Los violadores

While en route to a nightclub, playboy Hal (José Gras) has a violent run-in with a neo-Nazi biker gang which ignites a series of vicious revenge attacks that culminate in murder.

Exploitation film-makers generally take one of two tried and tested routes—gritty realism or exaggerated excess; rarely are the two styles combined. Director Paul Grau, on the other hand, is clearly a true maverick of the genre, a man who likes to truck convention, break all the rules, do his own thing however unpredictable the result might be: for Mad Foxes, Grau recklessly combines genuinely mean-spirited nastiness with seemingly incongruent, over-the-top elements, and abandons technical perfection and logic in favour of a less rigid, more experimental approach to his volatile material. It's a radical stratagem which results in an undeniably unique piece of work—or to put it another way, the film is an inept one-of-a-kind mess, often unintentionally hilarious (or so I presume), occasionally shocking, sometimes completely random, but always totally insane.

To expound on Grau's bizarre combination of the ridiculous with the realistic, I'll describe the villains of the piece in more detail: sporting a range of clichéd motorcycle gang outfits accessorized with matching swastika armbands, the gang's appearance brings to mind the imbecilic Black Widows from Clint Eastwood movie 'Every Which Way but Loose', whose nefarious plans were constantly thwarted by Clint and his orangutan with suitably comical results. Despite their cartoonish countenance, however, Mad Foxes' bikers prove to be far from a laughing matter, raping and killing without mercy (but strangely enough, not putting so much as a scratch on Hal's swanky sports-car).

Another example of how director Grau casually mixes silliness with the surprisingly savage comes when Hal and his martial arts pals seek revenge for the rape of an 18-year-old virgin (whom Hal had hoped to break in himself): the fracas begins with some of the most pathetic karate ever captured on film, but ends with the bikers' leader having his severed penis unceremoniously jammed into his mouth. It's sudden changes in tone like that which have earned this film its reputation as one hell of a strange cult oddity.

Of course, with terrible direction, choppy editing, lousy acting, dire dubbing and poorly choreographed action, Mad Foxes is about as far removed from decent film-making as you can find, but it's hard to ignore any movie in which vicious rape rubs shoulders with rock 'n' roll jive dancing, evisceration and emasculation go hand in hand with full-frontal nudity and steamy sex, a visit to the crapper can result in sudden death (I've heard of suffering from explosive bowel movements, but this is something far worse), and absolutely no-one lives happily ever after.

Mad Foxes is a film I first caught via its pre-cert UK VHS release, which was still a blast despite being a heavily cut version, and lead me to seek out an uncut DVD release a few years ago which contained all the ultra-violence that got trimmed by the nervous British distributor.

If you've never seen it before, Mad Foxes depicts the tit for tat conflict between flash playboy Hal and a shambolic biker gang, the bikers take umbrage at Hal's expensive corvette and spit on his face, he retaliates by running one of them off the road, they retaliate by beating him up and raping his girlfriend, he then calls on his friends at a karate school who beat up the bikers, castrate their leader and stick his dick into his mouth (needless to say that bit got cut from the UK video), the bikers then wipe out the members of the karate school with machine guns and grenades ….and so it goes on, and on, and on. Trashy and badly dubbed dialogue ("you squeal like an old bitch", "don't you have a little knife with you? I'd like to slice your prick", "you'll like my family, though my mother is an invalid, she fell from a horse and became paralytic"), only adds to the fun. It's also distinguished by a wildly over the top performance by an actor called Eric Falk, who judging from the trailers on the DVD, appears to have had quite a career in eurosleaze of the Erwin C. Dietrich stable. There is an air of Gypsy Dave Cooper about Falk's turn in Mad Foxes, and he is a similar mixture of heavy, exhibitionist, and comic relief imbecile "I can't stand it, we're not going to see him anymore" he boo hoos at the funeral of a slain biker buddy. Incredibly the film seems to have been conceived as an unofficial sequel to the 1978 American film 'Stingray' starring Christopher Mitchum , but I seriously doubt the two films have anything in common other than their heroes both owning Corvette Stingrays. In a scene towards the end of the film where Hal shoots up a film studio, you can even see this film's original title 'Stingray 2' written on a clapperboard prop, but it'll always be "Mad Foxes" to me. For all I know director Paul Grey could be a lifelong teetotaller and have grandchildren now, but the unusual amount of male full frontal nudity in the film, not to mention the excessive amount of drinking that goes on (Hal and his dad being rarely without a glass in their hands) does paint a mental picture of its maker as a serious alcoholic and closet case. The film optimistically writes its own epitaph when one of the bikers proclaims "the whole world will admire us".

"Los Violadores" (Mad Foxes) is a funny and entertaining film, but those seeking for a non-stop actioner will be disappointed, because "Mad Foxes" mixes rape, lots of killings (decapitations and so on) and blood, with scenes of idyllic family life that remind us old Hollywood movies, erotic scenes etc. On the erotic side - two girls: the lovely Andrea Albani, she is Babsy in the film. Babsy is the fiancée of the protagonist, she doesn't show much (but what she shows is good enough), except when she's raped. The other girl who will come later and show it all. As to the protagonist, he, in reality, is a philanderer. He has called the attention of a gang of nazi bikers. Rape is their first move, and the protagonist will strike back, the rivalry will grow more and more till… BLOOD!

The way I'm writing it almost seems that I'm speaking about a serious film, but no – the fight scenes are so bad that they are hilarious and the killings, together with the music, transform "Mad Foxes" into a Weird Slapstick Violent Comedy. The same goes for the scenes of idyllic family life, that are so cliché that is hard not to smile when you see them.

"Mad Foxes" is recommended for those who really love trash, because "Mad Foxes" is uneven and poorly done, but it's a lot of fun.

This film has earned its cult reputation due to the fact that it's ridiculous - and as you might expect, this reputation isn't exactly unfounded. Mad Foxes is just as ridiculous as it's meant to be and then some...however, while I enjoy a good silly flick, the inconstancies and illogical nature of the film don't help it as the plot doesn't move well at all, and the film gets confusing too often, which isn't good when the plot is as simple as the one here. The plot is pretty much routine for a rape/revenge flick, and focuses on a guy and his girl who end up getting on the wrong side of a neo-Nazi biker gang. The gang beat him up and rape his girl, so he vows revenge on them...blah blah. The way that the plot moves isn't very fluent, and usually just jumps from one scene to the next; which can be irritating. There are a few good sequences in the film, and these include things such as a man being blown up on the toilet and a Nazi-style bondage session towards the end. In fitting with the rest of the film, the acting and the dialogue are both terrible; but the film is very funny on numerous occasions, and while I can't say I overly enjoyed Mad Foxes; it might appeal to those who enjoy seeing movies at their worst.

This is one of the absolute truly best worst films ever made. Miss it at your peril if you are a fan of excellent excrement celluloid. I mean, a Swiss/German biker wrecksploitation film with the worst dubbing, acting, soundtrack, 'plot'...hell, worst EVERYTHING KNOWN TO MAN...what's NOT to like? Go to www.filmthreat.com and see my article on it, "Hello Bastards! Here's A Little Present For YA!" to experience its true worthless splendor blow by blow.

Enjoy.

"Sure, everybody knows their hideout." - gas station attendant to angry racecar driver looking to get directions to the Mad Foxes den to kill the lot of 'em!