by Victoria Silverwolf
I've spoken before about my inexplicable interest in cheap, trashy movies about motorcycle gangs. Two more films in this genre arrived this month. Hop on the back of my chopper and let's take a ride into the wild world of weirdos on wheels.
The opening credits are odd. The image is reduced to a tiny part of the screen, surrounded by black.
So is it The Sidehackers or The Side Hackers?
My sources in the movie biz tell me that this thing was originally called Five the Hard Way, which is also the name of the song we hear during the credits. My guess is that they had to chop up the opening to squeeze in the new title.
Anyway, we soon meet a pair of young lovers as they frolic in the woods and fields. Boy pushing girl in a swing, both of them running through flowers in slow motion, etc. Corny stuff.
Diane McBain as Rita. She was in The Mini-skirt Mob, too.
Ross Hagen as Rommell. He was in The Hellcats AND The Mini-Skirt Mob!
We meet Rommell's married buddy, who tells him all about the wonders of matrimonial bliss. This romantic domestic drama is interrupted by the arrival of a guy who makes a living by performing stunts on a motorcycle. (We never actually see this.) He's accompanied by his girlfriend and his gang.
Claire Polan as Paisley and Michael Pataki as J. C.
Fans of Star Trek may recognize Pataki. (Hint: It should be hauled away AS garbage!)
Then we get some sidehacking. Oh, you don't what that is? Well, it's a sort of motorcycle racing in which a guy is hanging off the side of the bike on something like an open metal cage. Don't worry, this has nothing at all to do with the plot, and we'll never see it again.
Sidehacking!
The plot gets going when the sadistic J. C. beats up Paisley, who then tries to seduce Rommell. He's a one-woman kind of guy, so he rebuffs her. In retaliation, she tears her clothes and tells J. C. that Rommell attacked her.
This sudden change in mood from romance and racing to violence is jarring. Believe me, it gets worse.
J. C. and his goons beat Rommell savagely. Much more shocking, they rape and kill Rita. After some time goes by, Rommell assembles a crew and sets out for revenge. Don't expect a happy ending.
Fans of action movies will be disappointed by how the film slows down to a crawl until we get to the final battle. Pataki chews the scenery as the psychotic J. C., and everybody else is pretty bland. (One of Rommell's army — that's probably why he's named for an infamous Nazi general, even though he's supposed to be, more or less, the good guy — is named Crapout. He's our wildly inappropriate comedy relief, has a thick Southern accent, and is really annoying.)
One star for an odd combination of boredom and nastiness. Cut out the most disturbing scenes and you might have something worth mocking with some buddies.
This one jumps right into the vile stuff. Before the opening credits, a motorcycle gang comes across a man and woman. They rape the woman, then kill both of them. This is just a hint of what's to follow.
The opening credits feature some interesting abstract animation, and may be the best thing in the film.
A married couple picks up a hitchhiker in the middle of nowhere. He just got out of the Marine Corps after serving in Vietnam. They wind up at a little restaurant/gas station in the desert.
From left to right, the waitress who is our heroine; the ex-Marine who is our hero; and the married couple. Not shown is the owner of the place.
The motorcycle gang shows up and immediately starts making trouble. The leader is a guy named Anchor. His girlfriend (whom he abuses as much as J. C. did Paisley) is Gina.
The other hoodlums each have some kind of gimmick. One wears a hearing aid, one takes LSD all the time, one has only one eye, one is big and strong, and one is an Indian. (The last is nicknamed Firewater, and is probably the least evil of the gang. Naturally, he's played by a non-Indian, John "Bud" Cardos, a pretty well-known stuntman of Greek ancestry.)
Russ Tamblyn as Anchor. You may remember him from lots of movies, such as West Side Story and The Haunting.
[Are you sure that's not Arte Johnson? He looks 'very interesting'. (Ed.)]
Regina Carrol as Gina. She's married to Al Adamson, the director. He also recently gave us Blood of Dracula's Castle.
The gang takes everybody prisoner. All but two of them haul the married couple and the guy who owns the diner outside. They rape the woman then kill all three of them.
Inside the place, the ex-Marine manages to overpower the two gang members left to guard them, killing both. He and the waitress escape via dune buggy, but the vehicle soon breaks down. It all leads up to a battle in the desert.
(As if this weren't horrible enough, the big chase scene is interrupted when the gang finds three young women on a geology field trip. Of course, they torment, rape, and kill them. This is when Firewater objects to the murders, proving that he's still got a tiny bit of decency hidden deep inside. His disagreement with Anchor leads to a big fight scene, made more effective by the experience of stuntman Cardos.)
Boy, this is nasty stuff. It definitely delivers all the shocks it promises, unlike the occasionally tepid The Sidehackers. It's a lot more coherent than Blood of Dracula's Castle, or Blood of Ghastly Horror, another offering from Al Adamson. For those reasons, I have to give it two stars.
After this double feature, it's time to take a long, hot shower. Let's hope future motorcycle movies won't be quite so slimy.
Coming soon! As the poster indicates, it's already been shown at the famous Cannes film festival. Let's hope it's better than these two films.
