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.

---

Plot Keywords:

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

---

Genres:

Horror

---

Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Country:

Canada USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 January 2006 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

IDT Entertainment, Industry Entertainment, Nice Guy Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

58 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The fog in this movie was real fog, not an effect. Larry Cohen used it to his advantage to give this a more scary feeling.

---

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.

---

Quotes

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

---

Connections

References The Big Sleep (1946)

---

Soundtracks

Snakes in the Snow
Written and Performed by Michael Moriarty.

User Reviews

Everyone's a killer, baby!

Larry Cohen has been a 'Master of Horror' especially during the 70's and 80's (with sublime movies on his repertoire like "It's Alive", "God Told Me To" and "Q – The Winged Serpent"), but starting from the 1990's, he merely became the writer of popular mainstream thrillers like "Guilty as Sin" and the more recent "Phone Booth". It has actually been a while since Cohen delivered some genuine horror, so I didn't really know what to expect from his contribution to this series. His episode "Pick Me Up" certainly isn't the best entry in the series, but nevertheless a very entertaining little movie with an original plot and a fair share of gore. The plot revolves on a showdown between two sadistic serial killers and the stake is the last remaining passenger of a bus that broke down in the middle of nowhere. The oldest killer (deliciously played by Michael Moriarty) is a trucker whose victims are usually the hitch-hikers he picks up and the other one is a hitch-hiking drifter who kills the people that offer him a ride. A premise like this could have resulted in a very suspenseful cat-and-mouse game, but Larry Cohen and scriptwriter David Schow (creater of "The Crow") preferred to make it a sick black comedy with some grotesque plot twists and insane characters. Typical serial-killer situations and clichés seem to added on purpose and there are loads of subtle references towards classic horror films for the genre-specialist to discover. The deserted two-lane highway running through the backwoods forms a great setting. Sadly, the denouement goes ONE step beyond the acceptable.