WEREWOLVES ON WHEELS (1971)

DIRECTED by Michael Levesque

SCREENPLAY by Michael Levesque & David M. Kaufman

STARRING  -  Steven Oliver as Adam,  Donna Anders as Helen,  Deuce Barry as Tarot,  Severn Dardan as One.

PLOT  -  "The Devil's Advocates" are an outlaw motorcycle gang, currently they are on a run through the Californian desert lands. Thier leader - Adam - takes them on a drug fueled rampage, beating or humiliating all the "squares" they encounter.

At a roadside diner, Adam's girlfriend -  Helen asks gang member  - Tarot - to give her a Tarot card reading as she wishes to find out how she's going to die. Tarot (a self styled shaman) reads the cards and tells her that she will die due to a tower, before Adam interrupts him and the reading ends.

The gang hit the road again and soon find themselves lost, they find arrive at a tower shaped monastery inhabited by a group of monks. The bikers drunkenly hail the monks who respond by giving them food and wine, which the gang greedily consume.

However,  all is not as it seems. The food is drugged - the gang fall into a heavy stupor. These monks are not Godly men, instead they are a Satanic cult led by the man known only as One, and they are looking for thier new Devil Queen. They nominate Helen, and induct her into thier cult in a mystical ceremony. The gang comes round and realising Helen is missing they run into the tower and witness the ceremony. They rescue Helen, viciously beat up the Satanists and leave.

The gang continues its road trip. The next night, whilst bedding down in the desert, Adam and Helen have sex, during which Helen suddenly turns into a Werewolf, she bites Adam, in turn passing the Lycanthropic curse onto him.

After this, every night Adam and Helen transform into Werewolves. One by one - "The Devil's Advocates" are slowly picked off.  Only Tarot has an inkling of what is going on, but his fellow gang members are unwilling to believe him, can he convince the gang of his suspicions or will they all fall victim to the deadly, supernatural predators of the night...

DIALOUGE  - Adam - "We all know how we're gonna die, Baby...we're gonna crash and burn !"

PERFORMANCES  -  As with many biker movies from the 60s/70's, many of the gang members are played by genuine, real life bikers. I think only the principle characters were portrayed by actual actors, therefore many of the performances are extremely naturalistic. In this instance it isn't a bad thing, as the movie is well directed enough for this to seem right somehow. The naturalism gives this film a sense of realism despite the obviously unrealistic plot.

Of the main performers Stephen Oliver and Deuce Barry as Adam and Tarot are particularly good - Oliver looks very at home being the President of a group of bikers, he completely looks the part, once more adding a sheen of authenticity to the proceedings. Barry, on the otherhand lends Tarot a cool, enigmatic presence - you want to find out more about this character and his unique worldview, he's also the most likable character in the film and you do find yourself rooting for him to help sort out the mess the gang have gotten themselves into.

 There is also an interesting relationship between Adam and Tarot - starting out as a firm friendship with a hint of friendly rivalry between the two, this is eventually soured as Adam falls further under the influence of the curse that is afflicting him and the friendship eventually turns bitter and spirals into violence.

Severn Dardan as One, also gives a memorable performance, he's not in the film much - only during the Satanic ritual scene and once again at the very end of the film. This brevity of screen time is not a problem though as he looms like a shadow over the rest of the films story, his mad, cold, staring eyes almost seem to be watching the events that unfold from afar.

SFX -  There's some standard gore effects when the Werewolves go chomping on the bikers. The Werewolves themselves are of a pretty standard Lon Chaney-esque "Wolfman" design. Not particularly original in thier execution but they work nicely enough.

The only problem is that, being Werewolves they only come out at night. This wouldn't be a problem usually, but this being a B-movie, the films night-time scenes have very little lighting - obviously most of the budget went on the Werewolf makeup leaving them strapped for cash for adequate lighting rigs. As a result, its sometimes difficult to see very well what's happening onscreen. This is a shame as otherwise the film is very well shot and it would be nice to get a better glimpse of the titular monsters. Seems a bit self defeating going to all that trouble to do a good job on the Monsters only for us then to not be able to see them properly. 

SEX & VIOLENCE  - Some suggestive dancing from Helen during the Satanic ritual and some nice, brief but gory Werewolf slashing and maimings during the Werewolf attack scenes.

RATING - Despite a few flaws - the aforementioned lack of visibility at night being the main one - this is a very effective and fun horror/biker crossover movie. It's nicely directed with lots of effective shots of the lonely desert landscapes.  It's a movie with a real sense of place - as the central characters retreat further away from civilisation you really get a sense of the wide open spaces closing in upon them, leaving them vulnerable to attack.

The ritual scenes are very well done too - shot in a "trippy" visual style with lots of quick cutting and editing. The soundtrack too is excellent, consisting of psychedelic 70's rock and blues - it's very of it's time and is a good fit for the overall mood of the film.

One amusing thing is that the film really doesn't live up to its title - sure its got Werewolves and its got wheels, but the Werewolves aren't actually "ON" wheels for very much of the film (unless, of course you count the scenes when they're riding thier bikes in human form, which is not exactly what the movie poster promises). In fact, only one Werewolf actually rides a motorbike and that's only for about one minute before he crashes. Still, I don't suppose "A Werewolf Tries To Ride A Motorcycle And Falls Off" would have quite the same ring to it as "Werewolves on Wheels" would it.

I really like this film despite its faults, It tries hard to be something better than it has any right to be and just about pulls it off against the odds. I'm giving it 3 and a half lycanthropic one percenters out of 5.