When it really comes down to it, this is not a sophisticated movie. There's this soundtrack, see, and it's pretty goofy with lots of jaw harp boing boing and fiddle-de-doo tunes and that certain barnyard pig chase type music that often accompanies country/co boys falling in the dirt with that "aww, shucks" look upon their faces. But, like with all sorts of movies, there's just something about this (the copy I have of it is called "The Shrieking") movie that I adore. I'm not sure if it's the audacity of the movie for being as weird and unruly as it is yet still holding together, not sure if it's the way the actors all bounce off each other in a nice way or what...I think mostly it's just the unexpectedness of the script, truly one of the strangest stories I've ever seen on film and by the end we can look back at all the oddities and know that whoever wrote it must have had a very healthy supply of something that was probably illegal in the early seventies, because this is a drug movie. I GUESS it could be called "horror" but it isn't that exactly, and it is a "teen movie" more or less, but not like any other "teen horror movie" I've ever seen, and it does have a serious propensity for the incredibly goofy, but that goofiness makes the horror (when it actually does happen) quite horrific (the scene with the frog comes to mind)...I notice that this film has a very low rating on IMDb, and that's a shame because it's funny and kinda scary at times, and altogether interesting and entertaining, not a great film by any stretch of the imagination, but worth watching. Anyone else notice this one "feels" very similar to "Dead Birds"?
15 Reviews
I'm not so sure it is a good film, but it is definitely one of a kind
udar5523 March 2011
Warning: Spoilers
WWI vet Whizzer (Keith Carradine) leads his ragtag motorcycle gang (including Scott Glenn and Gary Busey) into the tiny town of Bingo, Nebraska. They quickly get into it with another gang (led by Dan Haggerty) and hide out on the farm of half-breed sisters Oriole (Cristina Raines, billed as Tina Herazo) and Acacia (Hilarie Thompson). When the gang begins to offend Oriole (either via rape or bad manners), she starts to use her deceased father's shaman tricks to off them. Man, what a totally odd film. The Prism VHS (as THE SHRIEKING) tries to sell it as straight up horror, but this could easily fit on the cult board due to the mixing of genres. Within its horror trappings, it is also a period piece, an art flick, a road movie, a comedy, a drug flick, a romance, and a revenge thriller. I suspect it was greenlit in a post- EASY RIDER haze (20th Century Fox produced it). The story is from Vernon Zimmerman (director of UNHOLY ROLLERS) and Doran William Cannon (writer of SKIDOO and BREWSTER MCCLOUD), so you can guess when the oddness comes from. Director Leo Garen and Stephen Katz receive the screenplay credit. Everyone in the cast is good with Raines/Herazo being the stand out as the sister with the darker edge. Also worth seeing for the bit where Busey refuses to smoke some pot. Gorgeous locales in South Dakota stand in for Nebraska. The film also ends with one of the most baffling shots I've seen it a long time as Whiz and Oriole head off on his motorbike and see modern era jet fighters zoom over their heads.
Cursed bikers on the prairie.
lost-in-limbo8 November 2014
Summer in Nebraska, 1919 and a group of bikers on vintage motorcycles ride across the prairies on their way to California. On their journey they find themselves being pursued by a town posse. They decide to lay low, and invite themselves onto an isolated farmed owned by two sisters. Daughters of an Indian medicine man. The younger sister is welcoming, while the older is weary as she uses sorcery to defuse any sort of threat. Trippy rural, low- budget horror-comedy-romance-drama... I don't know how to categorise this one. I mainly sorted this one out for Scott Glenn. A bizarre, laid-back atmosphere with a touch of airy mysticism and a bunch of familiar faces giving animated performances (Keith Carradine, Scott Glenn & Gary Busey playing hillbilly cousins). While atypical (just look at the death scenes and ominous underlining), it was rather annoying to sit through (mainly the performances - Christina Raines taking top honors, music and its erratic mood swings) and its plot is threadbare with very little happening throughout. "Hex" is a neurotic story of love, acceptance and horror. But it doesn't completely come together, as there's not much to hold it there.
Bad, bad, bad...
