Weird Wednesday Preview: Werewolves on Wheels
Last week the Alamo Drafthouse's Weird Wednesday offered us Cop Killers, and this week the tradition of Easy Rider-era knock-offs continues with Werewolves on Wheels, a 1971 biker-horror mash-up that's a whole lot more interesting than it sounds on paper. Whereas Cop Killers borrowed Easy Rider's drug-smuggler plot, Werewolves on Wheels borrows its general aesthetic -- long dreamy sequences of motorcycle riding set to mellow psychedelic tunes, narrative pit-stops at strange and exotic locations, and an impending sense of doom.
When Adam, Tarot (here pronounced "Tuh-ROW"), and the rest of the Devil's Advocates biker gang stumble upon a Satanist temple hidden in the woods, they make the mistake of taking the wine and bread offered to them by the creepy hooded men that run the place. Interrupting a ceremony where one amongst them is offered up as the "Bride of Satan" (performed by some hilariously self-serious cultists), the Advocates bust up the proceedings and bust up the monks to get out of there -- but not before a few among them are left marked. As the Advocates continue their trek, they slowly discover that those few are also turning into werewolves by the full moon and eating the gang up one by one.
Werewolves on Wheels plays out like the perfect jumbled mix-up of the early 1970s film scene. It's got the fetishized American open road lifestyle, an obsession with the occult (this is the decade of The Omen and The Exorcist, after all), and it's powered by naturalistic hippie dialogue one could easily see coming out of Dennis Hopper's mouth. It's surprisingly-well shot and paced, taking its time moving through its anthology structure while punctuating its moments of horror with bright red blood splatters and slow-motion that Argento would've been at home with.
A curious mix of relatively-dreamy independent road cinema and stylish horror, Werewolves on Wheels is a one-of-a-kind watch, by turns unintentionally funny, intentionally groovy, and just plain surprising.
Tickets are $1 and are available through the Alamo Drafthouse's website.
