User Reviews

An evil biker gang falls out with a bunch of devil-worshipping monks. This film really doesn't deserve a more detailed synopsis than that, and it's certainly not getting one from me.

There is a lot of praise for this film on IMDb, so let's consider the good points. The cinematography in this biker/werewolf movie isn't bad (the night scenes, of which there are many, are well lit), there are some decent songs on the soundtrack, and a young lady prances around attractively topless for a couple of minutes. I was 19 in 1971, when this was made, and that last element would have been a major selling point at that moment in history. I still regard it as a plus, but it doesn't count for as much as it once did in a film, if I'm honest.

On the negative side, we have a negligible and very familiar story, a poor script, bad acting, and an interminable (and very boring, notwithstanding the jiggling boobies) black magic ritual.

So, sorry to be a dissenting voice, but this is actually a load of old rubbish, decently filmed.

If you are in the mood to watch a bunch of bikers riding around and getting up to all kind of antics, this might be your cup of tea. If you are looking for a horror movie, you'll be sadly disappointed.

I think this could have been an interesting movie if it had been better done. It is a novel concept and could have gone in some unique directions. I'd love to see a remake that focused on the horror aspect. The title implies that you have biker werewolves but the monster part of the movie seems like it was put in as an aside. There is very little horror in this film and it is more implied than seen. Again, this film is more about a stereotypical biker lifestyle than a horror movie. That being said, I was quite surprised by a lot of the seemingly homoerotic scenes in the film (lots of guys holding on to one another and rolling around). I did find myself incredibly bored by the whole thing and it took me a couple of days to get through it. Watching bikers ride and act out doesn't float my boat. You don't see an actual werewolf until the movie has played over an hour and that is in the dark. And these bad bikers, who have terrorized everyone they've come in contact with run like a bunch of pansies.

The ending was quite convoluted and make little sense which didn't help my overall opinion of the movie.

The best parts of the movie were the soundtrack and the monk ritual. However, I don't understand how a satanic ritual resulted in someone becoming a werewolf. That was a new one.

If you are a biker or a fan of the biker exploitation genre, it MIGHT be worth a watch. But then again, maybe not. If you are looking for horror, look elsewhere.

This film is about the 'Devil's Advocates', a 1970s biker gang that is evil. They are so evil that at some dopey satanic ritual, one of them gives their soul to Mr. Evil and as a consequence, she is turned into a werewolf!(???).

I enjoy watching bad films. I am not talking about boring bad films, but ineptly made and laughably bad films. You know, like the films of Ed Wood, Al Adamson, Larry Buchanan and William Grefe (just to name a few). These films all have the common thread of being so cheaply made that they are good for a laugh--particularly if you watch them with friends. Because of this, I assumed that a cheap film called "Werewolves on Wheels" would be exactly the sort of biker film for me! However, it turned out to be simply bad--unwatchable and unbelievably dull. Aside from when a few nude scenes sprinkled here and there occurred, I had to struggle to stay awake seeing this turkey. In fact, it might just be the perfect cure for insomnia! The film's biggest problem is the pacing. All too often, the film just seems to go on and on and on--like the director had never heard of editing. Too often, the gang members just blathered and drank with no particularly goal in mind other than to just fill up the screen with SOMETHING. In fact, it appears that there really was no script or dialog written for much of the film--they just improvised and every improvisation apparently went into the movie. A great example is the beginning of the film where absolutely nothing of interest happened for the first 15-20 minutes!! There was a bit of gang violence, but it wasn't particularly violent. Much of this time the gang just laid around belching and laughing.

The next big problem is I wanted to see lots of bikers with wolf-man makeup riding their choppers. Sadly, this isn't the case. You don't even get to see any werewolves until the end of the film. The only other attack before this is done in silhouette (cop-out) and there is no transformation scene at all--just two measly people wearing what appear to be werewolf masks bought from a local store---good ones, but still, just masks. Plus, to make matters worse, the werewolves are amazingly easy to kill--you just light them on fire and watch 'em burn!

Overall, the movie is brain-numbingly dull throughout and even the werewolf scenes are dull--offering no respite for the audience. And, speaking of no respite, while the theme music initially seemed pretty cool, it was repeated so often that I was looking for some relief from this droning and annoying music! An awful and stupid film.

If you want to see a bad but fun biker film, I suggest you try "Born Losers", "Satan's Sadists" or "She-Devils on Wheels". All these films are silly but lovable bad films---whereas "Werewolves on Wheels" simply sucks.

