Cujo108 Larry Cohen's entry into the series has to do with a broken down bus and the two serial killers who happen upon it. One of the killers is an old trucker (Cohen regular, Michael Moriarty) who kills anyone he gives a ride to, and the other is a hitchhiker (Warren Kole) who murders those who pick him up. Both set their sights on the lone remaining passenger (Fairuza Balk) of the bus, which leads to a battle of wills to see who can get her first.This story of two dueling serial killers is perfectly suited for the episodic "Masters of Horror" format, as it's merely a fun little idea with hardly enough material to sustain a feature length film. Throw in Cohen as the master behind this one, and I was expecting to sit back for one of the more entertaining episodes of the series. I have to say that I was disappointed. For starters, it had definite pacing issues. Yes, an hour-long episode dealing with an idea as threadbare as this one suffers from a poor pace. Some of the performances also really brought it down for me. All of the people from the bus (aside from the driver and Balk) were just terrible. Worst acting of the series from these folks, and I wanted them to die immediately so I wouldn't have to put up with it.Michael Moriarty was fantastic, though. He nailed his role, and Kole was quite good too. I loved the interactions between these two and how they would try to one up each other. We also get a decent helping of morbid humor, and the skinned alive girl was a surprisingly gruesome touch in an otherwise tame episode. As for atmosphere, it was sorely lacking here. Maybe I've just seen too much of British Columbia from this series, and I know it's for budgetary reasons, but I felt that the locations weren't very fitting for the story at hand. Cohen's direction is generally uninspired with the exception of an overhead pan of the rooms during the motel sequence. The absurd ending also fails, all plausibility going right out the window."Pick Me Up" needed less of the bus passengers and more of the killers facing off. At least it would've been a bit more entertaining that way. Two good performances, poor episode.

kosmasp 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!

Witchfinder General 666 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.

Paul Andrews Masters of Horror: Pick Me Up is set in the middle of nowhere somewhere in America, a bus breaks down on the only road for miles & it's passengers are stranded. Stacia (Fairuza Balk) decides to walk to the nearest town, Bridy (Laurene Landon) & Danny (Malcolm Kennard) accept a lift from a trucker named Jim Wheeler (Michael Moriarty) while the bus driver (Tom Pickett) & his two remaining passengers Marie (Kristie Marsden) & her boyfriend Deuce (Peter Benson) wait at the bus for the repair team. However things aren't what they seem as Wheeler is in fact a serial killer & he quickly becomes aware of another serial killer named Walker (Warren Kole) working on his patch after finding the dead bodies of the bus driver, Marie & Deuce. Jim doesn't like competition & their paths cross as they battle it out to be the one who kills Stacia...This American Canadian co-production was episode 11 from season 1 of the hit-and-miss Masters of Horror TV series, directed by Larry Cohen I thought Pick Me Up was OK but nothing special. The script based on his own short story by David J. Schow actually makes for quite a dull 55 minutes, I'm sorry but I couldn't really get into the story at all. The prospect of two serial killers facing off against each other is a decent idea but here they operate so openly & are so over-the-top that I couldn't take it seriously. I felt the character's were pretty poor, the dialogue was cheesy at times although I must admit I did like the twist ending which unusually I never saw coming. To it's credit at less than an hour in length it moves along at a reasonable pace even if it is a bit predictable & dull it's probably worth a watch if you can catch it on TV for free.Veteran director Cohen does OK although this is far from the best looking or most stylish of Masters of Horror episodes, there is a distinct lack of scares, excitement or tension & not much atmosphere either. The gore is pretty restrained in Pick Me Up as well, there's a bit of blood, a dead snake & a scene with a woman having had some of her skin sliced off earlier.This is generally well made & looks better than a lot of made-for-cable TV rubbish with decent production values. The acting is alright & includes Michael Moriarty & Laurene Landon who have each both previously starred in several Cohen films.Pick Me Up is an OK time waster, at least it doesn't go on for that long & is worth a watch if you like the Masters of Horror TV series or have interest in the genre, other's however may want to skip it.