Gafke27 December 2003
This is a very bad and very confusing film that apparently never saw a theatrical release, and with good reason. In the early 1900s, a dirty outcast motorcycle gang (?!) on vintage WWI cycles, blows through a prairie town and riles everyone up, including two sisters who live alone on an isolated farm. The pretty "half-breed" sisters (children of a Native American mystic, or some such bs) are young, blond, dumber-than-a-box-of-sticks Acacia, and sultry, dark haired Oriole, whose facial expressions and tone of voice NEVER change, no matter what the situation; she always looks stoned, or maybe she just doesn't care. I know I didn't. At first, Oriole tries to scare the bikers off her land, then realizes there are no bullets in her rifle, shrugs and invites them to dinner. Yeah, right. Then they all smoke pot and have a good time. No, seriously, they do! It's pretty silly. Then, Gary Busey (playing Gary Busey, like he always does) tries to rape Acacia and is found dead the next morning. Do the remaining bikers leave? Gosh, that would make too much sense, now wouldn't it?
This painfully stupid film finally manages to come to an end and takes its twangy, annoying soundtrack with it. There is no plot, the acting is atrocious and the sisters spend way too much time spouting ridiculous, trying-too-hard-to-be- ominous statements in inbred-hillbilly-ese that'll either make you laugh or groan with pain. It's sooooo bad. I wouldn't wish a viewing of this film on my worst enemy.
This painfully stupid film finally manages to come to an end and takes its twangy, annoying soundtrack with it. There is no plot, the acting is atrocious and the sisters spend way too much time spouting ridiculous, trying-too-hard-to-be- ominous statements in inbred-hillbilly-ese that'll either make you laugh or groan with pain. It's sooooo bad. I wouldn't wish a viewing of this film on my worst enemy.
Strange!
BandSAboutMovies18 January 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Director Leo Garren only made this one movie and his directing career is limited to an episode of I Dream of Jeannie and a short film called Hootpurr. He was better known as a writer, working on shows like Vega$, Quincy M.D. and T.J. Hooker. Plus, he wrote the Band of the Hand, a movie I keep trying to get to and write up for the site.
He was joined in the scriptwriting by Vernon Zimmerman, who wrote and directed The Unholy Rollers and Fade to Black, two of my favorite movies. He also wrote Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw and Teen Witch, so top that! They were also aided and abetted by Steve Katz, who wrote for The A-Team and Hardcastle and McCormick, as well as Doran William Cannon, who wrote the original story. His credits include Brewster McCloud, the 1980 TV version of Brave New World and a little film called Skidoo, which explains why this movie is just so strange.
The original screenplay was written in 1969 with the goal of being "the biggest piece of schlock," combining two hot genres - biker films and supernatural horror.
Set in 1919, this movie was shot on location at the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in South Dakota. After being acquired by Twentieth Century Fox, it gathered dust on the shelf while the studio re-cut it into a more straightforward occult-themed horror film. Well, they tried, because this movie is still really odd.
It's also been released under its working title, Grassland, as well as The Shrieking and Charms.
After the First World War, a loosely knit band of motorcyclists - let's call them a gang - make their way across the U.S. on the way to California. Right now, they're in rural Bingo, Nebraska, where they lose a hot rod race and flee after a dispute.
The gang includes Archibald "Whizzer" Overton (Keith Carradine, who I never realized was Martha Plimpton's dad), Golly (Mike Combs, in his only acting role), Jimbang (Scott Glenn, The Right Stuff), Chupo (Robert Walker, Beware! The Blob, Easy Rider, The Passover Plot), Gibson "Giblets" Meredith (Gary Busey!) and a woman named China (Doria Cook-Nelson, the wife of Craig T. Nelson who shows up in The Swarm and Evil Town).
They hide on a remote farm owned by two sisters, Acacia (Hilary Thompson, the wife of Alan Ormsby and an actress who shows up in The Fury and Nighthawks) and Oriole (Cristina Raines, who of course starred in The Sentinel). Their Native American shaman father has just died and Oriole must run the farm with an iron fist. Despite letting the bikers stay, Giblets tries to assault Acacia. He gets hexed and an owl promptly rips out his eyes.
