SHAWGUST: Killers On Wheels (1976)

Johnny (Lee Chung-Ling) and Michael (Lin Wen-Wei) are on a holiday, ignoring that Johnny’s dad feels that he doesn’t know what responsibility is. His mother mentions how they all come from good families, so he’s safe to hang out with these friends. Little do they know that the boys are in a motorcycle gang.

Guo Jian-Zhong (Ling Yun) and his wife Chen Mei-Juan (Terry Lau Wai-Yue) have taken her sister Guo Ji-Lia (Kong San) to the beach house of her boyfriend Si Wei (Danny Lee). They’re not well-off and are just scraping by, but young and innocent and happy.

These two groups are going to meet and yes, bad things are going to happen.

Yes, Shaw Brothers made a biker movie and it was directed by Chih-Hung Kuei, the man that brought us so many insane journeys, like Corpse Mania and Curse of Evil.

The island is remote and only can be accessed by boat, so even the police aren’t here. As the gang and the two couples meet, at first it’s simple male catcalls to Guo Ji-Lia and her leather mini skirt. Soon, they are spraying graffiti all over their van, throwing ketchup at them and then tossing gigantic leeches. They lure the men away by attacking the house and when they are gone, assault both of them women, with one of them dying. Now, the film goes into Straw Dogs and beyond that to Last House On the Left, somehow inverting the inspiration with rich antagonists and working class heroes. In fact, it owes Peckinpah’s film so much that there’s even a scene of hot oil being used on the wealthy thugs.

This film proved to me that Argento doesn’t have a trademark on shoving a woman’s head through a glass window, that it can be really satisfying to watch a tractor mow through a rich biker, that setting traps in your house is always the best idea, that ending your movie in caps is the best — THERE IS NO RULE OF LAW THAT A KILLING WHICH RESULTS FROM THE USE OF EXCESSIVE FORCE IN SELF-DEFENCE IS ONLY MANSLAUGHTER; IF SUCH A KILLING IS DELIBERATE IT IS MURDER. — and that more movies should have spearguns being fired at punks.

Also: This movie is total exploitation to the point that somehow, an escort company has placed a review on Letterboxd which is a wild business plan.