Hell Riders

My review was written in May 1985 after watching the movie on Trans World Entertainment video cassette.

"Hell Riders" is a meek attempt to resuscitate the biker action genre of two decades back. Already released on video cassette, this 1983 production has little theatrical potential outside the drive-in circuit.

Adam West toplines as Dr. Dave Stanley, physician in the small town of Ransburg beset by the violent Hell Riders biker gang. Besides the local folks, also terrorized is Claire (Tina Louise), a former Las Vegas blackjack dealer on the road.

Archaic cheapie features okay stunt work but an uninteresting, trite story. Predictably, West saves the day. Film culminates nastily when the townsfolk band together to mercilessly shoot down the bikers like dogs. Pic is more professionally executed than producer Renee Harmon's prior work (such as "Executioner Part Ii" and "Frozen Screams") but acting by the supporting cast is amateurish (biker extras are credited here as "Rent-a-Gang"). Harmon also casts herself as a saistic, overage biker -campy at best.

This movie feels like someone watched a biker movie in their dream and then got an A. I. to recreate the movie from what they remembered. "I remember Batman was in it but he was a doctor, Ginger from Gilligan's Island, a naked woman on a chain leash, bikers with skulls on their patches, and most of it was filmed on a set that looked like a frontier town from a western."

If you are bored and have an hour and a half to kill, you could do worse, but, you would really have to try. It's good for a couple of laughs, but overall, it's pretty generic.

This movie essentially begins with a small group of bikers known as the Hell Riders being evicted from a larger motorcycle gang and being forced to fend for themselves. It's at this time that they come upon an attractive lady from Las Vegas named "Claire Delaney" (Tina Louise) who just happens to have car trouble on a deserted stretch of road. Although they beat her, she manages to escape to a nearby town where she manages to find a sympathetic doctor named "Dave" (Adam West). However, the sheriff in this town has no interest in upholding justice and refuses to become involved. This decision eventually results in tragic consequences when the motorcycle gang rides in. Now what initially drew my interest in this movie was the fact that it featured both Tina Louise and Adam West. Unfortunately, although they both performed adequately enough, the extremely poor script and the lumbering direction provided by James Bryan resulted in a pretty bad movie overall. Accordingly, I rate this movie as below average.

This has to be the worst, and I mean worst biker movie ever made! And that's saying a lot because the line of stinkers is long and smelly!

Now at least we know what happened to Ginger after she was rescued from Gilligan's Island! A frightened looking Tina Louise(she was probably afraid someone would see this mess!)is a stranded motorist who is tormented by the most repulsive motorcycle gang in film history. But, don't worry fans! Batman, I mean Adam West as a hick-town doctor comes to the rescue! Pow! Crush! Boom! Holy Toledo Batman!

The only good points of this "bomb" are some cute women, some laughable fight scenes, and the still "sexy" Tina Louise!