Wild Riders (1971) User Reviews

Sleazy 'home invasion' flick

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 27 November 2015]

WILD RIDERS is a slick and sleazy 'home invasion' type movie masquerading as a biker flick. Despite the opening scene this isn't a biker movie at all, but more of a grubby thriller. Throwing in a couple of biking scenes and having the main characters be members of a motorbike gang doesn't make it a biker flick.

Instead it's a bad taste film that seems to glorify violence and abuse against women. A couple of Neanderthal characters end up holding two women captive in their home and proceed to abuse them mercilessly in various scuzzy and unpleasant ways. There's gloating nudity and enough misogyny and rape that the BBFC banned it here in the UK, although amusingly enough I caught a showing on late night TV regardless.

WILD RIDERS feels slow and pointless for the most part, and the only real thrills and action come in the last twenty minutes or so. The ending is particularly satisfying, but there's a whole lot of bad stuff to sit through before then. Main star Alex Rocco was well known for starring in THE GODFATHER the following year.

For fans of low budget movies

[catfish-er · 6/10 · 3 June 2009]

I watched WILD RIDERS as part of BCI Eclipse' Drive-in Cult Classics (featuring Crown International Pictures releases) on DVD.

The similarities between Arell Blanton's character (Pete) and Peter Fonda's cannot be an accident – it has to be the hair, sideburns, glasses; and, the times. No doubt, Crown International shot WILD RIDERS to ride the coattails of EASY RIDER, released two years earlier.

However, this movie has more in common with Crown International's TRIP WITH THE TEACHER (also part of BCI Eclipse' Drive-in Cult Classics) than its better-known road trip movie.

Both Crown International films share the same crude production values, sadistic motorcycle goons, and shocking ending. However, a better telling of the rape / torment / revenge story (without the motorcycles) is the excellent LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT.

While EASY RIDER is about the trip, we find none of that in WILD RIDERS, which takes us from a desolate Florida execution of Pete's girlfriend to the Hollywood Hills during the title sequence.

Speaking of the opening sequence, Arell Blanton sings the opening folk song, "he's my family" (keep your day-job!) The song comes across as Pete's love-anthem for his best friend, Stick, unless you really listen to the words.

If you do, you find that the song really sets the tone for the entire movie; "if you knew him, would you think he could kill?"

Elizabeth Knowles did a credible job as the bored housewife / curvaceous, redhead Rona. She is a bit of a thrill-seeker, entertaining the neighborhood peeping tom, while her musician husband is away. No wonder she succumbs to Pete's offer to trade a dip in the pool for a ride on his motorcycle… ahem… among other things.

Stick, his seemingly retarded buddy, played by Alex Rocco, quickly goes after the sexually-repressed Laure (played by Sherry Bain), while Mona and Pete begin getting it on in the pool (while Laure watches).

According to Mona, the only kind of games Laure likes to play are spectator sports; but being this close to the action is just a little too real for her…

I thought director Richard Kanter drew a stark contrast in the sequence of quick cuts between Pete and Mona's lovemaking and Stick's rape of Laure. The music during this sequence just builds the intensity of the violence.

It seems that post-coital, both the lover and the rapist are quick to descend into a pit of violence, degradation, and humiliation. However, all the trips back and forth by Pete really slowed the pace of the movie. The bar scene, the bike chase, and attempted escape were just to fill time…

Other reviews have described Pete and Stick as some crank-addicted George and Lennie in a white-trash version of "Of Mice and Men". I think this is an apt comparison.

It is not a must-see movie; but I enjoyed it enough to recommend it to fans of low budget movies.

pretty rough, violent biker film

[ksf-2 · 5/10 · 23 December 2012]

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.

Biker Movie Without Any Bikes

[Scott_Mercer · 3/10 · 24 September 2006]

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.

Not so easy riders

[dafuror · 3/10 · 22 July 2018]

Two young men who bear a physical resemblance to Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper perform a slow-motion home invasion while on-the-lam from a crime so despicable as to get them ejected from an erstwhile biker gang. Somehow the writers discovered a way to start at the bottom and go downhill from there. The victims are as helpless, unsympathetic and cooperative as possible which is important as the perpetrators are as hapless as they could be. It begins as a "biker-gang" movie made just two years after "Easy Rider" hit the big screen and could have been named "Queasy Rider" as the bikes these "gangsters" use appeaar to be 75cc miniature ponies rather that the big ole Harley hogs used in similar productions. In terms of technical achievement continuity wasn't a big issue for the movie-makers so it better not be for those of us who are watching. If you are inerested in a derivative "B" movie from the very early 70s this is your cup of COORS (product placement).

Steinbeck for Bikers

[nogodnomasters · 2/10 · 26 September 2017]

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)

Home invasion

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 3 August 2020]

Up first on my Savage CInema box set is Richard Kanter's (Thar She Blows!, Sensual Encounters of Every Kind, Fantasy In Blue) 1971 grimy biker film Wild Riders. It's all about Pete and Stick (Arell Blanton, whose IMDB list is full of cop roles and, yep, a very young Alex Rocco), two scumbags who get thrown out of their gang. So they do what any of us wouldn't do - they take over a house and assault the two girls who are there.

One of them, Rona, is played by Elizabeth Knowles, who may be better known as Lisa Grant. That's the name she used for Executive Wives and Behind the Green Door, one of the movies that introduced porno chic. The other girl, Laure, is played by Sherry Bain, who was in The Hard Ride and Ride the Hot Wind.

