pumpktoberfest #1 - maine is HORRORible.
film: maximum overdrive
beer: shipyard pumpkinhead



the great state of maine has produced a lot of fine talent in its day, from judd nelson to patrick dempsey to dan fogelberg, but horror writer stephen king's arguably the most famous maniac. with a resume that includes way too many books for me to bother counting them up, he's basically become the most famous horror writer of at least this past century. dude hasn't had any of his stories turned into a worthy movie yet this millennium, but through the years, a good number of his books have been adapted into classic horror films.

maximum overdrive isn't exactly a classic, but it was the first film that he directed himself (as he's all too happy to tell you in the trailer) & it's one of his more hilarious films. as the plot goes, a comet goes shooting through the sky & the machines all become homicidal at some truck stop. once the trucks start acting up, people are screwed. it stars a young emilio estevez from back when being emilio estevez actually meant something. in short, if you're looking for the maximum amount of hilarious, machine-based horror this pumpktoberfest season, look no further than maximum overdrive. after all, it's also the last film stephen king ever directed.

the first beer of the pumpktoberfest season is a shipyard pumpkinhead, brewed out of portland, ME. it's a wheat ale brewed with cinnamon & nutmeg & it's only available for two months out of the year, roughly equivalent to the amount of time non-pumpkin farmers care about pumpkins on a yearly basis. based on the front of the label, it probably would've gone perfect with pumpkinhead or sleepy hollow, but neither of them are in my top sixteen horror films, so they can suck it.

the pumpkinhead's nothing special. i enjoy shipyard's beers, but the pumpkinhead was a perfect example of your run-of-the-mill "toss some spices in a beer & call it a pumpkin beer" pumpkin beer. as i suspected, compared to that pumking (pictured behind it) that i killed the other night, it was B-O-R-I-N-G. not HORRORible, but i'm hoping there are some better ones amongst the pumpkin beers i've assembled in my fridge. if not, it's going to be a loooooooooong pumpktoberfest season.