Psychomania [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

When a hippie bike gang leader learns the secret of immortality from his satanist mother (beryl reid) and that upon willingly taking your own life you can return as an indistructible and immortal zombie he immediately recruits his gang to the cause and creates an indestructible and viscious outlaw biker posse that go on a roaring rampage of murder and destruction through the heart of rural england. Directed by Don sharp psychomania is one of those truely odd and demented cult movies that works in spite of itself. The premise is rediculous and some of the acting leaves a lot to be desired but ultimately the film is an awful lot of fun and highly reccomended to fans of british horror. John camerons score is amazing as well and will have you looking for the soundtrack as soon as youve heard it Psychomania (here it is!).Psychomania
Severin's region-free disc is probably the best version to get, the picture quality is better than i've ever seen it (though it looks slightly iffy in the first five minutes) and the sound quality is fantastic. On the disc you get a featurette Return of the living dead, that features interviews with the cast, The sound of psychomania an interview with John cameron, Riding free an interview with singer harvey andrews and an introduction from fangoria editor and fan of the film Chris alexander.
Overall then, even if you do have one of the rare previous releases sell it and get this. If you havent seen the film or don't own it buy it immediately, its fantastic!

This low budget british horror film, has now earn't its wings for 'CULT CLASSIC' status. It centres on a group of bikers, whose leader, Tom played by Nicky Henson, discovers the secret for immortallity. One by one, each member commits suicide in different ways, except for one, abby played by Mary Larkin. She is egged on to commit suicide by Tom, who has already crossed to the other side, and believes she will join the others. She tells him that she is dead but when she refuses to ride through a brick wall, he realises that she is not dead at all but has been faking it.
This is one of those horror films that was made in the 70's, so, if you like british horror from this period you should be at home with this. it gets an occassional showing on tv, but other than that has never been available on any format in this country to buy. The film is presented in its original widescreen ratio which is 1:85:1 (although, after the first reel, it seems to jump to 1:66:1). On the beginning of the movie there is a statement that the film was made up from the best sources available, commenting that the original 35mm negative is beleived to be lost. Picture and sound quality is good for a movie of this age considering the budget for it. The film also has some good extras. So if you want this film, the only way to get it currently, is to import this U.S. version. Amazon are saying you need NTSC compatable equipment to play this movie, but its region 0, so WILL play on your existing player, and as long as your TV is NTSC compatable (which all new sets should be). You won't have a problem.

I first saw this film as a bike-mad teenager back in the seventies and thought it was hilarious .Since then I've watched it on grainy video and equally grainy DVD(so be warned there are some dodgy copies about)and once in a while it pops-up at stupid o'clock at night on TV.Rather than risk falling asleep or having to peer through a fog of poor quality reproduction I decided to bite the bullet and invest in a copy of my very own.I'm well past the half century but still up for a bit of biking and hilarity!.
Basically a bunch of well spoken,amazingly clean but dangerouly mischevious motor-cyclists decide to follow the example of their leader by commiting suicide and returning from death as indestructable two-wheeled tearaways with the ability to wreak even grimmer havoc on their patch of Middle England .
Forget "The Lost Boys" ,Psychomania was there first!. The opening scene with the gang nursing their tappety Triumphs and brumming Beezers in circles around standing stones in a mild fog is mildly atmospheric but most of the backdrops typify 1970s Britain at its most pedestrian. Don't expect too much of the film and you might actually enjoy it-albeit for all the wrong reasons ! .

Imagine a horror film without blood where the most frightening thing is that stunt -men were placed at the mercy of the "Skidmaster" tyres fitted to motorcycles of the era .

Imagine some fairly embarrassing dialogue delivered by straight-faced actors who must have been stifling grins as they delivered yet another cringe-making line .
Imagine a pretty decent backing score composed and performed by decent musicians .
Then go back to imagining a film with a budget of £8.50 .
Well,it does look like the bikes -a mixed bunch of Triumph twins ,a Triumph badged BSA single and a couple of BSA Starfire /Barracudas minus tank badges- were nicked by the props department from from outside a youth club while the owners were busy inside drinking Cola and trying to pull fourteen year old birds.
Psychomania is so bad it is brilliant and everyone should see it at least once ....
Preferably in the company of consenting adults with a sense of humour !.

P.S The SEVERIN DVD version I bought is of decent quality and features interveiws with the actors and musicians involved etc .