Pick Me Up 

In the middle of nowhere, with only a two-lane highway to connect it to anywhere--probably upstate New York--a recently divorced female traveler, who is a passenger on a bus that has broken down, gets caught in a bizarre and violent turf war between serial killers.

Director:

Larry Cohen

Writers:

Mick Garris (creator), David J. Schow (teleplay)

Stars:

Fairuza Balk, Michael Moriarty, Warren Kole

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Fairuza Balk	...	Stacia
Michael Moriarty	...	Jim Wheeler
Warren Kole	...	Walker
Laurene Landon	...	Birdy
Malcolm Kennard	...	Danny
Tom Pickett	...	Bus Driver
Peter Benson	...	Deuce
Kristie Marsden	...	Marie
Michael Eklund	...	Cashier
Paul Anthony	...	Stoney
Crystal Lowe	...	Lily
Michael Petroni	...	Ambulance Attendant
Mar Andersons	...	Ambulance Driver

Storyline

When a bus breaks down in a desert road surrounded by woods, the passenger Stacia decides to walk ahead 20 km to a motel. The travelers Birdy and Danny get a lift with the deranged serial-killer truck driver Jim Wheeler to return to a dinning place and are killed. The paranoid Marie and her husband stay in the bus with the driver waiting for help. When the sadistic serial-killer hitchhiker Walker comes to the bus, he kills the trio. Later in the motel, Stacia is disputed by the two psychopaths.

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Plot Keywords:

serial killer | truck driver | motel | hitchhiker | psychopath | 

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Country:

Canada USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 January 2006 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Columbia Production Services Tax Credit, IDT Entertainment, Industry Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

58 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Larry Cohen wanted each killer to embody an American political party.

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Goofs

When the punk women is tired to the bed in the motel room she is wearing red underwear, the scene cuts to the TV being turned off, then the women is now wearing white underwear.

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Quotes

Jim Wheeler: They're not human beings; they're just snakes in the snow.

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Connections

References The Ambulance (1990)

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Soundtracks

Snakes in the Snow
Written and Performed by Michael Moriarty.

User Reviews

Satire and character--not gore--drives 'Pick Me Up'

Like John Landis' 'Deer Woman,' Larry Cohen's contribution to the "Masters of Horror" series coasts on the director's pitch-perfect dark humor. There are few scares in 'Pick Me Up,' but a strong satire of serial-killer clichés (in this case, the hitcher and the hitched) and a layered character study that is quite fun to watch unfold. Wheeler (Michael Moriarty) is a semi driver who picks up hitchhikers and slaughters them; Walker (Warren Kole) is a hitcher who murders his rides; and Independent Woman Fairuza Balk is the tough heroine who runs afoul of the duo. While Cohen may seem like a wild-card addition to the series, 'Pick Me Up' injects an intellectual angle into the proceedings that is refreshing (especially in light of the "gore = more" approach most of the episodes have taken). While this episode lacks Cohen's trademark 'guerrila' style, he hits the right notes of irony and absurd comedy in David J. Schow's script, as when the two killers (united in Wheeler's truck) stop as a rattlesnake crosses the road; or when Walker tortures a woman in a motel room, putting a quarter in the 'Magic Fingers' as porn plays on the TV; or a climactic fight between killers over their prey. The performances of Moriarty, Kole, and Balk are uniformly spectacular, possessing a true knowledge of character that adds much to the episode as a whole.

(Side Note: anyone collecting the MOH DVDs has come to expect the usual supplements, but 'Pick Me Up' contains a highly entertaining interview with Cohen, plus a surprising number of past collaborators offering insightful and often hilarious recollections.)

6.5 out of 10