How Joe Hill Could Remake Maximum Overdrive (& Make It Better)

For years, Maximum Overdrive has been both loved and hated by both horror and Stephen King fans, but the movie could get an update due to renewed interest from his son, Joe Hill. In October 2020, Hill announced that he has a great idea for how to remake his father’s most polarizing movie. While those who enjoy the AC/DC soundtrack and poorly executed sentient semi-trucks may be wary of a remake, those who know Stephen King and his son’s masterful talent at crafting vehicular horror stories can anticipate that Joe Hill has the ability to make Maximum Overdrive better while still keeping the same spirit many loved about it in the first place.

The 1986 horror movie was written and directed by King; it was based on “Trucks” from his short story collection, Night Shift, alongside “Jerusalem’s Lot” and “Graveyard Shift”. In “Trucks” and Maximum Overdrive, after a comet passes by Earth, inanimate mechanical and vehicular objects become sentient and start to kill anyone in sight. The movie was poorly received by fans and critics upon release, but like other initially panned horror movies, it has developed a small following of fans who enjoy B-grade horror movies. While other works created during this infamous time period in King’s history were wildly successful, such as his 1986 novel It, Maximum Overdrive was an overwhelming disaster for those who expected anything similar to Christine, which also featured a killer car.

Joe Hill is a master of horror in his own right, with outings such as his Netflix original series Locke & Key and the recently cancelled NOS4A2 – an adaptation of one of his most popular novels – which had two seasons on AMC. The father-son duo have even co-created stories such as In The Tall Grass. Their story writing similarities will ensure that Maximum Overdrive will retain its Stephen King originality, while Hill’s own unique style will undoubtedly make it better.

According to Bloody Disgusting, Joe Hill intends on writing and directing the Maximum Overdrive remake himself with some alterations to the original story. Instead of a comet bringing the vehicles to life, he’s been inspired by the self-driving aspects of Teslas that may be inflicted with a virus which would cause them to go on a killing spree. This is essentially the same premise, but with an all new spin that would make it contemporary and play on the fears of self-driving cars as well as technology’s progression towards nearly human capabilities.

With the success of shows such as Black Mirror, Hill’s idea to make the vehicles come to life as a result of a virus is the perfect route to take in retelling the original story. Presumably, it would spread like a computer virus, but lead to much more dire consequences than breached software and corrupt files. Rather than maintaining the sci-fi elements of his father’s Maximum Overdrive, Hill will make his own version about the fear of technological advances, especially in a world where one of the biggest and most rapidly growing concerns is how far is too far to go with technology.

By utilizing the fear of self-driving cars and the uncertainty of a future that relies on technology, Joe Hill will make Maximum Overdrive better than the original. While it may lose the AC/DC soundtrack and cosmic horrors of the 1986 movie, it will likely receive better reviews, and hopefully won’t be regarded as a movie that is “so bad, it’s good“.

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