Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Very disappointed :(

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

While driving around and making a nuisance of themselves in Michigan a motorcycle club called "the Spirits" turn off onto some private property and have a small wedding. Afterwards they proceed to have a party during which a young man and woman from the town go to a nearby barn to make out. They are unaware that the police have chased their comrades out and when they are discovered in the barn by two cops the young man by the name of "Chris" (David Hyry) is beaten unconscious and the woman named "Lynn" (Jan Sisk) is raped. Afraid to tell anybody who did it the deputy manages to convince a couple of the townsmen that it was the motorcycle club and then convinces them to take the law into their own hands. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that this was a fairly interesting "biker film" which used a legitimate motorcycle club known as "the Scorpions" to augment the cast. Although they certainly did a decent enough job it was quite evident that this was a low-budget film and the movie suffers because of it. Even so, it's not a bad movie by any means and I rate it as about average.

I saw a clip once of Hunter S. Thompson, who literally wrote the book on outlaw biker gangs, where he stated that the left wing in America wanted very bad to make bikers part of their movement and were frustrated by their refusal to sign up and be "down for the struggle".Despite their appearance and their hedonism, bikers were pretty much right wing, gung-ho about Vietnam, and racist to boot. The Northville Cemetery Massacre presents it's protagonists the way they wished it had been, a bunch of hippies on hogs, freaky and scary with a soft underbelly, scaring then helping old folks, throwing darts at a picture of that dastardly old communist hater Richard Nixon. All portrayed as victims, especially the main character, who's a victim of the system and American foreign policy.I think the reviewer who wrote that this wasn't a gloss job like the AIP bike movies should watch Gimme Shelter and get back to me.All considered, it was pretty entertaining and a movie that really lived up to it's title

Just got finished watching this and felt compelled to write a review right away (very rare for me). I had heard this was something of a cult item and an excellent biker flick so I decided to check it out. Very impressive!! "Northville Cemetery Massacre" is a low-budget biker flick from the 70s that is probably the best pure biker film that I have ever seen. Plot and characterizations are strong and simple. The film is compact and has tremendous visual energy and uses sound and music beautifully. Very well directed. And the title ain't kiddin either - a massacre is exactly what this film delivers!! It's kind of like a cross between "Easy Rider" and "The Wild Bunch" (in fact, I think that is an apt description). Up until now the two films that (for me) defined the biker film were "Born Losers" (where, admittedly, the bikers were the bad guys) and "Easy Rider". I think "Northville Cemetery Massacre" is superior to both. This is also a very beautiful film, especially in the early, more tranquil scenes. The bikers are portrayed as playful and earthy. In particular a wedding scene that blends into a scene of two characters making love in a barn is an absolutely beautiful, artistic collage of image and sound. Extremely impressive. See this movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Apparently the 10 or 12 people (worldwide!) who have seen this movie have not yet spoken up enough about it to elevate it to cult classic status. When I first heard about it I mistakenly assumed from the title that it had something to do with zombies or vampires or something like that. Well it doesn't! There are monsters to be sure but the kind we all run the risk of encountering; the narrow minded bigot who hates anyone who differs from his own view of what "normal" should be. This movie deserves to be recognised for many reasons. For one thing the 2 biker gangs in it (The Scorpions and The Road Agents) are real gangs; for another the music was written by Mike Nesmith. Yes, THAT Mike Nesmith, the former Monkey; and for yet another it is one of the most brutally honest independent movies to come out of the 1970's putting those glossy, sugar coated versions of biker life put out by American International to a well deserved shame. (Sorry, Roger.) We are on the side of the bikers from the opening scene when they surround an elderly couple in a car with a flat tire. We are expecting the worst but the bikers change the tire and ride on without even waiting to be thanked! This was filmed in 1976 so the Vietnam War was over and the Hippie Era had crashed dismally but America was still licking its wounded ego over the war they "lost" and returning soldiers came home to a society that made them pariahs. Many fought back against the only enemies they had left, the societal dropouts who had dodged the draft and had been living free and indulging every impulse from mind expanding drugs to free love while they, the alleged "good Americans", had been away fighting a hopeless case. Okay that was the editorial, now back to the review. A redneck sheriff's deputy rapes a local girl who has rejected his romantic advances and puts the blame on a member of a biker gang that is passing through town. This sets off a smalltown war and underscores the intolerance and potential for violence that lurks beneath the shallow veneer of the Norman Rockwellian style smalltown life. The bikers fight back by arming themselves and soon it's rednecks vs. bikers and bullets are flying by the hundreds. The use of explosive squibs is used primarily for shock value but this is the earliest movie I can recall (apart from THE WILD BUNCH, that is) that used them quite so much. Prior to this screen violence had been mostly bloodless until Sam Peckinpah broke new ground with THE WILD BUNCH which left audiences and exhibitors alike gasping.There is a PATTON-inspired speech in front of a giant American flag; there are shootings, knifings, beatings, one exploding helicopter that is the worst special effect in the movie (an obvious miniature) and a powerful ending that . . .oops, almost gave it away. This is a hard movie to find but it is well worth the search. Check it out and then don't be shy about e-mailing me and telling me how you feel about that ending! Trust me, you WILL be talking about it.