Horror novelist Stephen King decided to make his directorial debut with this adaptation of his 1974 story Trucks. And he's made a loud, silly and mildly entertaining film.

A comet passing the Earth possesses all mechanical items and makes them go on murderous rampages. At the Dixie Boy truckstop; Emilio Estevez and a group of others who've made their way there have to take on some nasty, driver-less eighteen-wheelers that are led by a cool rig with a "Green Goblin" (from the comic boook Spider-Man) face grill.

King himself even proclaims this as a "moron movie" and he's completely right. It's a ho-hum time but there's enough memorable moments (the steamroller is my favourite one) on hand to make it cheesy viewing even if a lot of logic questions may just nag at your mind (such as: if all cars are possessed how come a couple of characters can drive them without the vehicles going nuts and smashing the passengers into a wall?). The mid-section also suffers from being a little slow, the finale is totally weak (if it was so easy - why'd it take 98 minutes to do?) and Yeardly Smith's (better known as the voice of Lisa on TV's The Simpsons) character is very annoying and screams gratingly a lot.

Not great, not bad - just so-so. Austrailian hard rockers AC/DC contribute songs and music to the soundtrack and it's surprisingly appropriate.

King's story was re-done in the 1997 cable TV flick Trucks.

Directed By: Stephen King.
Written By: Stephen King.

Starring: Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, Yeardley Smith.