Oriole supplies them with a wheelbarrow and a shovel, as she does not want the man buried on her land. However, they supervise the funeral.
Soon, Acacia is falling for Golly. And Oriole and Whizzer grow close, but China soon reveals that the man is a liar. He was never a veteran but instead a mechanic who is trying to invent a better life story for himself.
So, you know, Oriole does what anyone else would. She takes some of China's hair, sews it into the mouth of a toad and gives the girl horrific visions. Then, she begins to take out the gang one by one.
Jimbang attempts to shoot Oriole, but his gun lives up to his name, as it misfires and kills him instead. Chupo gets possessed and attacks Whizzer against his will. After he's sliced with a sickle, Oriole makes love to Whizzer, who also kills the frog who is an effigy of China. Whew!
Acacia, tired of Oriole using their father's magic for evil, renounces him, just as she shows up clad in his robes. But it all strangely works out - Golly stays behind with Acacia and on the only bike left, Oriole drives away with Whizzer riding on the back. Four fighter jets - it's 1919? - pass overhead.
What did I just watch? Because I think I loved it.
Oh yeah! Dan Haggerty has a small role as Brother Billy and Iggie Wolfington, who represented actors in at least 10,000 equity cases as part of the Actors' Fund of America, plays a bandmaster. John Carradine is in some of the production stills as an old gunfighter, but he never shows up in the U.S. cut of the film. Perhaps once someone like Vinegar Syndrome or Severin gets their hands on this, we'll know more.
While Norman Mailer considered Hex one of the top-ten best films of 1973, it basically sat and sat in the vaults of 20th Century Fox. For his part, Garen was happy with the re-cut of the film that he completed, referring to it as "sort of carnival, snake oil, underground comic book entertainment. The only trick I tried to pull off was to keep the audience constantly shifting. When it gets serious, I pull the rug out. It goes from blatant farce to serious to scary to balletic to phantasmagoric."
He was joined in the scriptwriting by Vernon Zimmerman, who wrote and directed The Unholy Rollers and Fade to Black, two of my favorite movies. He also wrote Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw and Teen Witch, so top that! They were also aided and abetted by Steve Katz, who wrote for The A-Team and Hardcastle and McCormick, as well as Doran William Cannon, who wrote the original story. His credits include Brewster McCloud, the 1980 TV version of Brave New World and a little film called Skidoo, which explains why this movie is just so strange.
The original screenplay was written in 1969 with the goal of being "the biggest piece of schlock," combining two hot genres - biker films and supernatural horror.
Set in 1919, this movie was shot on location at the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in South Dakota. After being acquired by Twentieth Century Fox, it gathered dust on the shelf while the studio re-cut it into a more straightforward occult-themed horror film. Well, they tried, because this movie is still really odd.
It's also been released under its working title, Grassland, as well as The Shrieking and Charms.
After the First World War, a loosely knit band of motorcyclists - let's call them a gang - make their way across the U.S. on the way to California. Right now, they're in rural Bingo, Nebraska, where they lose a hot rod race and flee after a dispute.
The gang includes Archibald "Whizzer" Overton (Keith Carradine, who I never realized was Martha Plimpton's dad), Golly (Mike Combs, in his only acting role), Jimbang (Scott Glenn, The Right Stuff), Chupo (Robert Walker, Beware! The Blob, Easy Rider, The Passover Plot), Gibson "Giblets" Meredith (Gary Busey!) and a woman named China (Doria Cook-Nelson, the wife of Craig T. Nelson who shows up in The Swarm and Evil Town).
They hide on a remote farm owned by two sisters, Acacia (Hilary Thompson, the wife of Alan Ormsby and an actress who shows up in The Fury and Nighthawks) and Oriole (Cristina Raines, who of course starred in The Sentinel). Their Native American shaman father has just died and Oriole must run the farm with an iron fist. Despite letting the bikers stay, Giblets tries to assault Acacia. He gets hexed and an owl promptly rips out his eyes.
Oriole supplies them with a wheelbarrow and a shovel, as she does not want the man buried on her land. However, they supervise the funeral.
