Savages from Hell (1968) Poster

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5/10
A Psychotic Motorcyclist in Love
Uriah439 May 2016
This movie begins with a young man named "Marco" (Diwaldo Myers) driving a large vehicle in a parade with his younger sister "Teresa" (Viola Lloyd) riding beside him. Although they live with their parents both of them dream of the day they cease being migrant laborers and settle down once and for all. So when Marco is offered a steady job at a gas station making more money than his father both Teresa and her mother are excited about it. Marco's father, on the other hand, is more pessimistic but eventually comes around to their point of view. The problem, unfortunately, is that Teresa has caught the eye of a motorcyclists named "High Test" (William P. Kelley) who wants her in the worst possible way and he will stop at nothing to get what he wants. This displeases his girlfriend "Lucy" (Bobbie Byers) who is equally intent at keeping what she regards as hers. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was clearly a low-budget production which is quite evident by the film quality and the less-than-stellar acting. Fortunately, the plot contained enough suspense to keep things interesting for the most part. Additionally, I really liked the way the plight of migrant workers was depicted as well. In any case, while this certainly wasn't a great movie by any means it wasn't too bad and I have rated it accordingly. Average.
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5/10
Mystery
BandSAboutMovies15 March 2021
Warning: Spoilers
"Makes the Hell's Angels look like Boy Scouts!"

Alright, I'm confused.

Director Joseph G. Prieto* - that's who IMDB says made this - has the kind of resume we love around these parts. He wrote and directed Shanty Tramp, plus was behind the camera for Fireball Jungle and Miss Leslie's Dolls, a movie that is all about a young college professor and three of her students hiding from a storm in the farmhouse of a mannequin obsessed woman. Under the name José Prieto, he was the assistant director of Alfredo B. Crevenna's Santo and Blue Demon vehicle Las Bestias del Terror and the William Kerwin-scripted Six She's and a He.

However, plenty of Letterboxd reviewers and The Grindhouse Database list Joseph P. Mawra, the director of White Slaves of Chinatown, All Men Are Apes!, Olga's Girls and Olga's House of Shame as the real director of this.

So after doing some research - I learned from this The Rialto Report interview with Mawra in which he claims to have directed Fireball Jungle and this movie. However, right there in the comments, Daniel Griffith - who has directed tons of documentaries that show up as DVD extras - writes "Thank you for tracking down and interviewing Mawra! However, Mawra did not direct Shanty Tramp or Savages from Hell. Both of those films were directed by the actual José Prieto. He was Cuban. I know this because I filmed hours of interviews with the cast and crew of Savages and Shanty as well as tracked down behind the scenes photographs from those films. I also believe he directed Miss Leslie's Dolls, but I cannot confirm this."

Man, these guys were just trying to make money and crank out films. Did they ever expect a maniac to be sitting in his basement, surrounded by DVDs, pounding away on his laptop trying to track down the facts on a movie that so many people - including those that made it possibly - have forgotten?

But I digress.

Biker movies are cheap and that's probably why I love them so much. All you need is some outdoor scenery, a biker gang that will turn up just to be in it - and they'll bring their bikes - and a script that throws morality out the window. This does that and ups the ante by having the bikers make fun of Mexicans, who are more than willing to rise up and fight back.

Another reason to love this movie is by looking at who wrote the story and produced it: K. Gordon Murray. Yes, he's nearly a patron saint around these parts, thanks to his bonkers remixes of Mexican films and frightening children's cinema that he produced.
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1/10
Savages From...Yawn
daviddaveinternational16 September 2014
Warning: Spoilers
If it's an indication of how bad this movie is, there's only two of us out here who wrote a review...ten years apart! That would mean that probably 6 people in the world managed to watch it to the end. I'm the guy who collects "Cheap Biker Movies" having 41 or so. This one, in my opinion, is the second from the worst, the worst being "Hell's Bloody Devils". It seems amazing that the more horrific the movie title, the worse the movie is. There is little violence in this "Savage" movie. Mostly an inner family squabble over a daughter that seems to have a mild mental retardation problem, or just her acting was so bad she appears mentally challenged. She falls in love with the confused "leader" of the nameless "Motorcycle Club". Some of the "members" have a blank, white patch sewn to their backs. The rest have nothing. "Hi-Test", the "President" of the club seems to be the biggest coward I've ever seen. In a scene where the locals surround him, instead of "One On All", he cowers away with idle threats of reprisal. His "Old Lady" rides a Honda Scrambler with high swept up-pipes, the bike being a comedy in itself. She loves Hi-Test when he smacks her around and hates him when he doesn't. Talk about a backwards "love-hate relationship"! I could go on but what's the point? The only reason to buy this would be if you collected these "cheap biker movies". If you were to have the availability to watch it, stock up on the No-Doz. I ended up fast-forwarding through most of it.
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2/10
What a film might be like if you made it for $32.50....or perhaps $33.
planktonrules22 February 2017
Warning: Spoilers
I will start off by saying "Savages from Hell" is not the worst film I've ever seen. And, for the apparent $32.50 they must have spent on the picture, the results aren't that bad!

