Hex

Hex (1973)

They Came to Wreak Havoc. They Picked the Wrong Town.

Set in rural Nebraska following the First World War, six veterans on motorcycles ride into the sleepy little town of Bingo. The locals are friendly until one of the vets beats a local kid in a drag race, after which the six are driven out of town. After coming upon a small farm, the fugitives are allowed to hide out by the two sisters who run the place. Things go smoothly until one of the vets, after smoking the locoweed growing nearby, tries to rape one of the hosts. Being part Native American, her sister decides to get revenge by casting a hex that steadily does in each of the unwelcome guests.

Date of release
1973-10-05
TMDB
4.4 / 10 (8)
Runtime
1h 32m
Genres
Drama, Horror, Western
Director
Leo Garen

Casting

Interesting facts

Hex is a 1973 American Western supernatural horror film directed by Leo Garen and starring Keith Carradine, Cristina Raines, Hilarie Thompson, Dan Haggerty, Gary Busey, and Scott Glenn. Set in 1919, its plot follows a wayward band of motorcyclists who seek shelter at a rural Nebraska farm inhabited by Native American sisters Acacia and Oriole. When one of the motorcyclists, Gibson "Giblets" Meredith, tries to rape Acacia, Oriole places a curse on them, resulting in their subsequent deaths.

Production

The original screenplay for Hex was written in 1969 by Vernon Zimmerman and Doran Cannon, conceived as "the biggest piece of schlock they could [write]." The story was completed at the height of the popularity of biker films, and blended plot elements of those films with supernatural horror.

Filming of Hex began in September 1971 at the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The town featured in the film was built on a set for $40,000 in the town of Okaton. Additional photography took place in California. It had a working title of Grassland.

Actress Hillarie Thompson recalled that, during the South Dakota shoots, the cast and crew nearly "froze to death the entire time. It was very cold and the crew was shoveling snow out of scenes." Thompson also recalled being impressed by her co-stars Gary Busey and Keith Carradine, as well as Scott Glenn, who she said "would go off to a corner for an hour before a scene and go over it and over it by himself."

The film was heavily edited by Twentieth Century Fox executives, who refashioned it by playing up the occult themes in Garen's original cut and removing the comedic undertones. "They cut it for a year and made it a straight occult film," he said. After the studio cut was poorly received during a pre-screening, they allowed Garen to re-cut the film himself.

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