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Werewolves on Wheels (1971)

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9 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Hairy men on bikes but not hairy enough, 16 June 2003
Author: Dr. Gore (drgore@hotmail.com) from Los Angeles, California

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*

I didn't have strong hopes for this one when I rented it. I was expecting a gang of werewolves to be riding their motorcycles at night while howling at the moon. That's reasonable right? Not too demanding? The title is "Werewolves on Wheels". I saw hairy guys driving motorcycles but they needed a lot more body fur to be considered werewolves.

This flick is a hybrid of two genres: Motorcycle Gang and Werewolf. Since this relic is from the early 70's, the motorcycle genre dominates in this mutant mix. Watching bikers brawl, curse and drink booze doesn't do it for me. That is the main appeal (?) of this movie and the werewolf angle is a gimmick that is hardly exploited. The gang does not become werewolves. One person gets cursed and the bikers drive around oblivious to it all. I love werewolf flicks so I had to check this one out. So now I've seen it and can say with a clear conscience that it's a stinker. If you like biker flicks, you might dig it daddy-o.

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7 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Bikers, satanists, werewolves, a little trippy, hey it's 1971!, 17 June 2005

Author: CryFi from Lansingburgh, New York, USA

A biker gang, The Devil's Advocates, is driving desert roads, perhaps a little lost. At a resting spot, some hooded monks serve them wine and bread, and they pass out. The monks have some sort of satanic ritual with the girlfriend of the gang's leader, who they call the bride of Satan. She winds up dancing on a table nude, when the bikers come to, grabbing her, and beating up the monks.

They hit the road again, but something's wrong. Whenever they stop, some of their members die, apparently killed by wild beasts.

At one point, the movie almost seems like a parody of a classic Universal monster movie, when a wolfman is riding on a motorcycle (!) being chased by bikers on their motorcycles who are wielding torches. What, no pitchforks?

I saw this on an old videotape, full-frame. If it was shot in widescreen, I'm sure it looks better that way, what with the desert locations. Still, the visuals are pretty nice at times, as when the bikers disappear in a cloud of smoke and the camera quickly pulls back from a truck. There's also a neat old gas station, with old-fashioned glass-topped pumps that actually need to be *pumped* with a lever.

The instrumental guitar songs on the soundtrack are enjoyable. A real fuzzed-out rock sound.

To the extent that it's not all that good, hey at least it's not that long either. The ending is weird, but maybe it's supposed to be a little trippy, man!

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7 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
I liked it, sue me, 21 December 2003
Author: Gafke from United States

This was a cool, funky little film, kind of an attempt to mix Easy Rider with any werewolf film. The Devils Advocates are a dirty, sleazy, nasty biker gang who live on the road, stopping only to sleep, drink and screw. When they stop one night at the foot of a Satanic Temple, and are offered food and drink by the monks, their life on the road gets a little weirder.

No, sadly, you really don't get to see hairy werewolves howling maniacally as they drive down dark highways illuminated by the full moon. What you do get is an attempt at artiness, as scenes are intercut with shots of black birds wheeling through the still air, a drugged girl dances naked before a fire as deranged monks deliver a spooky chant and a tarot reader displays talents more accurate than many I've seen in the movies. There's some absolutely hysterical additional dialogue and parts of the film almost have a documentary type feel to it. No, it's not the worlds most flawless film by any means, but it's better than a lot of the crap that was coming out around the same time. It has a realistic grittiness to it, yet at the same time possesses an ethereal atmosphere. It was just funky enough to impress me.

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
extremely entertaining exploitation fun, 3 June 2001
Author: Matt Moses from Brooklyn, NY

While shaky in premise, Werewolves on Wheels contains all the absurdity, excess and self-awareness necessary to maintain interest. The plot roams all over the place, the actors mumble a lot of their lines and the ending is distinctly dissatisfying - but nevertheless it's well worth 85 minutes of your time. A rowdy gang of bikers who call themselves the Devil's Advocates shows up at a gas station in the middle of the desert to terrorizes the attendant, then proceeds to stumble upon a monastery while partying in a nearby forest. The ominous monks share suspect bread and wine, greedily indulged upon by the rowdy gang. When they're too drunk to notice, head monk `One,' an interesting role for the usually funny Severn Darden, plucks a hair from one of their heads and places it in a bat buckle. He then prays to Satan and kills a cat. The fun begins at this point, and biker lady D. J. Anderson materializes for some sort of dark ritual. When the bikers realize she's gone missing, they seek out the monks and beat the living pulp out of them. The bikers think little of the events that have transpired, but the following night at the campfire Anderson seems to suck head biker Stephen Oliver's blood, and a mock Satanic dance culminates in the grisly deaths of two members of the gang. After terrorizing another gas station they roam around the desert pretending to make a movie, creating a distinctly self-reflective mood. Nonsense-preaching Duece Berry (whose character is named `Tarot') tries to warn Oliver that something's in the air but he'll have none of his buddy's mystic mumbo-jumbo. They burn a pile of old cars and Anderson sees foreboding signs in the flames. Much of the same insanity carries the film right up to its vague conclusion. Writer-director Michael Levesque, who worked on a couple of Russ Meyer films, is a decent enough filmmaker and the camera work and editing and enjoyable, but the film suffers from over-abuse of the zoom. At least three cast members also appeared in The Last Movie, also made in 1971, and folk singer Barry McGuire appears as a member of the bike gang. Most of the rest of the cast are stunt performers, including a number of the leads. Don Gere provides an excellent psychedelic soundtrack, by far the best of any biker movie I've seen. The unusually diverse cast and enthusiastic amateur creative spirit create an atmosphere more exciting than the majority of contemporary genre filmmaking. What it all comes down to is that this a movie for people who like to drink in the morning, like myself.

