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Memorable, crazy movie

Absolutely Fantastic

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

I found this episode to be deeply unpleasant and somewhat mean-spirited. All the women are portrayed as weak, dumb, or annoying. The only independent-minded woman is eventually reduced to just another screaming damsel in distress. This seems to be the "in thing" these days. I really hate this trend of showing naked women being tortured. It does nothing to move the story forward and seems like it's meant only to appeal to sexual sadists. To be honest I can't believe this even aired on television. I guess people have become so desensitized that sexually sadistic violence is just considered entertainment. The two stars are for Michael Moriarty who gives an excellent performance in an otherwise trashy waste of 55 minutes.

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.

Masters of Horror: Pick Me Up is set in the middle of nowhere somewhere in America, a bus breaks down on the only road for miles & it's passengers are stranded. Stacia (Fairuza Balk) decides to walk to the nearest town, Bridy (Laurene Landon) & Danny (Malcolm Kennard) accept a lift from a trucker named Jim Wheeler (Michael Moriarty) while the bus driver (Tom Pickett) & his two remaining passengers Marie (Kristie Marsden) & her boyfriend Deuce (Peter Benson) wait at the bus for the repair team. However things aren't what they seem as Wheeler is in fact a serial killer & he quickly becomes aware of another serial killer named Walker (Warren Kole) working on his patch after finding the dead bodies of the bus driver, Marie & Deuce. Jim doesn't like competition & their paths cross as they battle it out to be the one who kills Stacia...This American Canadian co-production was episode 11 from season 1 of the hit-and-miss Masters of Horror TV series, directed by Larry Cohen I thought Pick Me Up was OK but nothing special. The script based on his own short story by David J. Schow actually makes for quite a dull 55 minutes, I'm sorry but I couldn't really get into the story at all. The prospect of two serial killers facing off against each other is a decent idea but here they operate so openly & are so over-the-top that I couldn't take it seriously. I felt the character's were pretty poor, the dialogue was cheesy at times although I must admit I did like the twist ending which unusually I never saw coming. To it's credit at less than an hour in length it moves along at a reasonable pace even if it is a bit predictable & dull it's probably worth a watch if you can catch it on TV for free.Veteran director Cohen does OK although this is far from the best looking or most stylish of Masters of Horror episodes, there is a distinct lack of scares, excitement or tension & not much atmosphere either. The gore is pretty restrained in Pick Me Up as well, there's a bit of blood, a dead snake & a scene with a woman having had some of her skin sliced off earlier.This is generally well made & looks better than a lot of made-for-cable TV rubbish with decent production values. The acting is alright & includes Michael Moriarty & Laurene Landon who have each both previously starred in several Cohen films.Pick Me Up is an OK time waster, at least it doesn't go on for that long & is worth a watch if you like the Masters of Horror TV series or have interest in the genre, other's however may want to skip it.

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.