Soon, Acacia is falling for Golly. And Oriole and Whizzer grow close, but China soon reveals that the man is a liar. He was never a veteran but instead a mechanic who is trying to invent a better life story for himself.
So, you know, Oriole does what anyone else would. She takes some of China's hair, sews it into the mouth of a toad and gives the girl horrific visions. Then, she begins to take out the gang one by one.
Jimbang attempts to shoot Oriole, but his gun lives up to his name, as it misfires and kills him instead. Chupo gets possessed and attacks Whizzer against his will. After he's sliced with a sickle, Oriole makes love to Whizzer, who also kills the frog who is an effigy of China. Whew!
Acacia, tired of Oriole using their father's magic for evil, renounces him, just as she shows up clad in his robes. But it all strangely works out - Golly stays behind with Acacia and on the only bike left, Oriole drives away with Whizzer riding on the back. Four fighter jets - it's 1919? - pass overhead.
What did I just watch? Because I think I loved it.
Oh yeah! Dan Haggerty has a small role as Brother Billy and Iggie Wolfington, who represented actors in at least 10,000 equity cases as part of the Actors' Fund of America, plays a bandmaster. John Carradine is in some of the production stills as an old gunfighter, but he never shows up in the U.S. cut of the film. Perhaps once someone like Vinegar Syndrome or Severin gets their hands on this, we'll know more.
While Norman Mailer considered Hex one of the top-ten best films of 1973, it basically sat and sat in the vaults of 20th Century Fox. For his part, Garen was happy with the re-cut of the film that he completed, referring to it as "sort of carnival, snake oil, underground comic book entertainment. The only trick I tried to pull off was to keep the audience constantly shifting. When it gets serious, I pull the rug out. It goes from blatant farce to serious to scary to balletic to phantasmagoric."
Possibly the best Edwardian-era supernatural counterculture biker western of them all.
EyeAskance18 October 2005
Marauding early 20th century motorcycle gang takes lodging in a rustic prairie farmhouse owned by two weird young sisters. We come to learn that the girls' parents are both deceased, and that "Ma" was a white woman, and "Pa" was some sort of Native-American spiritualist. Following a foiled rape attempt, the biker gang begins to rapidly lose its members under very mysterious circumstances. This creepiness transpires to the accompaniment of a rather harsh washboard/jaw-harp/kazoo music score which will have many folks ripping their hair out at the root within minutes.
Things get off to a decent enough start in this rummy little "rara avis", which introduces some colorful characters and offers enticing whiffs of what's to come. The upshot to these tantalizing prospects is an awkward and admittedly atmospheric juggling of genres which is proficiently executed on a technical level, but rather weak in exposition of its story. It's consistently watchable for the most part, chiefly by virtue of its idiosyncratic stylistic trappings, and a few solid performances from players at the budding-stage of prolific careers.
Though categorically a horror film, it probably has a stronger foothold in the revisionist/acid western subgenre, and might appeal to enthusiasts of pictures like THE SHOOTING(1966), EL TOPO(1970), and THE HIRED HAND(1971). In any case, I don't strongly recommend it.
4/10.
Things get off to a decent enough start in this rummy little "rara avis", which introduces some colorful characters and offers enticing whiffs of what's to come. The upshot to these tantalizing prospects is an awkward and admittedly atmospheric juggling of genres which is proficiently executed on a technical level, but rather weak in exposition of its story. It's consistently watchable for the most part, chiefly by virtue of its idiosyncratic stylistic trappings, and a few solid performances from players at the budding-stage of prolific careers.
Though categorically a horror film, it probably has a stronger foothold in the revisionist/acid western subgenre, and might appeal to enthusiasts of pictures like THE SHOOTING(1966), EL TOPO(1970), and THE HIRED HAND(1971). In any case, I don't strongly recommend it.
4/10.
Awesome for its badness
bellino-angelo201423 May 2022
When HEX began, three things struck me. First, how incredibly pointless were the first scenes. Second, how the music score for the credits was incredibly jarring and loud. Third, I looked on the IMDB trivia and it said that the film was made in 1971 but sat on the shelf for two years and was also cut and recut... a clear sign the film was a s**tstorm. Holding a film for release it's a kiss of death with few exceptions.
