Really Surprised!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Pete (Arell Blanton) and Stick (Alex Rocco) are two bikers. They have that "Of Mice and Men" relationship with Stick not being all there. They are too bad for the biker gang and get kicked out and do the home invasion scene.The film was horrible on many levels.Guide: Sex. rape, nudity (Sherry Bain, Elizabeth Knowles, Linda Johanesen)

Part of the "Savage Cinema" collection from Mill Creek... this one opens with a violent nude scene, where someone is attacking a woman, and we're not sure just what is taking place. The group of bikers talks about where they are heading... some are headed to California, and some are not. Pete (Arell Blanton) & Stick (Alex Rocco) meet up with some girls that are sunbathing on a roof-top, and trouble comes calling when Stick starts some serious trouble, and they don't want to leave. The plot just gets more and more strange from there, so you'll have to watch it for yourself. Be sure to make the kids leave the room first. Co-star Elizabeth Knowles made a whole bunch of these rad rebellion danger-chick flicks in the 1960s and 1970s. Written and directed by Richard Kanter, who wrote and directed seven other films in the same time period.

This film starts off promisingly, (for sick, sick thrills) when our two main characters torture and kill Pete's girlfriend because she dared to cheat on him, and with a man who had the gall to be born with a high melanin content, no less. This is too much to stand, even for the rest of the scuzzy biker gang they are riding with, so the gang leader tells them to beat it, hit the road and don't come back, the gang is splitting up and some of us are going to California.So, the two scuzz buckets, Pete (reminiscent of Peter Fonda's Heavenly Blue, only meaner) and Stick (he's a bit slow but lovable, for a moronic sadist), go off by themselves like some crank-addicted George and Lennie in a white-trash version of "Of Mice and Men". Out of money and desperate, our two anti-heroes take over a somewhat posh suburban home where two sisters are holed up, bickering, since hubby is away on business.The two creeps take over the house and hold the ladies hostage, and we settle in for over an hour of what appears to be a sort of bargain-basement "Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf" on meth. Various physical and psychic tortures are inflicted upon both the victims and tormentors, as mind games galore play themselves out, until the inevitable, bloody conclusion. And since this was made during the post-Altamont era, you just know that the ending is most certainly NOT going to consist of the main characters going off into the sunset or sharing milk and cookies. Let's just say you'll never look at the cello the same way again.A violent creep fest full of ugliness, recriminations and unnecessary cruelty. But in spite of that, I still didn't like it.I can sum up the problem here in four words: not enough bike riding. A few more chase scenes, biker parties with naked chicks, or even a shootout with the police, and I might have gotten on board with this little sleaze fest. But, they blew it. I totally get that they had a very low budget to work with, but this wasn't the way to solve that problem. In spite of this, I give it a three since Alex Rocco puts in a good performance as a mildly retarded reprobate.

***spoilers*** Smooth talking Pete and his smelly,idiot pal Stick leave Florida(as well as a girl nailed to a tree)and travel west to California. From a lookout point in the Hollywood hills,Pete spies Rona by her pool sunbathing with her friend Laura. Before long,Pete manages to talk his way into her yard,into her pool,into her home,and into the bed of the sex starved lady of the house. Meanwhile,Laura insults Stick, so he beats and rapes her. When Laura tells Rona, Pete gets violent. The terrified women are then held captive as the two bikers ransack the house and threaten them with more rape and worse. Despite this, Rona falls in love with Pete. Unfortunately for Rona,her musician husband returns home and proceeds to kill Pete and Stick with his cello! This movie kind of reminded me of a much tamer "Last house on the Left" with it's crude production values,sadistic goons,and shocking just desserts. It even has a theme song written and performed by it's lead dirtbag. Surprisingly, "The Wild Riders" predates the other movie by a year I wouldn't go as far as to call this a must-see,but I enjoyed it enough to reccomend it to fans of low budget,low class exploitation.