The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.

HEX AKA THE SHRIEKING (1973)

Run Time: 1:32:00
Producer: Max L Raab Productions, Twentieth Century Fox
Director: Leo Garen
Writer: Doran William Cannon (Story), Leo Garen, Stephen Katz
Key Cast: Keith Carradine, Cristina Raines, Scott Glenn

FILM MAKERS

A group of friends who were World War I flyers ride their motorcycles across America in search of what they believe their generation lost during the war.

Hex is one of a very short list of films set in the early 20th century, a time when motorized vehicles (and their rebel riders) first appeared on the sleepy streets of the Wild West. Western Hot Rod Biker Flicks?! This sub genre of Motorized Cinema has yet to be named… Stay tuned for more!

SUMMARY

Set in 1919, a gang of bikers (including Gary Busey, and Keith Carradine in his first roll) on new fangled machines roll into the rural prairie town of Bingo, Nebraska. Instantly surrounded by curious locals, a snot nosed kid dares them to a drag race his brother’s oh so 70’s, flame job hot rod. Not willing to be called chicken, the gang gives the Jalopy a run for its money, but things get messy and they flee town.

The gang hides out on a remote farm run by two stoic, dope smoking sisters who welcome them in reluctantly. It doesn’t take long before their concerns are validated by one of the bikers getting a bit too feely, and the outraged sisters call upon the dark spirit of their shaman father to teach them a lesson…

The film, shot entirely on the desolate Cheyenne River Reservation, is plotless, hokey, and painfully dull at times. It does, however, pose an interesting question as to what it was like to live in this strange moment in time. A crossroads in history, when the future in the form of a combustion engine came barreling into sleepy Edwardian towns in a terrifyingly loud black cloud of angry smoke.

Released repeatedly over the years under multiple titles, Hex managed to remain in complete obscurity, making it unexpected biker horror flick gold. – Corinna Mantlo, for Jalopnik

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