IslandGuru
Who payed the critics
MoPoshy
Absolutely brilliant
SanEat
A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."
Neive Bellamy
Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
dbborroughs
Okay rambling western horror film about a bunch of ex soldiers on motorbikes who run across two sisters in Nebraska. They manage to run afoul of the ladies who have spiritual powers.I've wanted to see this movie for years and finally ran across a copy from a company the specialized in racing videos.(the old bikes is the reason they carry it). It's on okay movie that is really off beat as both a western and horror film, but outside of being not run of the mill the film kind of is just there. Dark brooding seemingly about something it doesn't manage to be about anything.The film is of interest mostly for the cast of now name actors at the start of their career- Keith Carradine, Scott Glenn, Gary Busey, and others.Disappointing.
Woodyanders
Nebraska in the early 1900's: Dour, serious Oriole (flinty Christina Raines) and sweet, flighty Acacia (the adorable Hilarie Thompson) are a couple of strange half-breed sisters who live on a remote farm in the middle of nowhere. They give food and shelter to a gang of scruffy, but basically decent bikers: cocky leader Whizzer (amiable Keith Carradine), excitable yahoo Jimbang (Scott Glenn), rowdy good ol' boy Giblets (the ever-wacky Gary Busey), gawky, bespectacled nerd Golly (the likable Mike Combs), mute Chupo (Robert Walker), and feisty motorcycle mama China (sexy, spunky spitfire Doria Cook). Oriole puts a hex on the bikers after Giblets attempts to rape Acacia. Director/co-writer Leo Garen concocts a genuinely bizarre and compelling handy dandy multi-genre period biker Gothic horror-Western combo that emphasizes a spooky and ambiguous atmosphere over snappy pacing and cheap scare scenes. This gloriously gaga feature perfectly epitomizes the anything-goes screwball experimental sensibility of the early 70's; this in turn gives the movie a certain peculiar appeal. Charles Rosher, Jr.'s pretty, picturesque cinematography makes snazzy use of fades, dissolves and freeze frames. Charles Bernstein's eerie, offbeat, flavorsome hillbilly bluegrass score likewise hits the spot. Dan "Grizzly Adams" Haggerty pops up in a small role as macho hot rodder Brother Billy. An engaging and interesting only-in-the-70's cinematic curio.
EyeAskance
Marauding early 20th century motorcycle gang takes lodging in a rustic prairie farmhouse owned by two weird young sisters. We come to learn that the girls' parents are both deceased, and that "Ma" was a white woman, and "Pa" was some sort of Native-American spiritualist. Mysterious events soon begin to occur, and the misbehaving motorbike gang loses members rapidly. All this creepiness transpires to the accompaniment of a rather harsh washboard/jews-harp/kazoo music score which will have many folks ripping their hair out at the root within minutes. Things get off to a decent enough start in this rummy little "rara avis", but it soon begins to amble off on a hundred different roads to nowhere. The initial intrigue of the story is quickly lost in a badly overcooked, audience estranging botch. There was a worthy prospect in all this...sadly, what is ultimately given rise is a very curious and atmospheric imbroglio.I suspect this movie could have some type of specious or abstract appeal to a very select few...no way, however, would it get my personal unstinting approval. 3.5/10
Gafke
This is a very bad and very confusing film that apparently never saw a theatrical release, and with good reason. In the early 1900s, a dirty outcast motorcycle gang (?!) on vintage WWI cycles, blows through a prairie town and riles everyone up, including two sisters who live alone on an isolated farm. The pretty "half-breed" sisters (children of a Native American mystic, or some such bs) are young, blond, dumber-than-a-box-of-sticks Acacia, and sultry, dark haired Oriole, whose facial expressions and tone of voice NEVER change, no matter what the situation; she always looks stoned, or maybe she just doesn't care. I know I didn't. At first, Oriole tries to scare the bikers off her land, then realizes there are no bullets in her rifle, shrugs and invites them to dinner. Yeah, right. Then they all smoke pot and have a good time. No, seriously, they do! It's pretty silly. Then, Gary Busey (playing Gary Busey, like he always does) tries to rape Acacia and is found dead the next morning. Do the remaining bikers leave? Gosh, that would make too much sense, now wouldn't it? This painfully stupid film finally manages to come to an end and takes its twangy, annoying soundtrack with it. There is no plot, the acting is atrocious and the sisters spend way too much time spouting ridiculous, trying-too-hard-to-be- ominous statements in inbred-hillbilly-ese that'll either make you laugh or groan with pain. It's sooooo bad. I wouldn't wish a viewing of this film on my worst enemy.