Maximum Overdrive (1986)

Hated upon release, I long held a soft-spot for the gonzo B-Grade horror flick “Maximum Overdrive,” written and directed by Stephen King (his only directed film). And it’s partially inspired by “Overdrive” magazine, a truck-centered pub I worked at for five years. I first saw this film at, what, 13? Maybe. Those Green Goblin eyes sold me back then. I digress. Apologies. The story: An alien comet passes near Earth, turning machines into live creatures with a thirst for human blood. At a redneck Wilmington, N.C., truck stop, it’s the big rigs that go mad and kill. Among the heroes: Emilio Esteves as an ex-con turned grill boy, and Pat Hingle as his NRA-loving prick boss. The Green Goblin eyes belong to a tractor trailer with the face of the Spider-Man villain on its cab. None of it makes sense, the blood is comically thick, and the jokes are corny, but this is a drive-in lark fueled by King’s then cocaine appetite. Yes, diesel fuels the trucks, but coke fuels the master. And likely much of the cast. Watch it as a comedy and AC/DC jam. B+

Misery (1990)

Director Rob Reiner takes on Stephen King in a funny, dark take of the horror author’s “Misery,” the story every artist must fear: What if you were immobilized and taken hostage by your No. 1 Fan who also happens to be a psychotic lunatic? That’s what happens when world-famous author Paul Sheldon (James Caan) crashes his pretty car during a snow storm, and to the rescue is crazy, lonely, book-loving RN Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates). You know the rest: Annie infamously swings a sledgehammer when she learns Paul has “killed” his famous heroine, Misery. Crack! Get me rewrite! I loved King’s claustrophobic nightmare book which never leaves Paul’s trapped view. Here, Reiner and screen adapter William Goldman (he also adapted “Princess Bride”) regularly visit the nearby sheriff and his wife (Richard Farnsworth and Frances Sternhagen). While the move kills the suspense, it adds humor as we watch the couples bounce off each other. The casting is genius: Tough guy Caan plays a weak jerk and Bates wins Oscar gold as the deeply insane and vastly sad Wilkes. I loved hating Annie's cock-a-doodie guts. B+

House (1986)

“House” is a cheap horror movie with its tongue firmly planted in cheek, sure to scare a child but keep an adult laughing. William Katt, he of “The Greatest American Hero,” is a Stephen King-like novelist hell bent on writing his Vietnam memoirs. For some solitude, he chooses the house of his late aunt’s, also the home where he grew up, and years later saw his own young child disappear. Nothing will go well, and I just don’t mean the seemingly unemployed neighbor played by George Wendt, he of “Cheers.” Goblins and a massive grasshopper thingy with sharp teeth appear, the medicine cabinet isn’t a medicine cabinet, and Richard Moll – he of “Night Court” – is a dead and angry war pal returned. “House” is a dumb guilty pleasure, a nostalgic trip for those of us raised on 1980s TV and pre-CGI flicks where we jumped at the first sign of a guy in a rubber suit with claws. B

The Mist (2007)

The 2007 horror film "The Mist" may hold a few too many Stephen King cliches, such as fathers pushed to sanity's edge and the depiction of Christians as deranged zealots, but it's entertaining as hell and dives deep into emotions normally ignored in this genre.

An homage to John Carpenter classics like "The Fog" and "The Thing," this horror/sci-fi flick focuses on a few dozen local townspeople in Castle Rock, Maine, trapped in a grocery as a mysterious mist rolls into town following a massive storm. There are, of course, things that go "bang" in the mist. The whole film is a small-scale take on what might be the larger world's reaction to the apparent apocalypse -- suicide, blame, hatred, panic and all-out debauchery. But all on a scale of, oh, 10,000.

Thomas Jane is the father trapped in the store with his young son and many loose cannons (Marcia Gay Harden as the nut-zoid Christian) and some unlikely heroes (Toby Jones). Director and screenwriter Frank Darabont ("The Shawshank Redemption") ratchets up great tension and, with King, deliver a devastating finale that truly haunts. Seriously, the ending is the most FUBAR thing in film since ... I can't recall.

As for any controversy of how Harden depicts a fanatical Mrs. Jim Jones, well, heck, I know a dozen alleged followers of Christ who'd line up in real life to imitate her any day of the week, much less at world's end. B