Wilmington-shot ‘Scream,’ ‘Maximum Overdrive’ memorialized on YouTube’s The Daily Woo – StarNewsOnline.com

Posted: February 17, 2022 at 7:31 am

It's been more than 35 years since the schlocky Wilmington-shot horror movie "Maximum Overdrive" debuted in theaters back in 1986. But what might've seemed at first like a forgettable, if occasionally fun film, has achieved something close to immortality, not to mention a cult following,online.

The latest internet action keeping our collective memory of "Maximum Overdrive" alive? Avideo on The Daily Woo, a YouTube account with more than 600,000 subscribers. Run by a YouTuber who goes bythe moniker Adam the Woo, the series features "everything from abandoned theme parks to movie locations to wacky roadside attractions."

The Daily Woo recently featured a video aboutlocations of the fifth "Scream" movie, which was filmed in Wilmington and released earlier this year.

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Posted Friday, as of Valentine's Day the half-hour video titled "Maximum Overdrive FilmingLocations" was close to surpassing50,000 views.

"Maximum Overdrive" was basedon "Trucks," a novella by Stephen King about a passing comet that somehow causes all manner of motor vehicles and machinery to gain sentience. The machines'first instinct, naturally, is to start attacking and murdering any human that crosses their path.

The movie is the only one that King, the author of dozens of books and screenplays, ever directed. King himself has joined the cultural chorus mocking "Maximum Overdrive," admitting that, not onlywas he anovermatched and inexperienced director, but was also in the throes of a cocaine addiction he later sought treatment for.

WilmOnFilm Flashback: Maximum Overdrive

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The movie was a box office flop, and it also got twoGolden Raspberry Awards, or Razzie,nominations:one for Emilio Estevez asWorst Actor and one for King asWorst Director.

Still, as the Daily Woo videos shows, "Maximum Overdrive" which starsEstevez, Yeardley Smith (of "The Simpsons") and character actor Pat Hingle, who became a Wilmington resident after making the movie herehas its devotees.

The YouTube video takes anexhaustive, very deep dive into some of the movie's locations, starting with a formerATM at the since-demolished Wachovia bankdowntownon Princess Street between Water and Front streets. (King himself makes a cameo inthat scene, in which the ATM's screen calls the writer an unprintable name.)

Adam the Woo and amohawked video cohort named Scott also visitthe Isabel Holmes Bridge (which theymistakenly callthe Isabella Holmes, something that even locals do from time to time). In the movie, the drawbridgeopens up, spilling cars into the Cape Fear River.

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They also stop by the Wilmington neighborhood at19th and Princess where one character is killed, and the neighborhood atShirley Road and Kenwood Avenue, where various scenes take place, including one with a lawnmower thatpartly blinded the movie's cinematographer and led to a lawsuit.

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Also featured in the video is The Kicking Mule, a store at Fletcher andLanvale roadsin Leland that plays a gas station in "Maximum Overdrive."

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In addition, thevideo spends some time off U.S. 17, where the movie built a set that served as the Dixie Boy truck stop. The set was torn down after filming was finished, but thanks to the Daily Woo, the site has been memorialized for posterity.

Contact John Staton at 910-343-2343 or John.Staton@StarNewsOnline.com.

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Wilmington-shot 'Scream,' 'Maximum Overdrive' memorialized on YouTube's The Daily Woo - StarNewsOnline.com

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