It's another movie to cross off my Letterboxd Crown International list. If you've learned anything from this site, it's that I am nothing if not a completist. If you end up thinking, "Is that Peter Fonda?" Well, no. But Arell Blanton is happy that you noticed him trying.

For exploitation fans only

[Wturnerbill · 7/10 · 23 June 2002]

***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.

A choice cheesy chunk of Crown International drive-in biker trash

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 14 March 2006]

This typically trashy Crown International Pictures release may not be the foulest, single most scuzzy and revolting biker movie ever made (Al Adamson's cartoonishly repellent doozy "Satan's Sadists" gets my vote for that particular dastardly dishonor), but it still rates pretty highly as a real sleazy slice of wonderfully rancid drive-in cinema schlock just the same.

Vicious, quick-witted dirtball Harley hound Pete (sneerfully played to the hissable hilt by Arell Blanton, who also co-wrote and sings the hideously slushy folkie theme song) and his brutish, mangy, unshaven, garbage-eating rapist retard buddy Stick (a terrifically odious and ferocious let it all hang out greasebag performance by Alex Rocco; Moe Greene in "The Godfather") get tossed out of a Florida motorcycle club after they murder a woman by nailing the luckless screaming lass to a tree (ouch!). En route to California the deadly disgusting duo seek refuge from the authorities in a remote hillside mansion. In said fancy abode resides bored buxom brunette thrill-seeker Elizabeth Knowles and repressed ravishing redhead Sherry Bain (who also appeared in the excellent, underrated AIP biker item "The Hard Ride" the same year), who not surprisingly wind up being savagely victimized by our twisted sicko outlaw twosome.

Director Richard Kanter gleefully rubs the audience's noses in a virtually nonstop graphic orgy of coarse violence, raw fisticuffs, abject degradation and stirring last reel harsh retribution, thus making this so-nasty-it's-downright-gnarly nugget a must-see for hard-core fans of lowdown gritty early 70's exploitation swill. The spirited performances, unceasingly gross and seedy subject matter, and especially the rough, unpolished production values -- shaky cinematography, ragged editing, a raunchy sub-Davie Allan fuzztone guitar burning score -- add immensely to this grungy marvel's substantial scroungy appeal.

An early house invasion movie from Crown International

[Red-Barracuda · 6/10 · 12 August 2016]

This low budget b-movie is very much on the sleazier end of the exploitation spectrum. It was released by those dependable purveyors of good time schlock, Crown International Pictures. In advance, this one looks like it's another in the biker film cycle that followed in the wake of the big box office success of Easy Rider (1969). But despite its title, poster and two central characters, there is actually little in the way of biker action to be found here. Instead, it is a very early example of a type of movie which would become more popular as the 70's went on and would go on to be one of the most controversial sub-genres, namely the house invasion movie. In this respect, Wild Riders is quite clearly ahead of the curve and this does make it interesting.

It's about two biker thugs, who are exiled from their gang for killing a girl, they go on to conduct a house invasion of an affluent suburban home; their victims are two unfortunate women. From the outset this one makes it clear how it means to go on with a savage opening scene where a girl is nailed to a tree. Later there is more nastiness in the form of rape, murder and verbal abuse. It crescendos with a violent finale that was not only satisfying but also very funny. Despite how it may sound it's really not as disturbing as most films of this type that followed it but it definitely has a mean streak to it quite a bit of the time. It was after all refused a certificate in the UK when initially released and then re-refused again when it was submitted for home video in the late 80's. Definitely one of the tougher films released by Crown and one well worth checking out if you enjoy 70's exploitation.

This movie is the Sixties in a nutshell

[robertjsmith-44458 · 6/10 · 27 October 2021]

The Wild Riders will be dismissed by the casual viewer as Mr. Crown's Drive-In Schlock. Actually it is a deeper commentary on the Sixties period, a period that began on January 1, 1963 and ended on March 31, 1973 when the last US Combat Troops came home from Vietnam. This movie is also a commentary on the Manson Family. The Sixties being an era of free love, free movement and free wheeling, kids were hitchhiking all over creation. At the beginning of the movie, our protagonists Stick (Alex Rocco) and Pete (Arell Blanton) crucifying a hippy girl played by Linda Johanesen for sleeping around on Pete. This gets Pete and Stick exiled from their Biker Gang. The two drift out to California and while bullying a nerd at the Griffith Observatory, Pete looks through the telescope and sees two young women home alone. He then plans a trip to their home. He and Stick arrive where Pete comes onto Rona (Porn Actress Elizabeth Knowles). He then decides to break into the back patio/pool area and does. Rona's friend Laure (Sherry Bain) immediately realizes things are going from bad to worse, but is too scared to leave the house or call the cops. After a few days of rape and torture, the man of the house (Ted Hayden) returns and exacts a fatal revenge. The movie is a comment on the Sixties culture, showing the ugly underbelly of it. The movie also is a commentary on how lax the wealthy in Los Angeles and in most areas were with security. Up until the Tate-Labianca murders, stuff like this could easily happen, some Hollywood stars didn't even lock their doors. This movie also showed the fear the wealthy and Hollywood had of the bikers, black radicals and the hippies of invading their privileged spaces. A good time capsule.