Pick Me Up (2006)

I love this movie so much

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The bus with several passengers breaks down in the middle of nowhere and passengers have three options available: they can stay on the bus and wait for help, hitchhike further or go on foot. Of course, they can not agree and they separate, in order to become an easy prey for a serial killer. This darkly humorous psychological horror takes the classic horror cliche, but it enriches the story by introducing yet another serial killer, and their mutual struggle for the same victims. These two psychopaths are completely different personalities with opposing methods, through which the director Larry Cohen tried to embody opposing political parties in America, and to make a satire of serial killers cliches and horror cliches in general. The idea is phenomenal, as are the twists and surprises that follow, but it isn't elaborated enough and leaves the impression of a shoddy job. The story has a potential for a ten, but unfortunately, this realization does not deserve more than 7/10

Who would have thought serial killers would be territorial? The story starts out when a bus breaks down in the middle of nowhere (of course), when a seemingly friendly truck driver offers to take the passengers to the nearby trading post. Only two passengers take him up on the offer, while two more stay with the bus along with the bus driver. One passenger decides to start walking by her self. Meanwhlie a friendly cowboy walks up to the bus and asks for a ride. It turns out the cowboy and the truck driver are both serial killers! Walker who hitch hikes, and Wheeler who drives picking up hitch hikers. After they dispose of their victims the fight over who gets to kill the last survivor of the bus. And like a good western we have a show down to see who gets to finish the victim off.This is definitely not scary but it is a good fun movie to watch. It's got some funny moments, some suspense, and a message: Don't hitch hike and don't pick up hitch hikers! Oh! The ending really makes believe in karma!

Cult director Larry Cohen and mediocre genre scribe David Schow team up for "Pick Me Up," one of the weakest MOH episodes from Season 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 town with a trucker (played by Michael Moriarty, even more obnoxious than usual), some stay at the bus, and one tough-as-nails woman (Fairuza Balk) decides to walk off in the opposite direction on her own. She soon realizes that she's become a killer's prey, 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's suspenseful enough, until you actually figure out what's going on. After that, it just descends into absurd nonsense, especially in its last 10 minutes or so. Cohen's trademark sense of black humor doesn't really pop up until the end, and by that point I was ready to throw the towel in. It does have it's high points -- it's fairly violent and the gore effects are well done. And Balk is excellent, as usual, though underused here. So 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.

Larry Cohen has long been a favourite filmmaker of mine. I first discovered him at an early age watching the creature flick Q. That film, along with the Maniac Cop series and Uncle Sam solidified him as a great filmmaker in my mind. It wasn't until years later that I finally got to see the It's Alive series and God Told Me To and add them to his hit list. So its rather funny that of all the episodes from season one of Masters Of Horror that this one would take me so long to get around to watching. I missed the original airing of the episode on TV so I had to wait until it came out on DVD. When it did, I bought it immediately. Then, life got in the way and I never got around to it. Finally, after watching the episode, I can say it was worth the wait. Cohen is a master, there is no doubt. There are some classic Cohenisms on line here, 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's work so I wasn't familiar with the story on which the episode is based. Really, it is rather simplistic in its narrative and allusions, but it gets the job done. Wheeler is a trucker who kills anyone who he picks up on the road. Walker is a hitchhiker who kills anyone who picks him up. The two meet one night on a lonely mountain road and a young woman is caught in the middle of their macabre game. This may not be my absolute favourite episode of the season, but it certainly ranks up there in my top 3. Well worth a look.