lame. The editing is also an issue, there are a few cuts that actually stick out every bit bad and improperly timed. Also, the music but doesn't want to shut up. Information technology'south always on, and constantly irresolute so I could never get used to information technology. There are and so many lonely guitar riffs that just go on and on.
And so, on the whole, it's a pretty proficient episode, but I would say only above boilerplate for the series.
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Irksome
Pick Me Upwards (2006)
** (out of four)
Disappointing installment from Larry Cohen almost a double-decker breaking downwardly and one passenger (Fairuza Balk) who decides to walk to a nearby motel. The immature woman somewhen gets caught between ii serial killers who have different ideas on how to murder. One (Warren Kole) kills those who selection him up while the other (Michael Moriarty) kills whoever he picks up. The showtime 15 minutes of this film are very fast paced with some suspenseful moments but things go downhill one time nosotros hitting the motel. The pace slows down and nothing likewise exciting happens, which ane must blame the screenplay for. Moriarty steals the evidence with his sly humor.
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best Episode of masters if horror.
Now this is tale of two series killers who hit a crash-land in the route , that bump in the road is each other . The camera work was done really well and near of the time it was brilliantly acted , the storyline was really practiced , I was hooked to the screen and I didn't want to accept my eyes of of it , but the down side is that its not a chief of horror , horror present is overrated, someone gets stabbed in a moving-picture show and somewhere down the line someone calls information technology a horror , horror genre should exist films that brand you scared , unfortunately I wasn't scared, I retrieve their should be a different kind of genre for these types of movies and that is Gothic thriller , so its all around the Gothic theme it has gore and vampires or whatever simply doesn't actually scare you lot, pick me upward is exactly that the plot was amazing and i just loved the bond betwixt the two serial killers, cliche ending though could accept been fabricated more exciting , but it made me smile actually adept picture eight/10
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Fun on the run
Essentially, what we have hither are two competing serial killers working in a remote area. Wheeler (Moriarty) drives a big rig as he hunts for victims while Walker (Kole) hoofs it as he targets his victims. Defenseless in the heart is Stacia (Balk) a young woman who is stranded in the backwoods later on the bus she is a rider on breaks down. There are several very funny moments in a creepy way, like Stacia thinking a couple in the cabin room side by side to hers are having the sexual practice of their lives. I probably don't accept to tell you what's actually going on, other than to mention that our merry killers are nearby. The eye-popping finale contains a huge and comical twist. Moriarty is the master reason to spotter this flick. He has always been an amazing histrion who clearly fabricated a huge mistake when he pulled out of Law AND ORDER early on on.
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good alteration on the hitcher series
Pick Me Upward is from the Masters of Horror drove and is about a hitcher / route impale hugger that takes criminal offence to a bus drivers desire to spice up the traveling past hitting animals trying to cross the road. The hitcher finds the bus and takes his anger out on the commuter and those on board. A young girl in the passenger vehicle but misses being hitcher allurement several times until… A trucker besides looking for the hitcher to exact some revenge comes into the act and uses the immature girl as allurement. Great interim makes this well directed moving-picture show a big success in my mind as the pain of the actors comes through loud and clear. Not for anyone who doesn't like some blood and partial nudity.
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Great episode
Larry Cohen has long been a favourite filmmaker of mine. I first discovered him at an early age watching the fauna flick Q. That film, along with the Maniac Cop serial and Uncle Sam solidified him as a groovy filmmaker in my mind. Information technology wasn't until years later that I finally got to see the It'due south Alive series and God Told Me To and add together them to his hit listing. So its rather funny that of all the episodes from flavor 1 of Masters Of Horror that this 1 would take me so long to get around to watching. I missed the original airing of the episode on Boob tube and then I had to expect until it came out on DVD. When information technology did, I bought it immediately. Then, life got in the manner and I never got around to it. Finally, after watching the episode, I can say it was worth the wait. Cohen is a chief, there is no dubiousness. There are some classic Cohenisms on line hither, even though he didn't write the script. And just seeing Michael Moriarty play the piano again was worth it. I've never read any of David Schow'due south work so I wasn't familiar with the story on which the episode is based. Actually, it is rather simplistic in its narrative and allusions, just information technology gets the job done. Wheeler is a trucker who kills anyone who he picks up on the route. Walker is a hitchhiker who kills anyone who picks him upwards. The two run across one dark on a lonely mountain route and a young woman is caught in the heart of their macabre game. This may not be my absolute favourite episode of the season, but information technology certainly ranks upwards there in my top iii. Well worth a await.
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Expiry highway
Warning: Spoilers
Bad edition + dumb characters = Masters of Horror, S01 x E11 - Pick Me Upwardly.
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Disharmonism of the Serial Killers
Larry Cohen who has enriched the world of Exploitation cinema as the director of films similar "Blackness Caesar" and "Q: The Winged Snake" and, most memorably every bit the writer of films like "Maniac Cop" delivers one of the virtually outrageously entertaining "Masters of Horror" episodes with "Pick Me Up". While this eleventh episode of the first season does not quite achieve the originality and ingenuity of the near bright entries to the serial (such as Takashi Miike's "Imprint"), it does deliver what a "Masters of Horror" episode should: permanent suspense and genuine creepiness, paired with moments of incredibly morbid humor. A young adult female named Stacia (played by sexy Fairuza Balk) is part of a bus-load of travelers, which, after breaking down in the middle of nowhere, bizarrely gets stuck between two psychopathic serial killers... I don't want to requite too much away, but I can almost guarantee that people who similar the testify will besides like this. The episode is suspenseful and creepy from the offset minute, and sometimes spiced up with macabre humor, simply never to a degree that would lessen the suspense). Fairuza Balk is sexy as always and fits perfectly in her role. Prolific thespian Michael Moriarty and the less prolific Warren Kole are as well very good in their roles. Along with the very beginning episode, "Incident On And Off A Mountain Road", "Pick Me Upwards" is probably the MoH episode that has the nigh genuine B-Movie-feeling, which should go far highly enjoyable to my beau Horror/Exploitation fans. Overall, Larry Cohen is certainly not the most masterly director in the "Masters Of Horror" franchise (masters like Dario Argento, Stuart Gordon, John Carpenter and Takashi Miike as directors of other episodes make this quite impossible), but his episode "Selection Me Up" proves that he is a more than practiced maker of 18-carat solid Horror. "Pick Me Upward" is a creepy and deliciously macabre entry to the series which MoH-fans should certainly non miss.
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