Fun, rewatchable, timeless entertainment
What They Say:
The United States gave motorcycle-mad cinemagoers Easy Rider, The Wild One and The Wild Angels. The United Kingdom gave them Psychomania, the tale of zombie bikers run amok is southern England.
The Living Dead are a delinquent biker gang, fond of causing havoc on British roadways and making out in graveyards. Gang leader Tom (Nicky Henson) also has a Satanist for a mother, and when he discovers the secret of immortality, the name of his motley crew takes on a more literal meaning…
Directed by Hammer veteran Don Sharp (The Kiss of the Vampire, The Devil-Ship Pirates) and co-starring Beryl Reid (Dr. Phibes Rises Again) and George Sanders (Village of the Damned), Psychomania is a wonderfully offbeat gem, outlandish and eccentric in equal measure.
The Review:
Audio:
The Linear PCM 1.0 mono audio track does what is needed to convey the action and dialog of the film. Sound quality offered a much better experience than I expected having seen other releases of the movie. Mixing for the mono track offered a nice balance between motorcycle sound effects, character dialog, and soundtrack work. While the sound quality may not blow the listener away, it functions well to pull the action together.
Video:
The video has been digitally restored from BW separation masters. With lots of film grain present, the restoration offers a worthwhile improvement from other versions I have seen. In fact, much of the low budget look I have grown familiar with is gone in this version. Colors seem accurate in the interior scenes where modern art and saturated early 1970s colors produce the appropriate hallucinogenic atmosphere for the supernatural sequences. Outdoors scenes, important for the stunt work, offers appropriate contrast and color variations.
Menu:
The dynamic menu has sequences of the gang riding their bikes and the somewhat out of place skydiving sequence. Menu buttons work as expected.
Extras:
Brand-new interview with star Nicky Henson
Return of the Living Dead, an archive featurette containing interviews actors Henson, Mary Larkin, Denis Gilmore, Roy Holder and Rocky Taylor
Sound of Psychomania, an archive interview with composer John Cameron
Riding Free, an archive interview with Riding Free singer Harvey Andrews
Hell for Leather, a brand-new featurette on the company who supplied the film’s costumes
Remastering Psychomania, a look at the film’s restoration from the original 35mm black and white separation masters
Theatrical trailer
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
At its heart, the film operates as an action movie, but it embeds the action in a genre mashup that includes fantasy, bikers, delinquents, and black comedy. A teen-age biker gang, The Living Dead, ride through a British town scaring people and causing mayhem. The leader is Tom Latham (Nicky Henson), a leather clad trouble maker whose mother (Beryl Reid) works, without pay, as a medium. Their butler, Shadwell (George Sanders), seems willing to work with both mother and Tom to introduce an element of the supernatural.
The story is very simple. Tom learns that his mother signed a supernatural contract with Shadwell when he was a baby. Tom overhears that if he can commit suicide and believe with all his heart he will return, he will rise from the dead, immortal. Tom then decides to convert his gang to one of zombies. The rest of the movie is focused on the action of the bikers committing suicide only to return to get up to violent shenanigans.
Psychomania has entered cult status, and as far as I’m concerned, it is the perfect late night movie. Its story is simple and fantastic. It is really not hard to suspend disbelief when the film never asks the viewer to take anything seriously. Psychomania has no back story and never attempts worldbuilding, at least beyond the details of the narrative. In other words, it allows a viewer to watch without having to think about anything more than what is on the screen. For 90 minutes, a viewer can sit back and just watch.
Watching the film offers a visually interesting experience. The interiors of the Latham estate use a combination of mod furniture and modernist artwork. With Reid’s glowing gown and the saturated colors of the early 1970s, the stage offers both a unique visual interest and a good setting for a fairytale to play out. Motorcycles racing through traffic or criss crossing through a field of monoliths moves the story along without having to add the weight of a developing plot. When the bikers begin committing suicide, their attempts utilize very interesting stunt sequences from jumping out of a high rise, riding into traffic, to riding through a metal fence to dive into a canal below. Most of the stunts offer larger than life spectacle, so no matter how bad something might be, a viewer will never be asked to feel anything beyond excitement and joy.
Nothing in the film asks the viewer to apply moral judgment or cultural fears. No matter how badly the bikers behave, everything is cartoon violence. When a female biker announces “watch this” as she drives down a grocery store aisle and into a baby pram, and then flies off her bike onto a counter, I’m not horrified by her actions. Instead I’m laughing at the absurdity of the situation. If this were another movie, murder, suicide, and supernatural deviance would ask for my moral compass to feel horror, sadness, or anger. Psychomania is filled with amoral behavior, but as with any good cartoon, the over-the-top sequences only serve to maintain the silliness of the action.
Finally, the acting always seems a bit broader than any serious movie. Tom chews up scenes with a comic book hero’s bravado, so when the undead Tom is stabbed in the back by one of his gang, he doesn’t react at all, continuing to deliver his lines with the same swagger. Serious characters get put into absurd situations. When two morgue workers prepare to do an autopsy of one of the gang, the doctor is called out of the room while the assistant hears knocking and sees one of the dead bikers waving from within the glass cabinets. While some may wonder at George Sanders working in such a silly movie, his performance shines. While other actors exaggerate their speech and actions, Sanders offers an understated performance, creating a character who knows he’s the only one in on the joke. With only slight changes in his expression and speech, he becomes the focus of the film, even if he never plays a major role in the action.
Psychomania offers one of the better realized set of extras I have seen in recent Arrow releases. With purposeful interview segments and Severin Films 2010 documentary, fans of the movie get enough fun, behind-the-scenes information to enhance the viewing.
In Summary:
Some films exist just for the ephemeral experience of watching them. A few of these movies rise to cult status. Psychomania demonstrates how well a b-movie can transcend its humble purpose and can continue to resonate through generations of viewers. This is a perfect late night film, one that demands nothing but provides a sustained sense of glee.
Features:
LPCM 1.0 English language with optional English SDH
Content Grade: B+
Audio Grade: A-
Video Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: NA
Menu Grade: B+
Extras Grade: A-
Released By: Arrow Films
Release Date: February 17th, 2017
MSRP: $29.95
Running Time: 90 minutes
Video Encoding: 1080p AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Samsung KU6300 50” 4K UHD TV, Sony BDP-S3500 Blu-ray player connected via HDMI, Onkyo TX-SR444 Receiver with NHT SuperOne front channels and NHT SuperZero 2.1 rear channel speakers.