In 1919 (soon after the war ended) a group of pilots and a woman (Whizzer, Golly, Jimbang, Chupo, Giblets and China) becomes motorcyclist and goes to California for seeking their fortunes. In rural Nebraska they are challenged to a race by a hot rodder. The result is disputed and they go in a farm owned by two sisters. Giblets (Gary Busey) tries to r**e Acacia that manages to escape, but her sister Oriole puts a curse on him; soon we see Giblets wandering at night where an owl attacks him taking his eyes out. After China goes missing other strange events occur such as Jimbang (Scott Glenn) that tries to shoot Oriole but the gun kills him instead, Whizzer killing Chupo in the barn with a sickle, Oriole that stabs a toad and kills also China because the toad had some hair in his mouth and many more I thankfully forgot.
The acting was amateurish by everyone. While you can't certainly blame Gary Busey and Scott Glenn as they were still making their bones, you can't forgive the others as they have a laziness comparable only to that of the TWILIGHT franchise actors. The soundtrack was all over the place, as they were the direction, photography and pacing: it looked like they knew they had a bad movie in their hands and simply didn't care to improve it in any way.
So, despite my reservations about the acting, the two year delay and the horrible beginning, is there something that makes this movie worth seeing? Well, considering its score of 4,5 it's unlikely I'd recommend it to anyone that soon. Do yourself a favor - don't watch this film. Even for someone who occasionally watches bad movies (like me) it's not worth it - unless they are masochists. And I gave it a 2 only because there wasn't that much blood nor gory scenes.
In 1919 (soon after the war ended) a group of pilots and a woman (Whizzer, Golly, Jimbang, Chupo, Giblets and China) becomes motorcyclist and goes to California for seeking their fortunes. In rural Nebraska they are challenged to a race by a hot rodder. The result is disputed and they go in a farm owned by two sisters. Giblets (Gary Busey) tries to r**e Acacia that manages to escape, but her sister Oriole puts a curse on him; soon we see Giblets wandering at night where an owl attacks him taking his eyes out. After China goes missing other strange events occur such as Jimbang (Scott Glenn) that tries to shoot Oriole but the gun kills him instead, Whizzer killing Chupo in the barn with a sickle, Oriole that stabs a toad and kills also China because the toad had some hair in his mouth and many more I thankfully forgot.
The acting was amateurish by everyone. While you can't certainly blame Gary Busey and Scott Glenn as they were still making their bones, you can't forgive the others as they have a laziness comparable only to that of the TWILIGHT franchise actors. The soundtrack was all over the place, as they were the direction, photography and pacing: it looked like they knew they had a bad movie in their hands and simply didn't care to improve it in any way.
So, despite my reservations about the acting, the two year delay and the horrible beginning, is there something that makes this movie worth seeing? Well, considering its score of 4,5 it's unlikely I'd recommend it to anyone that soon. Do yourself a favor - don't watch this film. Even for someone who occasionally watches bad movies (like me) it's not worth it - unless they are masochists. And I gave it a 2 only because there wasn't that much blood nor gory scenes.
Inhexplicable.
BA_Harrison9 March 2024
Hex is a whacked out blend of Western, stoner biker movie and supernatural horror that gives the impression that the makers of the film might've partaken of the same recreational substances smoked by its two main female characters.
Cristina Raines and Hilarie Thompson play siblings Oriole and Acacia, 'half-breed honeys' living on a small farm in rural Nebraska shortly after the First World War. The sisters' peaceful existence comes to an end when a group of motorcyclists seek refuge at their homestead, having been run out of the nearby town of Bingo. After one of the bikers, Giblets (Gary Busey), tries to rape Acacia, Oriole uses native Indian magic (taught to her by her father) to exact revenge.
Nothing about this film feels right - the performances, the direction, and the editing are all executed in an incredibly awkward and offbeat manner that makes it no surprise that this was the first and last film to be directed by Leo Garen. Not even TV wanted him after this mess. The whole thing is rendered even more ludicrous by the lively Jew's harp/harmonica/banjo score that accompanies almost every scene, which is more suited to a madcap 'good ol' boys' Southern comedy (starring Burt Reynolds) than a horror.
