![]() ![]() Added to all that, many of the gags are so old and obvious (the sign in the window of the Chinese takeway that reads “fu king” springs horribly to mind) that even the Carry On team would have thought twice about using them and if they had stooped so low, their timing would certainly have been better. Sloppy montages, tiresome transitions (sped-up footage of the sun rising and setting are rife as Campbell struggles to establish a sense of time) and a marked lack of menace in the horror scenes tend to undermine the proceedings. Morrisey is likeable enough as the vacuous Noddy (who disappears altogether for great stretches of the film) and Elphick’s cop is great fun – the less said about Daniels, however, the better.ĭirk Campbell’s direction is merely workmanlike, though the occasional flashes of crudely surreal humour (Buzzer reincarnated as a talking turd in a strange dream sequence, the killing of a nurse (Paula Ann Bland, late of Grange Hill (1978-2008)), the priests armoury of crucifix embellished shuriken, the vampire motorcycle’s death by sunbed) hint at a genuine comic talent at work that may mature when he learns to exercise more control over his material. Once it’s been established that the motorcycle is the killer (and given the title, it doesn’t take much to work that one out) there’s not an awful lot left and much of the humour is left to those old dependables slapstick, turd gags and bad puns. As the body count rises (the bike takes out the gang that killed its previous owner as well as a few innocent bystanders), an increasingly concerned Noddy calls upon the services of an ineffectual exorcist (Anthony Daniels) and the stage is set for the protracted and rather tedious final confrontation with the Norton Nosferatu.Īn incredibly silly film, though not without its moments of invention and humour, overacted wildly by a enthusiastic cast and built almost entirely around one not particularly funny gag. #A british horror film about a zombie biker gang seriesHot on the killer’s trail are garlic munching cop Inspector Cleaver (Michael Elphick) and his sidekick (David Daker) (both from the TV series Boon (1986-1992), which also prominently featured motorcycles and co-starred Morrisey). Crap gags abound and no one seems to notice the suspiciously motorcycle shaped hole in the door… Next morning, however, Buzzer is found decapitated in a room whose walls are covered in tyre tracks. ![]() Only when his dopey friend Buzzer (Daniel Peacock) who’s stolen the petrol cap injures his hand during an overhaul and bleeds on the engine does it roar into life. Noddy (Neil Morrisey) is a young motorcycle courier who buys the Norton which refuses to start for him. Briefly revived as a heavy breathing zombie, the Satanist slashes his own throat and fills the tank of beloved Norton Commando with his own blood, giving the bike an evil, vampiric life of its own. A devil worshipping biker is murdered by a rival gang during a satanic ritual and his gang are slaughtered. The British cinema’s love of vampire movies is taken to quite ludicrous extremes in this silly and juvenile farce. Sadly, the films turned out to be the execrable Revenge of Billy the Kid (1992), the tragic Carry on Columbus (1992), the bizarre The Perv Parlour (1996), the awful Funny Man (1994) and this dreadful piece of old rope. In the space of a few short years at the advent of the 1990s, there was the briefest of returns to the low brow camp that typified the curiously British brand of slapstick that had been so popular during the 60s and 70s. For one delirious moment there it looked like we were heading back to the glory days of Carry On at their best. ![]()
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