Out of a Film Festival Comes Another Biker Movie

A Film Festival Comes To Be

    I recently made my way to a film festival the other day. I write this on Sunday and this festival happened yesterday on a Saturday but I am posting this on Monday. It was the annual, I think, Severin pop up film festival where they go about in celebrating their greatness and to be fair, its well deserved. There are plenty of films that I have only come across due to this label with the biggest life changing moment was finding the director Eloy de la Iglesia whose films have become some of my most personal favorites. Especially his film Cannibal Man.

what a masterpiece 

    And so I traveled to this place and when it comes to driving into the hell hole of Los Angeles, my bowels tend to churn in anticipation the closer and closer I reach my destination. For this trip, I prepared myself. Pedialyte, Coconut Water, and Pepto-Bismal blended into the most delicious elixir to ever exist and after drinking a few cups of that, I knew I was ready. Last year though I was not ready.    

    The bowels last year churned and boiled to the point where the car I was traveling in had to pull over in order for the bowels to evacuate. Luckily my pants and underwear survived so I was able to enjoy the film festival. But into Los Angeles this year; all was well.

 

The Festival 

    The festival this year was pretty cool. There was some good movies that played along with some short films. With possibly one of my greatest movie going theater experiences that I have ever experienced was experienced on this day.

    They had played a pair of silent films back to back but instead of having some prearranged soundtrack to go along with the films, they had hired a pianist to play alongside the movie. I had never had a chance to see something like this and sitting there seeing this movie play while a man plays the piano, a strange feeling began to grow in the back of my mind that made me realize that this was a truly special moment in time.

    Although this silent film can be played again with someone else playing the piano, this moment can never be repeated with this particular crowd of movie goers. This strange mixture of performative art and a silent film on screen was something that had to be the norm back in the day before the recorded track but here was this lost art of sort that had been resurrected and in sitting through that, I couldn't believe how magical movie watching could truly be. Then my heart skipped a beat when a beautiful remastered print of Mario Bava's Bay of Blood played right after. Truly a highlight that I will cherish ever so.

 

Terrific

    In between the first two movies shown were these short 15 minute breaks and during this time I would venture out to the back of this movie theater, Brain Dead Studios, and try my best to privy the merchandise on sale but movie fans that gather for an event like this, the kind that wear worn out t-shirts of their favorite hardcore horror movie and have long flowing greasy hair even though they are balding from the front, refuse to have any kind of spacial awareness. And so, on the third trip I had to barge my way through to buy a couple movies.

    Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot money but after paying my rent, the electric, the gas, buying food, buying gas, and paying back my student loans; I had about 60 bucks to spare. Luckily, they were doing buy 3 for 50 so after negotiating with myself on what I could get the most bang for my buck I purchased the following movies:

                                                                        True Pleasure

    After the festival and striving to fight a possibly hangover today, I sat down and chose the movie that wasn't a Jess Franco joint.    

The Feature in Question

 

    To say there is a plot to Satan's Sadists would be diving into the uninteresting whereas if you view it more as a character piece then there is far more to indulge yourself in when taking this strange journey of a biker gang that truly has nothing to lose.

    The film starts off with possibly one of the most brutal openings that I've seen so far from a biker film. They pull up to some couple making out and make their presence known with some slick comment. Soon enough they start beating the guy up and knocking him out. Then they drug the woman with some LSD before each member takes a turn in raping her. Except for Firewater. Yes that is a characters name. They Finish up and put the couple back into their car, pour alcohol all over them, and then push the car off a cliff killing them both. That's how the movie fucking starts. Fucking bananas.

    The movie goes on and we see these squares traveling through the desert and there there to bring some sense of grounded reality to offset this biker madness. All these people meeting up to clash at a diner where after a quick confrontation between the gang and a Marine, the gang takes control of the situation. Some of them, including the leader Anchor, take the owner and this passing older couple to the back of the diner, which happens to be a junkyard?, where Anchor has them tied up. He then goes about raping the wife then after finding out the old guy was a cop gives this speech. This speech being one that not only hits so goddamn hard but also creates an understanding to their logos as to why these wandering maniacs are the way they are.