Still, with a film as downright bizarre as this one, there is fun to be had if cult cinema is your thing: we get an angry mob in a hot-rod (the group including a shotgun-toting ten year old), Oriole and female biker China (Doria Cook-Nelson) have a cat-fight (with Keith Carradine joining in the fun!), there's a trippy hallucinatory scene featuring a fat toad and savage mice, Gary Busey is killed by an owl, and, just when you think it can't get any more strange, the ending features four jet planes flying over the farm. WTF?
Also the costume coordinator for the film was Dick Butz, whose name is always good for a laugh.
Cristina Raines and Hilarie Thompson play siblings Oriole and Acacia, 'half-breed honeys' living on a small farm in rural Nebraska shortly after the First World War. The sisters' peaceful existence comes to an end when a group of motorcyclists seek refuge at their homestead, having been run out of the nearby town of Bingo. After one of the bikers, Giblets (Gary Busey), tries to rape Acacia, Oriole uses native Indian magic (taught to her by her father) to exact revenge.
Nothing about this film feels right - the performances, the direction, and the editing are all executed in an incredibly awkward and offbeat manner that makes it no surprise that this was the first and last film to be directed by Leo Garen. Not even TV wanted him after this mess. The whole thing is rendered even more ludicrous by the lively Jew's harp/harmonica/banjo score that accompanies almost every scene, which is more suited to a madcap 'good ol' boys' Southern comedy (starring Burt Reynolds) than a horror.
Still, with a film as downright bizarre as this one, there is fun to be had if cult cinema is your thing: we get an angry mob in a hot-rod (the group including a shotgun-toting ten year old), Oriole and female biker China (Doria Cook-Nelson) have a cat-fight (with Keith Carradine joining in the fun!), there's a trippy hallucinatory scene featuring a fat toad and savage mice, Gary Busey is killed by an owl, and, just when you think it can't get any more strange, the ending features four jet planes flying over the farm. WTF?
Also the costume coordinator for the film was Dick Butz, whose name is always good for a laugh.
They rode a blazing jalopys.
mark.waltz25 December 2020
Warning: Spoilers
It's easy to see why this film was collecting dust on the shelves of 20th Century Fox before it got a brief test release (poor guinea pigs) before being shelved for years before getting put onto home video. There are some movies you can tell from the opening credits are just going to be terrible, and not one bit of positive elements can change your mind. This features a few actors who have gone into better things (Keith Carradine, Gary Busey), and a few with minor careers (Christina Raines, Scott Glenn) that this didn't aide. It also has the most twangy background soundtrack I've ever heard, too much a pickin' and far too much a grinnin' that left me annoyed.
A group of alleged World War I pilots drive their cycles and buggies cross country with the hope of getting to California to get into the movies as stunt pilots. They stop in a rural old western like town and become involved in the attempted rape of one of two sisters, and this leads to a series of gruesome supernatural like murders of those involved. Not as exciting or bloody as it sounds as it has a ton of dull patches where there's nothing but dull conversation (between Carradine, the one honorable member of the brood and tough sister Raines), and after a while, even the country roads seem to lead nowhere other than a much needed nap that this induces. The only hex was on my eyelids to stay awake, that is if my head shaking over how hideous this was didn't do that.
A group of alleged World War I pilots drive their cycles and buggies cross country with the hope of getting to California to get into the movies as stunt pilots. They stop in a rural old western like town and become involved in the attempted rape of one of two sisters, and this leads to a series of gruesome supernatural like murders of those involved. Not as exciting or bloody as it sounds as it has a ton of dull patches where there's nothing but dull conversation (between Carradine, the one honorable member of the brood and tough sister Raines), and after a while, even the country roads seem to lead nowhere other than a much needed nap that this induces. The only hex was on my eyelids to stay awake, that is if my head shaking over how hideous this was didn't do that.
Offbeat quasi-witchcraft horror film
drownsoda9015 September 2019
"Hex" follows a gang of bikers in the 1920s who stumble upon a rural farm in the Nebraska countryside. The men, who have one female among their group, accept the reluctant offer to spend the night at the farm, which is run by two Native American sisters. After one of the gang tries to rape the younger sister, the eldest takes to her deceased father's Native magical practices to enact revenge.
