I had no idea what to expect from this one when I pulled it from my stack of discs. I was expecting some sort of lame, low-budget early '80s slasher-film based on the title...what I got instead was a solid, mid-'70s bikers-versus-rednecks semi-exploit/action film instead. I'm glad my initial suspicions were wrong.
A group of rowdy but otherwise relatively non-threatening bikers called the Scorpions is harassed by the local pigs when they roll through a small redneck town. A local girl is raped by one of the town's deputies-and in order to shift the blame away from himself-of course blames the bikers. The cop/rapist goes so far as to stir up some of the other yokels, including the girl's father, to take revenge on the bikers in such a way as to make it look like the work of a rival club called the Road Agents. Before going to war with the Agents-the Scorpion's President decides to call a meeting with them first. It's quickly determined that the Agents weren't the culprits in the murder of the Scorpion's fallen brothers, when an unseen sniper starts taking shots at both club's members during the meeting. After stocking up from the local arms-dealer, the Scorpions eventually find out who was really behind the rape of the girl and murder of their boys when the real bad- guys shows up at their brother's funeral...and it's all-out-f!ckin-war...
NORTHVILLE CEMETERY MASSACRE is a great film. Despite the obvious low-budget, everything about this one works. The storyline is simple but effective, there's the right mix of build-up and payoff, the acting is actually pretty solid all around, and the ending is absolutely classic. To compare it to a more well-known film, this one reminded me a lot of FIRST BLOOD (though NORTHVILLE pre-dated that film by several years...) with it's similar concepts of the prejudicial treatment of people thought to be 'unsavory' by those who are supposedly 'respected'- and of pushing someone into a corner until they have no choice but to strike back. Solid and universal themes that if handled properly will always make for good film-making. As for other content-there's a decent amount of bloody violence to satisfy the action-lovers, and the rape victim is a natural, girl-next-door, absolute beauty and you get to see her tits...something that I'll never complain about in a film. Though there's nothing overtly sleazy about NORTHVILLE...(the rape is implied as opposed to being shown)-I would still classify this one in the exploit genre and would highly recommend it to that audience, as well as biker-film fans, or anyone that enjoys '70s-styled action-films. Definitely recommended. 8.5/10
A group of rowdy but otherwise relatively non-threatening bikers called the Scorpions is harassed by the local pigs when they roll through a small redneck town. A local girl is raped by one of the town's deputies-and in order to shift the blame away from himself-of course blames the bikers. The cop/rapist goes so far as to stir up some of the other yokels, including the girl's father, to take revenge on the bikers in such a way as to make it look like the work of a rival club called the Road Agents. Before going to war with the Agents-the Scorpion's President decides to call a meeting with them first. It's quickly determined that the Agents weren't the culprits in the murder of the Scorpion's fallen brothers, when an unseen sniper starts taking shots at both club's members during the meeting. After stocking up from the local arms-dealer, the Scorpions eventually find out who was really behind the rape of the girl and murder of their boys when the real bad- guys shows up at their brother's funeral...and it's all-out-f!ckin-war...
NORTHVILLE CEMETERY MASSACRE is a great film. Despite the obvious low-budget, everything about this one works. The storyline is simple but effective, there's the right mix of build-up and payoff, the acting is actually pretty solid all around, and the ending is absolutely classic. To compare it to a more well-known film, this one reminded me a lot of FIRST BLOOD (though NORTHVILLE pre-dated that film by several years...) with it's similar concepts of the prejudicial treatment of people thought to be 'unsavory' by those who are supposedly 'respected'- and of pushing someone into a corner until they have no choice but to strike back. Solid and universal themes that if handled properly will always make for good film-making. As for other content-there's a decent amount of bloody violence to satisfy the action-lovers, and the rape victim is a natural, girl-next-door, absolute beauty and you get to see her tits...something that I'll never complain about in a film. Though there's nothing overtly sleazy about NORTHVILLE...(the rape is implied as opposed to being shown)-I would still classify this one in the exploit genre and would highly recommend it to that audience, as well as biker-film fans, or anyone that enjoys '70s-styled action-films. Definitely recommended. 8.5/10