There are several things this picture cannot overcome with its very low budget: the pacing is very slow at points, photography is almost amateurish in places (blown up from 16mm, I think), there's filler - too many shots of motorcycle riders moving on the freeway, and lousy dialog/acting. But, there's enough entertainment value for 3 stars from me. The credits song, 'I Was Born Mean...' is just super. Then you have star Tamblyn, the biker leader, overacting or subverting his persona, depending on how you look at it. He makes this weird speech a third of the way in (famous to people familiar with the flic) about how peaceful hippies are persecuted by cops; this is how he justifies his murderous actions (yes, I do this for the hippies, since they're too peaceful to do it). Scott Brady is a cop on vacation and the object of Tamblyn's antagonism. It doesn't explain why Tamblyn kills 3 young women later - what do they have to do with it? He giggles like a madman as even his own fellow biker (Cardos) rebels against such pointless murder.
Is Tamblyn just playing a joke on the audience? Here I am, he seems to be implying, once a nice boy in Hollywood movies. Look at me doing all this crazy stuff! I am one crazy dude. The 2nd half of the pic is all in the bleak desert, with the various surviving characters running about. There are no other police or establishment figures intruding; it's mentioned in the beginning how desolate the area is, that you can go 200 miles(!) without seeing another person. Greydon Clark is amusing as another biker who lives to get stoned on acid or LSD; his goal is to go on a one-way trip. And this was Regina Carrol's first big role, as a biker momma. Some of her dialog, as mentioned, is atrociously dated and poorly delivered besides; pining for Tamblyn, she asks another biker, "doesn't he know I dig him?" So what were they all rebelling against, these lowlife bikers? It's anyone's guess. Like in other such pictures, they just looked bored with everything and spewed moronic rationales out of their dirty little mouths - but the filmmakers put them there. Next was "Dracula vs.Frankenstein" - a reworked biker tale.
Is Tamblyn just playing a joke on the audience? Here I am, he seems to be implying, once a nice boy in Hollywood movies. Look at me doing all this crazy stuff! I am one crazy dude. The 2nd half of the pic is all in the bleak desert, with the various surviving characters running about. There are no other police or establishment figures intruding; it's mentioned in the beginning how desolate the area is, that you can go 200 miles(!) without seeing another person. Greydon Clark is amusing as another biker who lives to get stoned on acid or LSD; his goal is to go on a one-way trip. And this was Regina Carrol's first big role, as a biker momma. Some of her dialog, as mentioned, is atrociously dated and poorly delivered besides; pining for Tamblyn, she asks another biker, "doesn't he know I dig him?" So what were they all rebelling against, these lowlife bikers? It's anyone's guess. Like in other such pictures, they just looked bored with everything and spewed moronic rationales out of their dirty little mouths - but the filmmakers put them there. Next was "Dracula vs.Frankenstein" - a reworked biker tale.