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Masters of Horror
S1.E11
All episodesAll
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
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IMDbPro

Pick Me Up

  • Episode aired Jan 20, 2006
  • TV-MA
  • 58m
IMDb RATING
6.3/10
3.7K
YOUR RATING
Pick Me Up (2006)
Splatter HorrorHorror

In the middle of nowhere, with only a two-lane highway to connect it to anywhere, a recently divorced woman traveler, who's a passenger on a bus that has broken down, gets caught in a bizarr... Read allIn the middle of nowhere, with only a two-lane highway to connect it to anywhere, a recently divorced woman traveler, who's a passenger on a bus that has broken down, gets caught in a bizarre and violent turf war between serial killers.In the middle of nowhere, with only a two-lane highway to connect it to anywhere, a recently divorced woman traveler, who's 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
    • David J. Schow
  • Stars
    • Fairuza Balk
    • Michael Moriarty
    • Warren Kole
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.3/10
    3.7K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Larry Cohen
    • Writers
      • Mick Garris
      • David J. Schow
    • Stars
      • Fairuza Balk
      • Michael Moriarty
      • Warren Kole
    • 41User reviews
    • 10Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos21

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    Top cast14

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    Fairuza Balk
    Fairuza Balk
    • Stacia
    Michael Moriarty
    Michael Moriarty
    • Jim Wheeler
    Warren Kole
    Warren Kole
    • Walker
    Laurene Landon
    Laurene Landon
    • Birdy
    Malcolm Kennard
    Malcolm Kennard
    • Danny
    Tom Pickett
    Tom Pickett
    • Bus Driver
    Peter Benson
    Peter Benson
    • Deuce
    Kristie Marsden
    • Marie
    Michael Eklund
    Michael Eklund
    • Cashier
    Paul Anthony
    Paul Anthony
    • Stoney
    Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe
    Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe
    • Lily
    • (as Crystal Lowe)
    Michael Petroni
    Michael Petroni
    • Ambulance Attendant
    Mar Andersons
    Mar Andersons
    • Ambulance Driver
    Danielle Rees
    Danielle Rees
    • Pepper
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Larry Cohen
    • Writers
      • Mick Garris
      • David J. Schow
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews41

    6.33.7K
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    Featured reviews

    6Witchfinder-General-666

    Clash of the Serial Killers

    Larry Cohen who has enriched the world of Exploitation cinema as the director of films like "Black Caesar" and "Q: The Winged Serpent" and, most memorably as the writer of films like "Maniac Cop" delivers one of the most outrageously entertaining "Masters of Horror" episodes with "Pick Me Up". While this eleventh episode of the first season does not quite reach the originality and ingenuity of the most brilliant entries to the series (such as Takashi Miike's "Imprint"), it does deliver what a "Masters of Horror" episode should: permanent suspense and genuine creepiness, paired with moments of incredibly morbid humor. A young woman named Stacia (played by sexy Fairuza Balk) is part of a bus-load of travelers, which, after breaking down in the middle of nowhere, bizarrely gets stuck between two psychopathic serial killers... I don't want to give too much away, but I can almost guarantee that people who like the show will also like this. The episode is suspenseful and creepy from the first minute, and sometimes spiced up with macabre humor, but never to a degree that would lessen the suspense). Fairuza Balk is sexy as always and fits perfectly in her role. Prolific actor Michael Moriarty and the less prolific Warren Kole are also very good in their roles. Along with the very first episode, "Incident On And Off A Mountain Road", "Pick Me Up" is probably the MoH episode that has the most genuine B-Movie-feeling, which should make it highly enjoyable to my fellow Horror/Exploitation fans. Overall, Larry Cohen is certainly not the most masterly director in the "Masters Of Horror" franchise (masters like Dario Argento, Stuart Gordon, John Carpenter and Takashi Miike as directors of other episodes make this quite impossible), but his episode "Pick Me Up" proves that he is a more than adept maker of genuine solid Horror. "Pick Me Up" is a creepy and deliciously macabre entry to the series which MoH-fans should certainly not miss.
    9kosmasp

    Twisted

    I can only guess, why not so many people seem to like this one. But it hit the right button with me. I loved it (watched it with a friend of mine, who was as excited as I was). I thought it was unique, told something different and made the most out of it's time frame (had to be less than an hour long, for TV reasons), had excellent actors (some well known, others not so much).

    Maybe some think, that it just has too much in it and therefor is does not concentrate on a straight path down the road. That's exactly what I loved. You probably will guess, what is going to happen quite a few times, but the way it is played out, really got me going. Nicely written dialog and very self-aware (but not to the point, where it gets annoying ... not to me anyway), this was one great episode, from one great writer/director!
    Dethcharm

    Road Killers...

    In PICK ME UP, a truck-driving serial killer (Michael Moriarty) meets his match in a deadly drifter (Warren Kole). Fairuza Balk plays the young woman caught between these two madmen and their battle for homicidal supremacy.

    One of the better MASTERS OF HORROR offerings, it has a nice mix of terror and humor. It also has a ghoulish twist at the end.

    Director Larry Cohen does some of the best work he's done in years. Re-teaming with Moriarty is a big plus. These guys always made great low-budget horror films together...
    8super marauder

    Smiling faces lie!

    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!
    7Jonny_Numb

    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

    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      The first and only film Larry Cohen directed that he did not write. He took the job in part to prove to people that he could direct someone else's material.
    • Goofs
      When the punk woman is tied to the bed in the motel room, she is wearing red underwear. The scene cuts to the TV being turned off, and now the woman is wearing white underwear.
    • Quotes

      Walker: Now, our judgmental trucker friend here, he's the type of guy who likes to hunt. He likes to theorize about prey, and he likes to think about worthy opponents and fair game, and just with all that bullshit. He loves it. Very romantic. Now, he thinks he ain't a predator. You should have seen him back at that bus.

      [inhales]

      Walker: [pause] You see all these little trinkets? These little souvenirs? Look at that. He never saw the Horrible Thing. He just kept the button.

      [chuckles]

      Walker: Now, your genuinely dangerous individuals, they almost never look... crazy. They don't have any weird tattoos, they don't have any weird stitches on their face, no funny-shaped heads - they are *not*

      [licks his lips]

      Walker: predictable.

    • Connections
      Features C-Bear and Jamal (1996)
    • Soundtracks
      Snakes in the Snow
      Written and Performed by Michael Moriarty.

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • January 20, 2006 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • Canada
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Production companies
      • IDT Entertainment
      • Industry Entertainment
      • Nice Guy Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      58 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.78 : 1

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