This picture was made in the motion picture capital of the world...tiny Naples, Florida. This is just a crappy little biker film starring a lot of no talents and with very little in the way of script. A rather annoying gang of bikers arrive in town and begin saying a whole lotta politically incorrect stuff to the local Mexican-Americans and the one black guy in the film. Ultimately, the gang leader goes on to kidnap Marco's sister and rapes her (or at least attempts to rape her...this isn't 100% clear) and then Marco arrives to try to save the day. Not a whole lot of plot otherwise...just trashy bikers acting trashy. And, a super slow-motion squishing scene that simply made me laugh at the very end! Heck, a 90 year-old man with a walker should have been able to avoid that swamp buggy...yet somehow the big bad biker just stood there...waiting for a big 'ol squishing!!

I've seen worse biker films, such as "Werewolves on Wheels"....but not many worse biker films, that's for sure.
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When Bikers Attacked Florida
Michael_Elliott6 May 2017
Savages from Hell (1968)

* (out of 4)

If you're looking for high art then this here certainly isn't that. A small town in Florida comes under attack when a vicious motorcycle gang moves in. The leader of the gang catches his woman flirting with another man and this here sets off a chain of events full of violence and mayhem.

SAVAGES FROM HELL comes from director Joseph P. Mawra who made a number of exploitation pictures including the OLGA series. This film here is beyond awful and it really deserves a BOMB rating but what makes the picture somewhat entertaining is how bad it actually is. This is a film that's thankfully "so bad it's good" or at least entertaining. The film appears to have had a budget less than a thousand bucks as the technical quality of this picture is ultra cheap even for a biker flick from the drive-in era.

As I said, there's really nothing good to be found here. The editing and direction are pretty darn awful but I guess the director was just trying to get anything on the screen. The "savages from hell" are far from that. This here is basically a cross between THE WILD ONE and a number of other exploitation pictures of the era but it doesn't do anything right. Even worse is the fact that the "savages from hell" are rather tame and nothing too shocking happens here.

Biker pictures from the drive-in era have a small cult following today and those fans will certainly want to check this out just to see how cheap and how bad it actually is.
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2/10
Very dull regional biker movie
Leofwine_draca2 March 2023
I guess biker flicks were all the rage back in the 1960s and the sub-genre was so popular that it spawned regional variations; this extremely low budget offering hails from Florida, no less. The story is about some innocent country folk going about their lives when a biker gang shows up causing trouble. The main emphasis is on their leader, a troublesome James Dean type who has designs on a local girl which causes more conflict. There's also something of a love triangle given that he already has a girlfriend and she becomes jealous of the attention he's giving this new girl. A few fight scenes here and there but this is mostly cheap and very, very dull.
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2/10
Justifiably obscure low-budget and even lower-talent biker flick filmed in Naples, Florida
scsu197527 November 2022
A migrant worker chick named Teresa, with an IQ of around 11, falls for the leader of the pack, who is named High Test. High already has a chick named Lucy, who is not thrilled with this new development. Teresa's brother Marco (no relation to Rubio) drives some kind of monster vehicle I've never seen before. We also get treated to a five-minute boring segment featuring swamp buggy racing. The other 75 minutes are equally boring, as High Test decides to snatch Teresa and have his way with her. Will Marco get there in time?

The flick features a catfight between Lucy and some other chick, and a few fistfights here and there which showcase punches being thrown and not landing. There are also a few gunshots with no smoke.

The "actress" playing Teresa is cute and has nice buns (upon which the camera lingers), but there is no light on in the house, if you get my drift. The only performers who show a modicum of talent are Bill Read, as a biker named "Bingo," and Bobbie Byers, as Lucy. I have to admit I did start to appreciate Byers acting a bit more when her shirt started coming off in various scenes.

If you are still awake for the climax, it features Lucy, High Test, Marco's monster vehicle, and a sheriff who appears out of nowhere saying "I understand. Listen, I know what happened." Apparently he is the only one who did.

Making his film debut is Cyril Poitier, older brother of Sidney. Cyril plays a gas station attendant, so obviously his brother didn't pull any strings.
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10/10
so bad it's good!!!!!
sandro_barracas5 February 2004
this movie is terrible, but i have to say that it's also one of the best unintentional comedies that i have ever seen. the over the top acting, the rubbish dialogue, the concept!!!! the only decent actor in this one is a certain bobbie byers, who in spite of the fact the film is horrible manages to make you believe that she's actually got talent as an actress. anyway, the story goes like this.......well, you really must actually seek out the film for yourself, because you really wouldn't believe me if i told you!
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