Stephen King directed the 1986 film Maximum Overdrive while entirely fueled by a massive cocaine habit, resulting in a movie where a group of survivors is terrorized by sentient, murderous semi-trucks.

A closer look

Stephen King directed the 1986 film Maximum Overdrive while entirely fueled by a massive cocaine habit, resulting in a movie where a group of survivors is terrorized by sentient, murderous semi-trucks. King later admitted he barely remembers being on set and has sworn off directing forever, which is probably for the best considering the trailer literally featured him daring the audience to watch it. Hollywood in the 1980s was a magical era when studios would blindly hand millions of dollars to a clearly compromised author just because his books sold well at airport kiosks. Los Angeles executives somehow greenlit a theatrical release about a killer vending machine and an evil steamroller, standing as a beautiful testament to the power of unregulated narcotics in the creative process