I’m a bit worried I’ve peaked too early by tackling Maximum Overdrive as the second entry in this series, because it might be the ultimate answer to ‘what’s the worst movie with the best soundtrack.’ On top of that, everything about the film’s production is bizarre to the point of parody, up to and including its musical score.

Let’s get it out of the way: Maximum Overdrive is a barely coherent film with some genuinely memorable visuals adapted from a short story written by Stephen King. Oh, and it was directed by King, too, although he has no memory of any of his time spent on set because he was so deep into his ‘80s coke habit that it short-circuited the long-term pathways in his brain.

I’m not being facetious. King has repeatedly discussed the memory hole he has for Maximum Overdrive, and if you’re judging by the action taking place on the screen, he’s lucky. ‘Trucks,’ the original short story, is an interesting tale about machines coming to life after the Earth passes through the tail of a comet. Maximum Overdrive is ostensibly about the same thing, stretched out over the course of a feature-length film, which doesn’t work nearly as well.

Its main fault is sticking its characters inside a diner for almost the entire runtime, prisoners of the trucks and other machinery that’s surrounded them outside. It’s hard for even a skilled director to make that kind of claustrophobia interesting, and King was anything but that. Other fun facts? Emilio Estevez ended up starring because producer Dino De Laurentiis didn’t know who Bruce Springsteen—King’s original choice for that role—was. The movie’s cinematographer also had his dominant eye damaged by a wood splinter while filming a lawnmower attack scene, resulting in an $18 million lawsuit.

Needless to say, it was a huge flop, and one that has yet to be appreciated even by irony-seeking ‘bad movie’ audiences. King never returned to directing (walking away from a three-movie production deal), after recognizing his storytelling strengths lay elsewhere. This leaves Maximum Overdrive as a bizarre artifact of a very different time.

Also an indicator of a bygone era? Stephen King convincing his favorite band of all-time to put out their new album as the soundtrack to his killer trucks movie.

AC/DC was in a bit of a rut in the mid-1980s, having released a live EP and an underwhelming studio album (Fly on the Wall) back-to-back. While pondering their next move, King reached out and asked them to score his movie. Like the director, AC/DC were cinematic neophytes, and had never been involved in this type of production before.

A compromise of sorts was reached. The band wrote three new songs for the movie: Who Made Who, D.T., and Chase the Ace, then filled the rest of the record with six past cuts. This made for the first real ‘greatest hits’ package ever released by the band, while also giving fans enough of something new to make the trek out to the record stores.

Everything about the arrangement was unconventional by Hollywood standards. The record was released with the title ‘Who Made Who,’ with no mention of Maximum Overdrive. The cover slapped guitarist Angus Young in a spotlight between four pillars, which again in no way referenced the movie. The title track, which played over the movie’s opening credits, hit MTV with a video that used no footage from the flick, instead swapping in a live performance in front of hundreds of Angus clones.

Maybe it was really great advice from management, or maybe it was inexperience on both sides of the promotional coin, but AC/DC’s decision to seemingly distance the release of Who Made Who as much as possible from Maximum Overdrive had an immediate, positive effect. The record eventually sold 5 million copies, and gave newcomers to the band the chance to discover classic tracks like Ride On, You Shook Me, Hells Bells, and For Those About To Rock, in addition to the excellent theme song.

Aside from the Green Goblin semi-truck, Who Made Who is by far the most memorable thing about Maximum Overdrive. It was also much more successful than the movie itself, and remains an AD/DC staple to this day. From that perspective, it’s hard to see how this isn’t the all-time, undisputed example of a terrible movie with a fantastic soundtrack