Quicksilver Highway (1997)

Back in 1997 Garris tried to get a horror anthology of the ground and as it didn't kick off turned the pilot episodes into a TV movie working with two authors (Barker and King) he's worked with before and since. A few years later he found the right combination with the infinitely better Masters of Horror series.Quicksilver Highway involves Doc Emmett Brown (Lloyd) as Aaron Quicksilver, (a guy dressed in fetish gear that hasn't seen the sun in years) traveling America and digging up stories from its dark heart. The first story he tells is King's 'Chattering Teeth' which is woeful in the extreme. The second is Barker's 'The Body Politic' which is a far greater story but still not done particularly well here.Chattering Teeth has virtually no element of horror to it whatsoever. A guy picks up a vaguely menacing hitchhiker but he sure ain't no Rutger Hauer. They crash the van and the toy teeth the guy was given at a road-stop start mauling the hitcher and then cut the guy free of his seat-belt. Short but pointless. But as Lloyd himself says, his stories have no moral and no point, 'they're just stories'.Now while I haven't read 'Chattering teeth' (and have no desire to after this) I have read 'The Body Politic' and its an amazing story as are pretty much all those contained in Barker's 'Books of Blood' anthology. A classic tale of revolution where body parts rebel against the governing body. Not so good here. The voices of the hands are a bit too cute. They should be mean muthas ready to take on the world. The hand effects are pretty ordinary as well. The hands were much better on Frewer who turns in a great performance which saves this. There's also a lot of people running around clutching bloody stumps which straight away makes it better than the previous story.Overall not great but it would have been hampered by the low budget and the fact that as it was made for a prime-time TV slot the gore was left back on the highway. The acting is good (Lloyd, Frewer) but Mick doesn't really get it right here. I was gonna give it 5/10 but the fact Clive Barker is it in when they're pumping fat from a bloated carcass raised it up a notch.

This is one of those "Twilight Zone: The Movie" kind of movie, that features a couple of different horror stories and a storyteller (played by Christopher Lloyd) who binds all of the stories together. It's not an horrible movie but it also certainly ain't among the most interesting ones that the genre has to offer.For an horror movie it's certainly lacking in originality and good scares. It's a rather clichéd movie that is predictable to watch, though it does offer enough entertainment to still consider this movie watchable. Still the movie is too slow and too little good and interesting is ever happening, making this movie at the same time not that great to watch for the lovers of the genre.It's still a rather good looking movie, at least for a made for TV movie it is. It's a movie made with some skilled people involved. Director Mick Garris already had some experience in the genre prior this movie and directed a couple of horror movies and TV-series episodes. None of them were anything too outstanding but it gained him obviously the right knowledge needed. Seems like he also loves to work with some Stephen King material. This movie also features a short story which got based on the Stephen King short story "Chattery Teeth".The movie at times is still a bit of a clumsy one, which makes the movie look bad and ridicules at times, this is especially the case with the movie its last story. Not all of its writing and dialog is always convincing. Also some of the actors are pretty poor ones and even Christopher Lloyd is overacting way too much to enjoy him in his role.All in all it isn't a too recommendable movie but it still has a certain entertainment level.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

The movie itself is not a great movie but not a bad one either. There are two stories tied together but is shown in different orders. The Body Politic and Chattering Teeth. I've seen this movie about a couple months ago on the weekends, on regular TV that is, and it was shown The Body Politic first. I buy the DVD and then it is Chattering Teeth shown first. Not that I'm complaining, some how the way it comes together in any different order makes it seem like the original. It all plays out evenly throughout the entire 90 minutes. Christopher Lloyd portrays Aaron Quicksilver as the traveling showman, and gives a chilling and spooky Gothic performance, not to mention wardrobe. A must-see movie for the Christopher Lloyd fan indeed, this is not your average quirky Uncle Fester character. Also performances by Matt Frewer who brilliantly plays two characters. One a memorable surgeon who cant seem to control his hands, a body part that turn against him and form a mind of their own. Couldn't have been played by a better actor. Finally the Chattering Teeth story is less chilling than the previous story mentioned, but in all still fun to watch. We don't realize in the beginning of the story how useful a pair of metal made choppers can be to a traveling salesman who picks up a hitch hiker along his journey. Raphael Sabarge gives a believable performance in this worst case scenario story of the classic psychotic hitch hiker, a truly psychotic and aggressive performance played by Silas Weir Mitchell. Not a must-see, but movie to get to know because after all, it is a Stephen King/ Clive Barker team project. Don't know whether to be scared or laugh out loud. My favorite Christopher Lloyd quote of the movie "Does every story have to have a moral or a point?"

This movie wasn't all that good. Christopher was awesome in this movie, and thats it. That was the only good thing about this movie. It just isn't scary other then Christopher's part in the movie. It just wasn't all that good. I recommend watching some other scary movie. This wasn't worth it.