After the success of Easy Rider loads of biker movies flooded drive-ins and grindhouse theaters across the country. Some were good and some were bad...but most all of them were fun and worth watching. Northville Cemetary Massacre isn't what I would call fun but it has jumped to the top of my list of favorite biker movies.
The very opening scene sets the tone of the movie. An elderly couple are broked down on the side of the road with a flat tire. A gang of wooly looking bikers pull up and circle the car. The old couple are sure they have had it...but the bikers proceed to change the tire for them. It turns out that the bikers aren't the mad dog killers that a lot of people assume they are just from their looks and the fact that they ride bikes. They love to have fun and do their own thing but are never cruel or malicious about it. They pick up a young boy hitchhiking and take him into the next town over where he hooks up with his girlfriend. The bikers have a wedding for two of their members and the boy and girl sneak off to a barn to make up for lost time. Cops raid the wedding and run the bikers off leaving the couple in the barn behind. A particularly sleazy deputy comes across them and beats the boy into unconsciousness and assaults the girl putting her in the hospital. She is drugged and unable to tell what really happened...so the bikers are blamed for it. The deputy, the girl's dad, and another fella start hunting the bikers down leading to a bloody shoot out in a cemetary.
The bikers come off as very likable and even the girl's dad is sympathetic since he doesn't know what really went on. The deputy and the other fella aren't so nice and you keep wishing for them to get blown away. Speaking of blown away this movie has some of the bloodiest gunshot wounds I've ever seen...the blood flies. It's a pretty bleak movie and a must see for fans of the genre. - badfish
Rating - 4 Brains
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