werewolves on wheels. should have been called satan's biker bride

In this week's cinema class we saw Werewolves on Wheels (trailer above), an strange bit of celluloid that attempts to bridge the gap between two very different genres -- horror and biker films.

Actually, WoW has a lot going for it, though I should acknowledge that I don't think I've ever actually seen a biker film before. Because of that, it's hard to judge the biker aspect of this and its place in that pantheon. And that can render anything I say here suspect, since the biker angle is definitely the dominant one here. Having given that caveat, I will say that I really gotta see some more biker films -- I just loved that part of it. The opening sequence (see below) is just dripping with testosterone, and it just goes on from there.

Another thing that's great about this movie is the soundtrack. I kept feeling like I was listening to a Johnny Mayall concert. The music in the opening sequence above is typical.

(Spoiler Alert -- but, seriously, are you really planning to watch this movie?)  But the horror aspect of the movie was kind of muddled. Essentially, a biker gang trespasses on a satanist cult's property, so the satanists drug them and turn their leader's girlfriend into a werewolf. She, of course, infects her boyfriend. And hilarity ensues. The thing is, the way it's handled the horror storyline is a weird amalgam of satanism, voodoo and werewolf. And of the three, the werewolf is the least necessary part -- though I will admit that the visual of a flaming werewolf riding a motorcycle is priceless. At any rate, the werewolves are underutilized to such an extent that you could say that the title is an example of false advertising. In class we agreed that Satan's Biker Bride would have been a more apt title.

And, while we're on the subject of plot, I should note that the plot here is kind of weak. For a lot of the film, this is disguised by long sequences of the bikers riding, and of weird LSD-inspired visuals. But then you get to the ending, and it's like...is that all there is? I'm watching the movie. And watching. And I'm digging it, even though I'm aware that the plot is weak. But then it's building to a climax. And I'm thinking this is it. Here comes the payoff. I can't wait to see how it winds up. And then it just ends in a weird anticlimactic jumble.

I have to wonder if part of the weak plot had to do with budgetary concerns. I do get the impression that they wanted to do more with this than they did. Early on, there were a couple of lines that I was sure were meant to foreshadow later events. Some of them paid off. But others didn't. I  was looking forward to seeing one of the female leads (I forget her name) get struck by lightning on top of the satanists' church. Also, there were a whole bunch of hints at a gay relationship between two of the bikers, but that aspect was never really explored satisfactorilly. Do biker movies from the early 1970s typically have scenes of male homosexuality? I would think not, though (as I admitted above) I am not really familiar with the genre.

I'm kind of hoping that Keith finds a way to do a month of biker flicks.