Satan's Sadists (1969)
An inept vicious biker flick from producer/director Al Adamson. Except it's not actually all that inept, in the production stakes at least.
Adamson's direction and photography is fine. He captures the bleakness of the desert landscapes as the hell hole they are, and a few poorly judged zoom ins towards the end aside it's all quite competent.
However he's let down by a script which has the right ingredients but has no idea how to get the best out of them. Here lies the problem. The script for the most part is dire. The gang have no back story or motives. Characterization is weak as is the dialogue. The storyline lacks tension and isn't the least bit exciting. What could have been a gripping fight to the death in the desert ala The Hills Have Eyes ends up losing it's focus following the diner sequence and we end up with a biker gang in the desert chasing a couple of survivors from the diner, but also terrorizing everyone they come across for, well for no real reason.
I also found the soundtrack irritating. We weren't ever going to get Steppenwolf in this film with their desert plain riffs, and that's fine, but what we do have is sickly sweet jangly 60's pop which i didn't think fit the story at all. Maybe some will think its a good case of juxtaposing what our ears hear with what our eyes see but i just found it annoying.
So while Satan's Sadists makes the mockery of the well worn thought that Al Adamson made really bad films, i did see it as a let down but i can appreciate that it will appeal to others.
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