Review of Quicksilver Highway (1997) by Steve M — 16 Oct 2005

Quicksilver Highway.

Starring: Matt Frewer and Christopher Lloyd.

It's hard to go wrong with an horror anthology movie, and if you're adapting stories by Stephen King and Clive Barker to the screen, you'd think it would be even harder. But no. The filmmakers managed to completely botch the effort with "Quicksilver Highway.".

It starts to go wrong with the framing sequence. These anthology movies are supposed to have a framing device that links the tales either through a plot of its own, or through some theme. Here, we have Christopher Lloyd playing a weirdo in a rune-engraved leather collar telling stories to total strangers that he admits repeatedly have no point.

And then there are the stories. First, we have Stephen King's "Chattering Teeth" about a man who is saved from a psychotic hitchhiker by a pair of oversized, toy teeth. As lame as this one is, it pales in comparison to the one that follows.

"The Body Politic" is the second tale, and it was adapted from a very bad Clive Barker story about a surgeon whose hands rebel against the rest of his body--and then cause the hands of others to rebel as well. Setting aside the fact that the hands can do nothing without the muscles of the arms--and yet a hospital full of rebellious hands are dragging people around as the story builds to its ludicrous climax--there simply isn't anything scary about the story. It's even too stupid to be funny, although Matt Frewer's over-the-top performance as the doctor at war with his own hands was fun, and it earns the "Quicksilver Highway" an entire Tomato.

Frewer's performance is the only noteworthy thing about this third-rate effort. I don't think it's enough to warrant wasting your time, however.