Quicksilver Highway

Stephen King may be the man behind Shawshank Redemption, Dolores Clairborne and the Green Mile. But he was also the man behind Thinner, Children of the Corn and one of the worst episodes of the X-Files ever. Clive Barker (you could say he is King's English counterpart) was the writer behind Hellraiser, Lord of Illusions. But he was also the man behind the novel Coldheart Canyon. Both writers have talent. But they have pitfalls too; we are all human.

And Quicksilver Highway isn't exactly their best.

Quicksilver Highway seems like a movie made out of two mediocre stories that came out of the minds of two great writers. Perhaps they were among their worst stories. If that was the case, they shouldn't have made it to television. The first one, the Clattering Teeth, isn't so bad. But it is unoriginal and dull. So dull you just want it to end. But it goes on and on. Eventually it becomes tiresome; since this movie was made for TV, you may find yourself going to the kitchen to look inside the refrigerator before it ends and the other one begins. The second story, the one written by Clive Barker, seems more like the work of Stephen King. Here we have a hand that gets life of its own and turn against its owner. Soon other hands join a revolution. The story could have consumed thirty minutes of your life. But it didn't stop when it should have. Just like the first story, it went on and on. Maybe you can forget about the hands walking around on their own and return to the kitchen. This film may help you gain weight but gets short when it comes to entertaining us.

Quicksilver Highway only has two stories. Not five or three like Creepshow I and II. After you watch this film, you feel like you have escaped out of a neverending nightmare. It is obvious that they wanted to stretch the stories long enough to make a film and not another episode of the Twilight Zone.

Perhaps it is a good idea to avoid this one at all cost.

I was in a mediocre hotel in England, up at two in the morning and couldn't get to sleep. I decided to put the TV on and one of the first channels I flipped to was a show starring Christopher Lloyd. It looked pretty bad, but there was something about it that was strangely fascinating...

I later found out that it was not actually a TV show, but rather a television movie. (Wow, big difference.) Christopher Lloyd plays Quicksilver, a mysterious old man who roams the country delivering moral tales. His first he delivers to a newlywed bride whose car has broken down, and whose husband has wandered away looking for a gas station.

His tale involves a similar fate involving a man named Charlie (Matt Frewer) who picks up a hitchhiker and is nearly killed by him.

The next involves a man whose hand is chopped off by his other hand (!) and all the hands in the world start a revolt. Yes, it's as silly as it sounds, and hilarious to watch.

The movie is perhaps unintentionally bad, but I was entertained. It's a very corny, silly movie that is easy to watch. The special effects are simply awful in the hand-attack narrative. I loved it.

Lloyd is overacting (or overREacting?) in a script full of clichés. Author Clive Barker and director John Landis even offer their not-so-subtle cameos.

All in all, if you have nothing better to watch, this WILL keep you very entertained...a huge guilty pleasure.

What drove the needs for this movie is anybody's guess. They're based on boring stories from King and Barker. Christopher Lloyd does nothing as the sinister Quicksilver and generally the whole thing is a bore. Yes, there are a few chilling moments but basically I wouldn't waste your time.

'Quicksilver Highway' is the collaboration of two of the world's most talented literary horror writers, Stephen King and Clive Barker. It is a rather short anthology of two terrifyingly twisted tales, with an inset story featuring Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future). But do they terrify the average film-goer? A wandering storyteller, Aaron Quicksilver (Lloyd), narrates the tales in two strikingly different locations: Stephen King's 'Chattery Teeth' along a deserted stretch of desert highway and Clive Barker's 'The Body Politic' within the carnivalesque setting of a funfair.

The more interesting of the two tales is 'Chattery Teeth', which tells of a psychopathic hitchhiker who falls prey to a relentless and dangerously-sharp set of chattering teeth owned by the travelling salesman driving the car. 'Chattery Teeth' is taken from a short story written by King and first published in 'Cemetery Dance' magazine in the nineties. Similar to the stories found in 'Creepshow' and 'Creepshow 2', it is a bizarre and disturbing story with a twist in the tail (think 'Twilight Zone' and the 'Ray Bradbury Theater').

The lesser of the two is Barker's 'The Body Politic'. Here, a hand comes alive, goes completely out of control, and eventually attacks its owner. The story is taken from Clive Barker's 'Books of Blood: Vol 4' and is actually quite an entertaining and intelligent story ... in print. However, attempting to re-create this story on film just doesn't work. The effects are nothing short of laughable, which inevitably ruins a good tale.

'Quicksilver Highway' is directed by Mick Garris, who has collaborated with Stephen King on more than one occasion (see 'Sleepwalkers', 'The Stand', 'The Shining' (TV), and the forthcoming 'Riding the Bullet' and 'Desperation'). He is also the man behind some of the 'Twilight Zone' episodes and 'Freddy's Nightmares', the latter explaining his less than efficient effort with 'Quicksilver Highway'.

Nevertheless, the cast is well chosen - Matt Frewer (The Stand), John Landis (dir. 'An American Werewolf in London'), Bill Nunn (Kiss the Girls), and Clive Barker - and although the movie does have its tedious and ridiculous moments (check out Lloyd's fetishistic leather garb), it is watchable. Fans of 'Tales from the Crypt' and 'Tales from the Darkside' will certainly want to give this film a look-see.

Matthew J Lee-Williams, Review.

I'll start this review by saying that I've read neither of the short stories that this movie is based on, neither Stephen King's Chattery Teeth, nor Cliver Barker's The Body Politic, so I can't comment on whether or not they're accurate conversions of the stories. I will say, however, that based on my limited knowledge of King's work(and my even more limited knowledge of Barker's) that I do believe that they did a pretty good job on bringing the stories to life in this movie. The plot for both stories is good(yes, even the King story, I have to admit, though I despise his works), and it's both involving and interesting, for both segments. The acting ranges from made-for-TV standard, and slightly better; all four of the leads did a good job, as far as I'm concerned: Christopher Lloyd, Matt Frewer, Raphael Sbarge and Missy Crider. I especially enjoyed Lloyd, and his character, the storyteller, who is in both the prologue and the epilogue for both segments, and gives a further chill down the spine with his afterthoughts for both stories. The characters are well-written, credible and easy to relate to, which, I guess, can be credited almost as much to the original authors(King and Barker) as the script writer and director(who, incidentally, is the same person). Both segments are about equally chilling and horrifying, though the first has more buildup and the second has more actual action, which shows the difference in the authors' styles. The direction is pretty good, especially for a TV movie. The special effects are about as good as they get for a TV movie budget. The horror in both segments is fairly chilling and disturbing. They also both give you a little something to think about, once the story is over; this is also pushed a little further in the epilogue for both segments, by the storyteller, Lloyd, which obviously proves that the director/scriptwriter Mick Garris certainly understood both stories, as well as their underlying themes. All in all, a pretty good way to spend 90 minutes if it's on TV and you've got nothing spectacular to do, but not something you'll be watching over and over again. Good for one or two viewings, if you're into this type of horror. I recommend it to fans of King, Barker and Lloyd, and possibly also Garris. Good for spending 90 minutes watching if it's on, and you've got nothing better to do. 6/10