Though marketed as a horror film, "Hex" is really a mixture of genres, with some horror elements cobbled together with a period Western and the counterculture biker flick, e.g. "Easy Rider." Filmed on location in South Dakota, the film has a dreary, dusty feel, and is quite nicely photographed, giving the viewer the sense of actually being there.
The horror sequences come in spurts here, and are centered around the eldest sister (portrayed by Cristina Raines, who would later gain fame in the horror genre for her turn in "The Sentinel") practicing Native American magic as a means of getting back at the various members of the biker gang who have wronged her or transgressed the family's land. Among these is a particularly powerful, hallucinogenic sequence involving the female biker, who has a macabre vision brought on by a spell involving a toad.
A handsome Keith Carradine plays the sympathetic leader of the gang, and Scott Glenn and Gary Busey play two of the wayward gang members who are much more unseemly. The characters are mostly well-written, save a few of the bikers, and there is a goofy romantic subplot that nearly elicits laughter in certain awkward moments. The whole thing feels quite innocent in tone, which is at odds with the film's darker elements, but it somehow retains a made-for-TV-movie quality that is as perplexing as it is amusing. This is only accentuated by the ending, which defies logic but ties the story up in an appropriate way.
While it is not a perfect film, I found "Hex" to be quite enjoyable. As a horror film, it is quite mild, though it does deliver some psychedelic cinematography and a few creepy moments. More than that, it is just plain weird, and as a quasi-horror flick grafted onto the skeleton of "Easy Rider," it manages to be surprisingly memorable despite all odds. 7/10.
Though marketed as a horror film, "Hex" is really a mixture of genres, with some horror elements cobbled together with a period Western and the counterculture biker flick, e.g. "Easy Rider." Filmed on location in South Dakota, the film has a dreary, dusty feel, and is quite nicely photographed, giving the viewer the sense of actually being there.
The horror sequences come in spurts here, and are centered around the eldest sister (portrayed by Cristina Raines, who would later gain fame in the horror genre for her turn in "The Sentinel") practicing Native American magic as a means of getting back at the various members of the biker gang who have wronged her or transgressed the family's land. Among these is a particularly powerful, hallucinogenic sequence involving the female biker, who has a macabre vision brought on by a spell involving a toad.
A handsome Keith Carradine plays the sympathetic leader of the gang, and Scott Glenn and Gary Busey play two of the wayward gang members who are much more unseemly. The characters are mostly well-written, save a few of the bikers, and there is a goofy romantic subplot that nearly elicits laughter in certain awkward moments. The whole thing feels quite innocent in tone, which is at odds with the film's darker elements, but it somehow retains a made-for-TV-movie quality that is as perplexing as it is amusing. This is only accentuated by the ending, which defies logic but ties the story up in an appropriate way.
While it is not a perfect film, I found "Hex" to be quite enjoyable. As a horror film, it is quite mild, though it does deliver some psychedelic cinematography and a few creepy moments. More than that, it is just plain weird, and as a quasi-horror flick grafted onto the skeleton of "Easy Rider," it manages to be surprisingly memorable despite all odds. 7/10.
Where three genres meet
Leofwine_draca16 February 2023
I caught this one online under the title THE SHRIEKING. It's an odd little amalgam of no less than three genres, none of which work out very well. It has a western setting with Native American folklore playing a role in the proceedings. The idea of an outlaw gang holing up at a remote ranch occupied by a couple of young sisters is a familiar western trope. It's also a biker movie, with familiar faces like Keith Carradine, Robert Walker Jr., Gary Busey and Scott Glenn filling out the roles of the ragtag bikers. Finally, it's a supernatural horror story of death and revenge, although these plot elements are so subtle that you could almost miss them. Some interesting ingredients are present here, but as a whole it's a quiet and lacklustre movie.
