Halloween Havoc!: WEREWOLVES ON WHEELS (Fanfare Corporation 1971)

I love horror movies. I love biker flicks, too. Co-writers David Kauffman and Michel Levesque (who also directed) put the two together and came up with WEREWOLVES ON WHEELS, an exploitation mash-up that’s hard to resist. I’m surprised it took so long for someone to combine the two genres. Filmmakers like Roger Corman and Al Adamson must’ve kicked themselves for not thinking of it first!

What starts off like a typical biker movie, with a hard-partying gang called The Devil’s Advocates delivering a brutal beatdown to some rednecks who ran one of them off the road, veers into terror territory when the club stumble upon an old church out  in the desert. Only this church has a Satanic symbol in place of a steeple. Bad mojo ahead, guys!  Monks in hooded robes surround them and offer bread and wine (“Free wine, man!”) The cult leader, named One (as in The One) plucks a hair from the leader’s chick Helen’s head. Soon the bikers drift off to slumberland, and One and his cult sacrifice a black cat, summon Helen, and partake in a ritual that has her dancing naked with a snake, about to become “the bride of Satan”. Soon Helen becomes a werewolf and starts picking off the gang members.

The cast isn’t very well known, but does include some interesting actors. Club leader Adam is played by Stephen Oliver, best known for his stint on 60’s primetime soap PEYTON PLACE. D.J. Anderson (Helen), also known as Donna Anders, had a brief career in movies (COUNT YORGA VAMPIRE, DREAM NO EVIL). Character actor Severn Darden (One) was the preacher in Vanishing Point and played in the final two PLANET OF THE APES films. Barry McGuire (Scarf) was a singer who scored big with the protest hit “Eve of Destruction”. Billy Gray (Scarf) gained fame as a child star, costring in THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, and as Bud on TV’s FATHER KNOWS BEST. And Deuce Berry (the card reading Tarot), after appearing in RUN ANGEL RUN and THE VELEVT VAMPIRE, was off the screen for 33 years before returning as Jesus (under the name Gene Shane) in THE COPPER SCROLL OF MARY MAGDELENE!

The movie features a great rock score by Don Gere, which is available on Amazon (and worth picking up). Director Michel Levesque worked with both Roger Corman and Russ Meyer as a production and set designer. He only has two directorial features to his credit, this one and the “Women in Prison” exploiter SWEET SUGAR. I’ll be on the hunt for that one soon. If it’s anything like WEREWOLVES ON WHEELS, it’s gotta be worth watching!