From: http://www.fangoria.com/fearful_feature.php?id=5434

PICK of the Week

By SEAN DECKER

PICK ME UP—both the MASTERS OF HORROR episode (debuting January 20)
and the David J. Schow short story on which it is based—explore the
complicated ethics and, dare we say, morals of a pair of Southwestern
serial killers who pray on both hitchhikers and those who provide
them transportation. While some may describe the episode as a
cautionary tale, Schow, no stranger to the subject of psychopaths
(the author is responsible for helping create the
literary "splatterpunk" subgenre, as well as the scripts for
LEATHERFACE: TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE III, THE CROW and the upcoming
TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING, among others), decries the
term.

"Like Jack Warner said, `If you want to send a message, call Western
Union,' " says Schow, who scripted the MASTERS adaptation, which
Larry Cohen directed. "People who've seen too many formulaic horror
movies might see a story like this as an admonition—`don't hitchhike'—
but that's just puerile. You might feel differently about hitching a
ride if you were stuck in a shit-down of rain and freezing to death.
To a certain small extent, PICK ME UP is about the weight of that
gamble; risk is a crapshoot, and everybody has different reasons that
make courting different levels [of it] acceptable."

Schow goes on to detail the inspiration for the original "Pick Me Up"
story: "Robert Bloch was editing an anthology titled PSYCHO PATHS,
and asked me for a contribution. Maybe that was the inspiration:
the `paths' taken by psychos. The book was published in 1991, so the
short story has been kicking around since then. When MASTERS OF
HORROR was just getting started, [series creator] Mick Garris
selected it and asked me to adapt it."

Expanding greatly on his 15-page tale, Schow's script changes the
locale to the Pacific Northwest (given MASTERS OF HORROR's Vancouver
production), and introduces a heroine not featured in the original,
played by Fairuza (THE CRAFT) Balk. However, the narrative focus on
two psychopaths, one a drifter who catches his prey by posing as a
hitchhiker (Warren Kole as Walker), the other a truck driver who
preys on those thumbing (Michael Moriarty as Wheeler), remains the
same. The result, given Schow's patented wry wit, is inevitable: two
predators whose modus operandi force them into conflict.

Schow was thrilled when Cohen (whose credits include the IT'S ALIVE
series, Q and THE STUFF) came aboard to direct his MASTERS entry. "He
was one of those serendipitous, left-field choices who just swam up
out of nowhere to blow me away," the writer says. "I had never met
him until I walked onto the set, first day of filming. In short order
we were banging out new scenes on a legal pad, running lines with
actors and shooting. He loved the script and mandated no changes
unless they went through me.

"I went in on Larry's call and stayed till wrap; basically, he and I
kept the same hours every workday," Schow continues. "Larry is the
true soul of independent filmmaking. He doesn't watch monitors or
playbacks—he prefers to stay close to the actors. He doesn't waste
time with dailies until he sits down with all the footage and figures
out how to conform it. Very run-and-gun, which I admire. People
forget that Larry is as well-known as a screenwriter as a director.
He understands why words are on a page, and what they're for.
Directing is just an extension of writing. He's accustomed to a lean
unit and a fast pace. The MASTERS crew is probably the biggest crew
he's ever worked with! And he was constantly consulting me and
involving me in shot setups, tweaks, every aspect of his own job."

Despite Cohen's uncommon adherence to the source material, the
production was not without its challenges, particularly as it
pertained to the episodes' more scaly performers. Schow specifically
recalls the effects of the northern climate on the snakes which
appear in PICK ME UP: "We were standing on a freezing Vancouver road
in the rain—real rain—poking live rattlers with a stick trying to get
them to perform." Fortunately for the production, its human talent
rose to the occasion with a bit more gusto. "It's a flat-out hoot!"
raves Schow of Kole's performance as the homicidal hitchhiker
Walker. "He's kind of channeling Viggo Mortensen's performance from
CHAINSAW III!"

As for Moriarty's stylized portrayal of Wheeler, Schow
adds, "Michael's interpretation of his character is, to say the
least, eccentric, but I mean that in the best way. It's a performance
I could never have anticipated; he became that character in a totally
unpredictable way, and one that perfectly flipsides the performance
of his nemesis. His and Warren's ad-libs were priceless."

Genre fans will no doubt catch one such invention of Kole's: "Both
f'ng versions!", referencing the two incarnations of TEXAS CHAINSAW
MASSACRE. "It's perfectly in keeping with the tone of the script,"
Schow says of the inspired line, "because if you listen closely, all
three of the principal characters reference horror movies. This is a
world where the people have at least seen some of them, and thus are
not stumbling into hairy situations because the plot blindly orders
them to. That was the only way I could live with another `girl
running through the woods chased by a killer' scene.

"And then there's Fairuza, the spine of the whole piece," Schow
says. "I got to the hotel, and Mick Garris called and said, `You'll
never believe who we got for the part.' In my wildest fantasy of
casting, I never would have dared to suggest Fairuza, who read the
script and was up to Vancouver like a shot! Thirty seconds after we
were introduced, we were immediately deep into a discussion about
character motivations. She's a total pro, and the camera just loves
her to death. Her look and personality helped flesh out a character I
had to invent for the teleplay, and subsequently that character
becomes the backbone of the story."

Schow has the same positive feelings about the MASTERS OF HORROR
series in its entirety. "I am aware this sounds like a total PR gush,
but remember that in a world where most feature films you work on go
south for one reason or another, it's a pleasure to see so many
things go right in service of a `mere' TV episode. Mick correctly
characterized the MASTERS episodes as `three-act, one-hour movies,'
and that's infinitely more accurate, based on the completed shows
I've seen. You'll love some and not love others, but each week brings
a totally different palette, which is something I enjoy—especially in
an age where TV producers are congratulating themselves for giving
viewers 20-hour soap operas that never come to any sort of resolution
other than one wheezy cliffhanger after another."

As for PICK ME UP, "I saw the assembly cut [temp music, temp sound
effects, pre-looping]," concludes Schow, "and it was good enough to
go out as is. Once it's sweetened, I hope it becomes one of the
episodes that viewers think is cool."