A truly weird and original one-of-a-kind oddity
Woodyanders16 August 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Nebraska in the early 1900's: Dour, serious Oriole (flinty Christina Raines) and sweet, flighty Acacia (the adorable Hilarie Thompson) are a couple of strange half-breed sisters who live on a remote farm in the middle of nowhere. They give food and shelter to a gang of scruffy, but basically decent bikers: cocky leader Whizzer (amiable Keith Carradine), excitable yahoo Jimbang (Scott Glenn), rowdy good ol' boy Giblets (the ever-wacky Gary Busey), gawky, bespectacled nerd Golly (the likable Mike Combs), mute Chupo (Robert Walker), and feisty motorcycle mama China (sexy, spunky spitfire Doria Cook). Oriole puts a hex on the bikers after Giblets attempts to rape Acacia. Director/co-writer Leo Garen concocts a genuinely bizarre and compelling handy dandy multi-genre period biker Gothic horror-Western combo that emphasizes a spooky and ambiguous atmosphere over snappy pacing and cheap scare scenes. This gloriously gaga feature perfectly epitomizes the anything-goes screwball experimental sensibility of the early 70's; this in turn gives the movie a certain peculiar appeal. Charles Rosher, Jr.'s pretty, picturesque cinematography makes snazzy use of fades, dissolves and freeze frames. Charles Bernstein's eerie, offbeat, flavorsome hillbilly bluegrass score likewise hits the spot. Dan "Grizzly Adams" Haggerty pops up in a small role as macho hot rodder Brother Billy. An engaging and interesting only-in-the-70's cinematic curio.
For Weird-o-Western fans for sure
midwesternhooligans28 November 2019
While there are better films tucked into the sub-genre of the weird western anyone who really enjoys those movies should take a look. If you've never heard of weird westerns then this could be an easy entry. A lot of familiar faces here and there.
An Incoherent Mess
Uriah4318 February 2022
This film begins in 1919 with two sisters named "Oriole" (Cristina Raines) and "Acacia" (Hilarie Thompson) working alone on their farm several miles from the small town of Bingo, Nebraska. Although they don't go into town very often, when they finally decide to do so, they are surprised to see a small group of World War I veterans riding motorcycles and causing all kinds of pandemonium. So much of a ruckus in fact, that not long afterward these same veterans are subsequently chased out of town by an armed posse. Since none of this affects Oriole, she simply continues on with her business and afterward the two of them head back to their farm. When they get there, however, they are surprised to find the motorcyclists hiding in their barn in order to elude the posse. So, unable to convince them to leave or forcibly evict them, the two sisters decide to show them some hospitality by allowing them to sleep in the barn for the night and hoping that they will leave the next day. Unfortunately, when one of the veterans named "Giblets" (Gary Busey) tries to rape Acacia, Oriole takes matters into her own hands and conjures an evil curse upon him which kills him in a ghastly manner. Not realizing that Oriole has such mystical powers, the veterans decide to stay there a little longer-with horrible consequences for them all. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this could have been an excellent film if the director (Leo Garen) knew what he was doing. But apparently, that wasn't the case as each time he arrived at an important crossroads--he chose the wrong direction and let the moment slip. So rather than creating something special all we're left with is an incoherent mess. What a shame.
kind of dull and not worth what it took to find it
dbborroughs9 March 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Okay rambling western horror film about a bunch of ex soldiers on motorbikes who run across two sisters in Nebraska. They manage to run afoul of the ladies who have spiritual powers.
I've wanted to see this movie for years and finally ran across a copy from a company the specialized in racing videos.(the old bikes is the reason they carry it). It's on okay movie that is really off beat as both a western and horror film, but outside of being not run of the mill the film kind of is just there. Dark brooding seemingly about something it doesn't manage to be about anything.
The film is of interest mostly for the cast of now name actors at the start of their career- Keith Carradine, Scott Glenn, Gary Busey, and others.
Disappointing.
I've wanted to see this movie for years and finally ran across a copy from a company the specialized in racing videos.(the old bikes is the reason they carry it). It's on okay movie that is really off beat as both a western and horror film, but outside of being not run of the mill the film kind of is just there. Dark brooding seemingly about something it doesn't manage to be about anything.
The film is of interest mostly for the cast of now name actors at the start of their career- Keith Carradine, Scott Glenn, Gary Busey, and others.
Disappointing.
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