SAVAGE ABDUCTION (1973)
aka Cycle Psycho
Article 3122 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-14-2009
Posting Date: 3-2-2010
Directed by John Lawrence
Featuring Joe Turkel, Steve Oliver, Sean Kenney
Country: USA
What it is: Psycho killer flick with bikers

A lawyer hires a psycho sex fiend to kill his wife, but finds himself blackmailed by the psycho to find him more women to kill. To that end, the lawyer hires a biker gang to kidnap two young girls for the psycho’s pleasure.

Take PSYCHO, mix with a biker movie and throw in a little LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, and what do you have? If you’re not sure yet, be aware that the director and writer for this one also gave us the script for THE INCREDIBLE TWO-HEADED TRANSPLANT. There are three types of characters here; the repulsive ones, the stupid ones, and the stupid repulsive ones. Many wrong-headed decisions are made; I can understand playing biker-style music whenever the biker gang is tooling around, but whoever decided that the psycho’s theme song should be a lyrical singer-songwriter ditty has his head screwed on wrong. It even seems as if they’re trying to play the psycho with a comic spin; for example, he gleefully sharpens his cutlery in preparation for his fun and tries to comfort the two scared girls by showing the body bag he’s brought along. These moments are not only wrong-headed and offensive, they’re not really funny, either. In the end, the movie is sleazy, trashy and stupid, which I’m sure some folks will take as a recommendation; they can have it.