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6 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
How do I give a movie negative stars?, 3 April 2006

Author: pyromaniacl from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

***MAJOR SPOILER ALERT WE REVEAL EVERYTHING(but it's not much)***

Instead of watching this film, our time could have been better spent consuming rusty nails/tacks/other sharp objects. Note that we called this a film, not a movie. We refuse to dub a film such as this a 'movie' as it hardly achieves mediocrity. Furthermore, it seldom goes beyond being a documentary of ne'er do wells who drive often on straight desert highways.

Let's take a rundown of the title, shall we? Now, from the title alone, you would expect this movie to contain at least three things:

1) Werewolves 2) Wheels of some nature 3) Werewolves atop said wheels (emphasis on plurality)

Before we start, let us remind you that this film is only 79 minutes long. To be fair, that's not much time to work with. However, we assumed the creators of this film would deliver the contents of the title in the time given. Like a child living below the poverty line on Christmas morning we were to have our hopes dashed upon the cruel, unforgiving rocks of reality.

Until the last four and a half minutes of this film the only item presented from the three listed above was #2 (wheels). Prepare yourself to witness a great deal of #2 in this film. During the final scene of this exercise in visual vomit a single werewolf was portrayed atop said wheels, though only for a minute and a half at best. This was hardly enough lycan-on-motorbike action to justify the title of the film. Whether through editing mishap or fateful miscount on the part of the director, we came to realize that what we thought had been prophecy fulfilled was actually hoax, as this was the ONLY werewolf on wheels throughout the entire endeavor. In light of this discovery, the film should be aptly titled: "Ugly Drunk People Who Seldom Bathe Riding Motorcycles Indefinitely...With a 10% Chance of Late Afternoon Werewolf." Calling this film 'Werewolves on Wheels' we be akin to titling Star Wars Episode IV, "Boys Moisture Farming."

To be fair we purchased this DVD expecting a bad film. It was our hope to give an obviously little-known film the light of day, and at the same time, fulfill our inner need for comedy at others' creations. We say all this not due to some vendetta against this films creators or participants, but rather as harsh warning to others. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES ATTEMPT TO VIEW THIS FILM! It should be noted that having only bought the DVD the day before from a retail discount section we discarded the DVD into the nearest waste receptacle we could find.

Good night and good luck.

This scathing review brought to you by CTSAMW and Co.

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
A cheesy 70's delight, 22 February 2004
Author: TheatreX from Louisville, KY

Hey, Guess what? Werewolves on Wheels has just now been released by Dark Sky films on DVD and the transfer is great. I bet when DVD was invented the thought was that wonderful classic films would be released in all their glory and folks could "ooh" and "ahh" at the magic of DVD, but of course SOMEONE has to release Drive-In Trash films too....I liked this film more for the feel of it than the fact that it was an awesome film, but 70's horror flicks are my favorite so that accounts for some of why I liked it, I reckon. The Devil's Advocates are a biker gang that stops off at a Satanic temple for a little bite to eat and some wine, all served up by mysterious monks in black. Bad things happen after that. Bad special effects, mostly. I thought one had to be BITTEN by a werewolf to become a werewolf but apparently not in THIS movie. Anyway, the atmosphere of paranoia out in the desert, in the middle of absolutely nowhere, was appealing to me, as one by one, the bikers are stalked and killed by...SOMETHING. When the werewolf is finally revealed, it also reveals that at that point in time that werewolf special-effects had not advanced too much from the movies of the 40's and 50's, but what the heck. An enjoyable piece of 70's biker/horror trash.

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4 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Werewolves on Wheels...A Howling Good Time!, 30 December 2004

Author: angelsunchained from United States

A wild & crazed biker gang gets changed into werewolves by black hooded monks in a creepy castle! Where's Boris Karloff when you need him?

Cheesy,campy, dumb and dumber, yet this early 70s flick is a "masterpiece" of howling fun. Child-star Billy Gray looks and acts like a "real" biker. "Cult" legend Severn Darden steals the show by giving a frightening performance as a warlock named "One"! YIKES! The opening scene as the motorcycle gangs cruises down a lonely desert highway almost equals the impressive opening scene of the 1967 classic, Hell's Angels On Wheels.

If you like bikes, chicks, werewolves, and monks all rolled up in one, you will love this movie, it's a howling delight!

