Werewolves on Wheels – DVD
Dark Sky Films
Werewolves on Wheels is a 1971 film that defies description. It starts off as one movie, and finishes off as another. A gang of bikers, The Devils Advocates, travel around raising hell, getting wasted, knocking over gas stations and fight anyone who crosses them. One of the members of the gang is a lot more serious than his biker buddies, and is into tarot card readings and occult things, which leads the gang to a satanic cult temple out in the desert. The “devil monks” give the bikers all the bread and wine they can consume which results in them all passing out. The “old lady” of Devil’s Advocates’ leader, Adam, finds herself inside the temple as part of a satanic ritual where she becomes the Devil’s Bride. The bikers come to during the ritual, beat the crap out of the monks, rescue the girl and set back on their usual path of hell-raising, but little do they know that hell-raising takes on an entirely different meaning from that point forward.
It is here that the movie goes from being a biker film to a horror film. When the Devil’s Bride turns into a werewolf and thus turns Adam, the gang leader, into one, they slowly start killing their own without the rest of the gang knowing what they’ve become. Eventually they catch on and that leads to the films finale, and rather confusing ending (which has thus been explained to me in the commentary track).
The movie is in anamorphic widescreen and the picture looks quite good, perhaps it was restored and if it was, they did a very nice job on it. The sound is the original mono mix and at times there is quite a bit of hiss in some of the quieter parts, but overall it is alright. Extra features are limited to a commentary track, photos, and the movie trailer (as well as one for The Losers, which was reviewed here last week).
The movie would have fared better with another pass at the story perhaps, the fact that it tried to blend two genres of movies could be commended, but the mixture could have been handled better. The movie is pure low-budget drive-in fare which works at times and doesn’t in others. When all was said and done, I didn’t feel like 90 minutes of my life was wasted, but this is probably more suited as a rental for having a bunch of friends over for a laugh and getting drunk over a permanent addition to your film library.
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MXV, you rule. i am a huge biker movie fan and this movie is one of my top 5. i will be buying this right now. weird story and great music!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don’t forget this gem:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0417148/