Mile 81 (Collected Within Bazaar of Bad Dreams)
Dream Director: Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead), Michael J. Bassett (Ash Vs. the Evil Dead)
While From a Buick 8 tries to open up a dialogue about other dimensions and destiny, Christine is content with simply the wanton destruction of a possessed car. So it’s exciting to see King return to this territory with Mile 81 since it not only ends up embracing the scarier side of a renegade automobile, but that it also makes Christine look like Thomas the Tank Engine. To be fair, Mile 81 actually ends up falling somewhere between both Christine and From a Buick 8. This isn’t some possessed car that drives around and mows down teens. It’s instead some sort of alien creature that is simply using the guise of a vehicle as camouflage to catch its prey. It’s like the world’s worst trapdoor spider. King breaks Mile 81 into a number of shorter stories, recounting the many victims this abandoned automobile has claimed. The descriptions he uses regarding the way the “car” absorbs, attacks, and eats its victims is truly frightening stuff. Sam Raimi’s chaotic, roving style exhibited in works like Evil Dead would not only be a natural fit for the fluid-like motions of Mile 81’s monster, but this season of Ash Vs. the Evil Dead even delivered the best example of “killer car” that I’ve ever seen in the episode “DUI” (directed by Michael J. Bassett). It’s almost a pairing that makes too much sense.