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Actually, its better than any werewolf-biker movie has any right to be, 10 May 2008

Author: TimothyFarrell from Worcester, MA

"Werewolves on Wheels" is a goofy and bizarre little horror oddity about, well, werewolves on wheels. Its probably the finest werewolf-biker film ever made (admittedly a limited subgenre), and is one of the oddest genre crossovers from a decade full of them. To be honest, its much better than it has any right to be. Sure, its complete exploitation trash, but there are a few effective moments and the whole film has a very nice atmosphere. Its also well paced, saving most of the werewolf attacks for the end. Plus, if you're into weird films, well, this one definitely has that factor down. Its even more out there than I expected it to be (the filmmakers go for a dreamlike style, unsuccessfully it should be noted, but still unexpected). Some of the cinematography is decent as well.

Still, for exploitation fans looking for cheap thrills, this more than satisfies. There's plenty of pointless nudity and some amusing moments of gory violence. The satanic rituals are the real selling point, featuring as scene-stealing performance by Severn Darden (a familiar face character actor whose been on seemingly hundreds of TV shows) as the satanic priest. Darden rants and raves about the glories of Lucifer in the most seemingly acid-induced style possible. "Werewolves on Wheels" isn't a great film or even a cult classic, but its definitely an enjoyable film for drive-in movie fans. Its never boring, which is the worst sin a movie can commit. (6/10)

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Decent entry, if not overtly spectacular, 16 April 2008

Author: frid2k4 (frid2k4@yahoo.com) from Los Angeles, Ca

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

"Werewolves on Wheels" is a decent if unspectacular werewolf entry.

**SPOILERS**

Traveling through the country, Adam, (Steve Oliver) Helen, (D.J. Anderson) Scarf, (Barry McGuire) Pill, (Billy Grey) Tarot, (Gene Shane) Shirley, (Anna Lynn Brown) and Mouse, (Owen Orr) members of a biker gang, stop off at a small town to take a break from the road. Told of a nearby church, they decide to investigate and find a small cult of hooded monks who reside at the church engaged in a secret ceremony. Initially respectful, they soon realize that by stepping foot on the church's grounds invokes an ancient Satanic spell that turns them all into ravenous werewolves. When they realize the trick and their numbers start dwindling, they set about to right the wrongs before they take a turn for the worse and turn on each other.

The Good News: This one here doesn't have a whole lot right, but there is a couple good moments. One of the good parts is that there's some really good parts to come from the ceremonial ritual that occurs in here. There's some really nice creepy moments in here from the fact that the whole ceremony takes place under a darkened room, with some great setting done in the underground cavern and with the different rituals that go on, from the nude snake-dancing to the hooded monks and everything that occurs during it, there's a lot to like about that scene. The fist-fight that breaks it up afterward is a little fun and provides some action to it. A later attack on the group out in the countryside is pretty good, as it's got more nudity, some drunken fun to be had before it happens, and there's a really nice gore effect where the creature rips the victim's throat out to a healthy blood gush. The last thing that works here is the fire-packed finale, since there's also a full-on fight against a werewolf, torching and more going on to make it entertaining and end on a high note. These here are the film's good parts.

The Bad News: This here did have a few flaws to it that keep it down. One of them is that there's a lot of time in here where nothing much happens. This one has a couple long stretches where nothing at all happens other than the antics of the gang, and these are really dull and uninteresting to sit through. The beginning is fine, since it's to build up to the main point, but then there's the interminably long period after the attack at the church where they're lounging around talking about whatever or are riding through the desert. That severely reduces the amount of action possible in the film and makes the film's later half seem a little dull. That also has the effect of having the film use very little action for the majority of it's time, and it really doesn't feel like a horror film at times. That has a very damaging effect on the film, as it makes it hard to feel scared or terrified of what's going on, and that reduces the effectiveness of it quite badly. The short run time doesn't help matters, as it's so unevenly paced it feels much longer due to all the boredom that occurs, and it really needed more to make it feel more entertaining. These here are the film's flaws.

The Final Verdict: A cheesy, but still somewhat enjoyable film with some good parts to it and a couple flaws, this one here is really hard to recommend to. Fans of the genre, those who find it interesting or enjoy these kinds of 70s fare will find something to like, but those who prefer otherwise should heed caution.

Today's Rating-R: Full Nudity, Graphic Violence and Language

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Hairy Easy Rider, 29 February 2008
Author: MichaelElliott1 from Louisville, KY

Werewolves on Wheels (1971)

** (out of 4)

Mildly entertaining Drive-In film is a cross between The Wolf Man and Easy Rider. A biker gang pisses off some monks who in return put a curse on the bikers. At night the beer and boobs flow but so does the blood when they start turning into werewolves. This film kept me mildly entertained throughout but thankfully it ran just over 75 minutes. The biggest problem is that not too much happens and I wish the director would have gone for a few more laughs. The opening sequence rips off the ending to ER.

Makes a good double feature with Werewolf of Woodstock.

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