Hex

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"?

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.

"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.

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.

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.