 

                  what a speech

    There were 2 other members that get killed in the diner by that roaming Marine, in the vein of a Johnny Rambo, who just came back from Vietnam, He and the waitress go about in making their escape with the remaining gang members chasing them down into the desert mountains.

    At this point, there's a split between the "plot" of the film with what happens next. The gang finds a trio of girls, they having shown up earlier in the film, camping out and getting rock samples. They take clear advantage of their camping supplies and then of the girls themselves. Anchors woman, Gina, has enough with Anchor paying her no attention nor caring and goes about in committing suicide. 

    Anchor and his buddy Acid stay at the camp and go about in drugging the woman and raping them before killing them. Two other members, Willie & Firewater, yes that is his name, go out on the hunt for the Marine and waitress but the Marine ends up killing Willie by tossing a rattle snake that bites him. 

    The biker gang ends up self destructing with Acid playing Russian roulette by himself and reaching that point where he shoots himself. Anchor and the racist named Firewater fight one another. Firewater winning and wanting to warn the Marine and waitress but they end up fighting to the death with Firewater getting killed by a boulder but then the final confrontation.

    Anchor shows up on his motorcycle and walks over to the two with a gun, in this real great shot of Anchor right in front of the sun and creating this golden silhouette, and starts laughing at the expression that the Marine has on his face when seeing him. A true madman as the Marine holds a switchblade and is ready to kill. Anchor fires and the Marine throws a knife, which lands impossibly, into Anchor's throat that kills him. Then the Marine comes out of nowhere to deliver the most INSANE line that I ever heard:

In Vietnam, at least I got paid when I killed people.

    Then him and the waitress drive off on Anchors motorcycle but from the looks of it, not into the city where salvation was waiting.

Way Far Out

    Out of all the biker films that I have seen in recent times, this one was special. With the lack of plot, the film is able to makes the characters stick out more and the end result achieves this real nihilistic feeling all throughout. 

    In the other films, there are at least goals for those bikers to achieve whereas here it just seems that these characters are just existing. Going from one place to another just trying to get their kicks and this movie just happens to be when it all comes to end. Leaving me to wonder how long have they been roaming this Earth and spreading their hatred for the status quo?   

    What really sold me on this movie were the two characters of Anchor and Gina. These two truly steal the movie. Russ Tamblyn playing the leader of this gang and every time this guy shows up on screen, the movie realigns itself with his silent madness. Every other moment outside of this guy on screen is bringing a grounded reality back to the movie but when he shows up, its madness. Everything he does has a sense of terror. He hardly raises his voice or anything except for the end and even then, he's laughing         

    Reportedly Russ Tamblyn rewrote and improvised all his dialogue and if that's true then he was riding a truly high creative wave. Playing it truly sinister all throughout and especially so when you realize that there is nothing for this guy to attach himself to this Earth. Ultimately carrying on this turbulent relationship he has with Motorcycle Mama Gina played by a fantastic Regina Carrol that sets her on a downward path.

    Her performance is another highlight of the film as there is just so much there for me to empathize. All the squares in this movie and what happens to them is a bummer but what happens to her is truly tragic. For her character is one of great sadness. Of great unfulfillment. Of great melancholy. It's strange seeing a woman like this in a movie since I don't believe that there would be many directors willing to make a completely sub servant character such as this go through with such a bummer end. 

    All throughout the film, Gina is basically living for the sake of Anchor. All she wants is for Anchor to live a life that she could be a servant to which feels something akin to those woman that have a Charles Manson fixation but instead of having her be some sex slave, I'm sure he did but only after he gets through raping so many other women, Anchor treats her like shit to the point where he tells her that she isn't worth anything to him. Leaving her with nothing and so she ends up taking a motorcycle and speeding off to her death right off a cliff.

    One of the most unnerving scenes was the cross cutting of Anchor and his fellow cohort Acid go about in using the trio of drugged woman for their own pleasure up until killing them and Gina riding a motorcycle to her suicide. With this song playing that feels a bit out of place but also feels just perfect for this scene. It's really just amazing.

    Although the movie was one made with far less artistic intentions with it reportedly being made under the gun with a small budget and a lack of a script, I got a lot more out of it than I expected. So much so that I have a need to give it a rewatch soon compared to the various other biker films that I have indulged in and so I can can only come to the conclusion o:  This is the best biker film that I have seen thus far.