MOTORPSYCHO (1965) *** ½

Russ Meyer’s Motorpsycho is an early example of a biker picture.  Like most of the formative films in the genre, the bikers are portrayed as sex-crazed, speed-driven lunatics.  These guys are anything but Easy Riders.  It’s one of the first Rape n’ Revenge flicks too.  Unlike most revenge movies, it features two people affected by separate incidents joining forces to get revenge.  

A trio of bikers go around the desert terrorizing couples, beating up men and violating their women.  They set their sights on a vet named Cory (Alex Rocco in his film debut) and his wife Gail (Holly K. Winters).  After they rape Gail, Cory goes out for revenge, teaming up with a badass Cajun woman (Haji) whose husband was killed by the roving gang.

Motorpsycho is tough, violent, and mean-spirited.  Meyer delivers the violence in his usual manner.  He films it all with his eye-popping comic book style which really hammers home the dirty deeds of the characters.  Like his immortal Faster, Pussycat!  Kill!  Kill!, there isn’t as much nudity as you’d expect.  However, Meyer delivers the goods like only he can.  There’s a scene where Rocco gets bitten by a rattlesnake and he forces Haji to suck out the poison that will make your jaw drop.  It’s so overacted and overdone that it achieves some sort of mad genius.  That is to say, it’s a Russ Meyer movie.

Motorpsycho not only blazed the trail for biker and revenge movies, it also contains a character who’s a Vietnam vet who suffers from PTSD.  I can’t be 100% sure, but this might be a cinematic first.  It just goes to show what an innovator Meyer was.

Rocco is excellent.  You can tell he was destined for greatness because he really commands the screen.  You instantly side with his character and root for him.  Haji is equally terrific.  She’s incredibly sexy, undeniably feminine, but tough as nails.  She’s enormously fun to watch, overacting to the hilt, calling men “PEEG!” and spitting on them.  She also gets a tender monologue about her tragic past that really shows her range.  I also enjoyed seeing Coleman Francis as Haji’s old coot husband. 

Though it stops short of attaining the classic status of Faster, Pussycat (the ending is somewhat of a letdown compared to what came before), Motorpsycho is unmistakably Meyer through and through.  It’s full of breasts, violence, colorful dialogue, and more breasts.  In short, it’s highly recommended. 

AKA:  Motor Mods and Rockers.  AKA:  Rio Vengeance.