The Age of Commercialism

Excellent but underrated film

Better Late Then Never

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

While driving around and making a nuisance of themselves in Michigan a motorcycle club called "the Spirits" turn off onto some private property and have a small wedding. Afterwards they proceed to have a party during which a young man and woman from the town go to a nearby barn to make out. They are unaware that the police have chased their comrades out and when they are discovered in the barn by two cops the young man by the name of "Chris" (David Hyry) is beaten unconscious and the woman named "Lynn" (Jan Sisk) is raped. Afraid to tell anybody who did it the deputy manages to convince a couple of the townsmen that it was the motorcycle club and then convinces them to take the law into their own hands. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that this was a fairly interesting "biker film" which used a legitimate motorcycle club known as "the Scorpions" to augment the cast. Although they certainly did a decent enough job it was quite evident that this was a low-budget film and the movie suffers because of it. Even so, it's not a bad movie by any means and I rate it as about average.

"The Ultimate Biker Flick" … That's what the DVD-cover proudly exclaims, and I more or less tend to agree, although that certainly wasn't my feeling during the first fifteen minutes. The plot introduces the hardcore-to-the-bone Detroit Scorpions. They are what you would call a "nice" biker gang! The Scorpions stop to help elderly folks with flat tires, drive their motorcycles through the car wash, play darts using a Richard Nixon picture and openly smoke weed in their prison cell. They also wear shirts with images of Jesus on them and everyone kisses each other on the lips. Yes, long-bearded men included. Basically The Scorpions are just a bunch of hippies driving motorcycles instead of colorful Volkswagen minivans! I have to admit that, approximately fifteen minutes into the film, I was severely getting worried that this "gem" absolutely wouldn't live up to its reputation or its delightfully morbid title. Fortunately enough – for the sake of cult cinema at least – they pass through a place run by filthy perverted police officers. One of the redneck deputies rapes the daughter of a prominent citizen and puts the blame on the bikers. He's a truly honorable deputy too, by the way, because he himself encourages the father's victim to take the law into his own hands and hunt down the bikers illegally. Now here's a man who deserves to wear a police badge, yeah! When two of the Scorpion bikers are cowardly gunned down outside their clubhouse, the rest of the gang decides to fight back … but against who? "Northville Cemetery Massacre" is truly a delight for tolerant fans of extremely low-budgeted 70's amateur trash! Occasionally during the film, there's a musical narrator who sings about what's going on in the film and the lyrics are highly intellectual, like for example "A friend with weed is a friend, indeed". Furthermore there's the hilarious abuse of exaggeratedly dramatic music, severe synchronization issues, laughable acting and a lot of supportive biker cast members that don't even look tough enough to drive a Vespa. It's also an extremely violent movie, although the violence is not exactly what you would call shocking. There are a lot of bizarre and even downright WTF sequences in "Northville Cemetery Massacre", like the secret meeting between the bikers and an utterly deranged gun collector. The interactions between the hillbilly assailants are too incredible for words, but hey, at least they can aim and shoot a lot better than those sissy bikers! It takes the Scorpions, what … 800 bullets before they finally hit something?!? 90% of the biker gang has been slaughtered before they even have a clue where the shots are coming from! They must be the most worthless gang in history. I bet the real Hell's Angels and Outlaws frequently watch this movie during their club meetings, just to laugh their butts off and to remind themselves how badass they, in fact, really are! In all honesty, this is a really bad film. Similar to "Mad Foxes", but slightly better and less sleazy. But hey, at least it's great fun!

I too was fortunate enough to view the screening of this film the other night in Hollywood at the monthly Grindhouse screening. Lots of hippies, bikers and shootings in slo-mo with blood packs spurting a la Peckinpah. Apparently this movie is quite a rare little number. Shot in Detroit in 1974 and 75, released to drive-ins in 1976, and as such I believe we can state definitively that this film marks the very end of the classic "biker film" cycle (no pun intended) started 10 years earlier with "The Wild Angels" starring Peter Fonda, Nancy Sinatra and Bruce Dern.One very important fact not mentioned by any of the other commenter's, and confirmed by Mr. Dear, was the fact that the music for this was scored by the great Michael Nesmith. I am a fan of his time in the Monkees as well as his great "solo" records released throughout the 1970's. If you've heard Nez's work from this period, you will certainly recognize his distinctive sound in the music here. I believe most (but not all) of this music was recorded especially for this film, and as such would be a treat to hear for any Nesmith admirers.How to describe his style? Cole Porter on the Prairie could be one shorthand meme, but that does a disservice to his elegant yet down home music. He combines western cowboy songs, country-rock, blues, Caribbean Pop and lilting, wistful melodies in a unique fashion. Some of the musical themes are what you would expect in a picture like this: some hammering blues-rock and some country truckin' songs. One of the songs was sung by Garland Frady. Nesmith released some LP's by him on his Pacific Arts record label which he operated at that time.Director William Dear worked further with Nesmith after this. He directed Time Rider, produced by Nesmith, and directed several of Michael's music videos in the 1980's. Dear had a funny line: he looked up Nesmith during an appearance at McCabe's Guitar Shop (local music store and live music venue in Santa Monica) He showed the movie to Nesmith, who said, "This movie is terrible!" "I know, you wanna score it?" "Okay." Some wise company like Blue Underround or Synapse should contact Mr. Dear and arrange a DVD release of this toot suite! And plenty of bonus materials and a commentary track? Yes please! UPDATE 10/18/2006: THEY HEARD ME! Northville Cemetery Massacre is now out on DVD, with THREE commentary tracks and other bonus material! Thank you VCI Entertainment! I'm ordering one right now!

This is one of those low-budget biker vs the cops pictures that permeated the early seventies movie scene. Unlike those other titles though this one features some of the most violent scenes I've ever watched.The story concerns a small town sheriff who savagely rapes the daughter of one of the town's more respected residents. He places the blame on a group of fun-loving bikers just passing through. The sherrif and the father of the girl go on a rampage, slaughtering every biker in sight.The final stand-off between the sherrif and the father and the remaining bikers inside the town's Northville Cemetery is violent to the extreme. The bloodletting in this scene is on par with the finale scene in The Wild Bunch. The special effects are also amazing, especially for a film with this low a budget.What I appreciated most about this film is that in the final shoot-out you'll notice that the two men trained in firearm usage, the sherrif and the father, a big game hunter, manage to hit everything they shoot at while the bikers, an untrained bunch, miss everything. It's that kind of realism that I like.A mexican stand-off between the film's two main characters is never concluded before the film fades to black. We are left to wonder what happens next. I loved that! Imagine if Leone chose not to show what happened next when Eastwood, Van Cleef and Wallach had each other all lined up in that threeway stand-off.Northville Cemetery Massacre is a fun, violent movie that is definitely not for the squeamish or for children.