***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.

Werewolves on Wheels

Werewolves on Wheels is that rarest of birds - an exploitation film which works also as a brilliant example of the much-maligned genre of art-horror. Boasting a bright screenplay, incredible cinematography and astute montage, WoW manages to deliver on the promise of the tawdry title, but offers so much more to the astute viewer. Firstly, WoW is, like other biker films before it (Easy Rider and Devils Angels come to mind), less a melodrama, and more a sublime meditation on a culture, on the role of the outlaw in society, the fatal downside of blind materialism, and the tenuous relationship between communities in upheaval. With grungy characters drawn from real life, and some stunning Western vistas, WoW presents a virtually neo-realist portrayal of biker culture at the tail end of a most tumultuous decade. But even more than this, the introduction of the supernatural elements, the evil monks and their malefic bride, are filmed so artily that this works as a high-concept, quasi-serious treatise on the role of alternative religion in decimating traditionalist theological concepts in modern America. The ease with which the monks control and conquer the hapless bikers is stunning, and depicts a most sobering truth - the spiritually unawakened are easy prey for the dark forces of conquest, no matter how tough they may appear to their peers. Really, the screenplay is at times quite brilliant, and is brought to life in a largely successful way - even the everyday banter between the gang members seems an eerie cross between ultra-realistic and highly lyrical, and lends a curiously poetic air to the gang's accruing curses. Also noteworthy are several extremely visceral scenes which use the thrilling cinema verite camera style of the day to good effect, and you as the audience feel like you are really in there with them. If WoW falters at all, it is in the decision of the director to let certain actors "ham it up" a bit too much, a frequent and forgivable error in low-budget productions such as this. Thus, we have Severn Darden noisily chewing the scenery as the leader of the cult, and a character called "Movie," bringing the movie down with his terrible impressions of movie stars. But these are small flaws, and there are so many memorable and vivid moments to compensate. One of my favorites occurs when the aforementioned guy named "Movie" goes missing, and his pals call out for him in the grim dusk of a desert night; the purely cinematic moment when folks plaintively yell for "Movie! Movie!" over desolate scenes of the silent desert is a self-reflexive sketch one would expect to find in a high-concept art-film, not a lowly drive-in picture. Not to put too fine a point on it, but in this remarkably existential scene, the movie appears to be... searching for itself, a meta-textual conceit worthy of Ingmar Bergman. And the grim, bloody finale, well worth waiting for, is better than about ten other 70s horror finales of the time, the despairing ending almost too good to be true, reinforcing the tired but serviceable exploitation theme that the biker gangs are consciously courting Thanatos, the God of Death, with their every waking breath, and they will inevitably get their just reward. I must confess that when I first saw WoW at the drive-in in the early 70s, I thought it stunk; obviously, I was not paying attention back then. Seeing it fresh just recently, it was shocking how damn beautiful and intelligent the film looks today, a real sleeper from the very start of cinema's greatest decade. Perhaps many of these 60s/70s exploitation films work on more levels that originally perceived, and it is the audience that has to grow up in order to really appreciate them? Or is it that today's indie cinema - with a few notable exceptions - is so tired and artless and predictable that sincere vintage exploitation romps like Werewolves on Wheels look like the pinnacle of perfection?

*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.

I caught up with this corker recently, when I picked it up on a well-known Internet site for $5.00. On DVD, enhanced for widescreen TVs. Made by people who probably never expected it to show up on TV anytime, anywhere.

WEREWOLVES …opens with a bunch of bikers riding into a gas station in the Far West and terrorizing the locals, or as many locals as the budget could afford. The gang is one of the goofiest ever committed to celluloid; even at their most depraved, they're about as scary as the motorcycle morons in EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE.

It should come as no surprise, then, when these geniuses: A) stop off at an isolated "monastery" that sports an evil-looking symbol over the entrance and B) chow down on bread and wine offered by strangers-- scary-looking hooded creeps led by weird-movie icon Severn Darden and C) can't figure out what's going on when, time after time, they camp out for the night and lose several of their number to "wild beasts…."

As veteran exploitation fans should expect, there are more Wheels than Werewolves here; the lycanthropes appear briefly, and the photography is so dark it's hard to see them anyway. However, there is some gratuitous nudity courtesy of a fairly attractive biker-babe, not to mention brief but splashy gore scenes. This includes some ahead-of-its-time eyeball violence. There are better werewolf flicks around, but fans of flesh and blood won't go away empty-handed.