This is a movie about some Harley-riding, devil-worshipping, anarchist, bikers who discover a way to come back from the dead. Invulnerable, and possessing superhuman strength, they go on a rampage that brings Britain to its knees.Or it's a movie about twenty-something punks on beat-up, barely-functional, British motorcycles who play mean pranks on people in the British countryside.
When one of them figures out how to come back from the dead, he teaches them the secret…so they can keep playing mean pranks on their neighbors.
Which movie is Psychomania? I’ll tell you, after the break.
This 1973 pre-punk British biker horror movie has no rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where only 26% of the audience report liking it.
Why Bother?
I’m not sure why you would watch this, but I can tell you why I got the 2010 DVD release from Severin Films.
I first watched Psychomania when I was a kid, living in Connecticut. This was before cable TV, so we got most of our channels broadcast from New York City. One of them showed Chiller Theater and every week I watched the creepy Claymation opening of the show.
My parents were really strict about early bed times, and they thought horror movies would keep me awake all night, so I never saw the end of any of the Chiller Theater gems. Of course, not knowing the ending actually made them scarier, but try convincing my parents of that.
Jump ahead thirty years or so, and I still remembered the moment when Tom Latham (played by Nicky Henson) drove his motorcycle out of his grave. When I found the DVD, I couldn’t wait to watch it.
It’s a weird flick.
I watched it
Tom Latham is the son of a very wealthy woman. Mrs. Latham (Beryl Reed) is a spirit medium with genuine gifts. We’re not sure where those gifts came from, but her butler Shadwell (George Sanders) is very creepy, and something happened to Tom’s father in “the locked room” many years ago. Tom seems convinced that Shadwell and his mother know the secret of coming back from the dead, and he’s determined to get it. So Shadwell and Mrs. Latham send him into the locked room, where Tom has visions until he passes out.
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Now, Tom is also the leader of The Living Dead, a motorcycle “club” composed of people with names like Hatchet, Hinky, Gash, Chopped Meat, and Bertram. Seriously. I could not make that up. Abby and Jane are also members. Together, they do everything from knocking over merchant carts to causing road accidents.
After his night in the locked room, Tom rides his motorcycle off a bridge at high speed in front of the gang. They bury him in his riding leathers, sitting on his motorcycle, along with an amulet provided by Shadwell.
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That night, Tom returns to life and rides his motorcycle out of the grave. Trouble is, he needs fuel, and they didn’t bury him with his wallet. Tom, being a violent jerk, murders the gas station attendant rather than, say, call Shadwell or Mommy and ask for help.
This begins a wave of unstoppable…well, it’s supposed to be violence. There’s a couple of bits that look truly cruel, like when one of them steals a baby carriage and rides off with it a ways. They do cause a roll-over accident, and the truck explodes with the driver still inside. Otherwise, there’s not much to it.
Jump ahead thirty years or so, and I still remembered the moment when Tom Latham (played by Nicky Henson) drove his motorcycle out of his grave. When I found the DVD, I couldn’t wait to watch it.
It’s a weird flick.
I watched it
Tom Latham is the son of a very wealthy woman. Mrs. Latham (Beryl Reed) is a spirit medium with genuine gifts. We’re not sure where those gifts came from, but her butler Shadwell (George Sanders) is very creepy, and something happened to Tom’s father in “the locked room” many years ago. Tom seems convinced that Shadwell and his mother know the secret of coming back from the dead, and he’s determined to get it. So Shadwell and Mrs. Latham send him into the locked room, where Tom has visions until he passes out.
Now, Tom is also the leader of The Living Dead, a motorcycle “club” composed of people with names like Hatchet, Hinky, Gash, Chopped Meat, and Bertram. Seriously. I could not make that up. Abby and Jane are also members. Together, they do everything from knocking over merchant carts to causing road accidents.
After his night in the locked room, Tom rides his motorcycle off a bridge at high speed in front of the gang. They bury him in his riding leathers, sitting on his motorcycle, along with an amulet provided by Shadwell.
That night, Tom returns to life and rides his motorcycle out of the grave. Trouble is, he needs fuel, and they didn’t bury him with his wallet. Tom, being a violent jerk, murders the gas station attendant rather than, say, call Shadwell or Mommy and ask for help.
This begins a wave of unstoppable…well, it’s supposed to be violence. There’s a couple of bits that look truly cruel, like when one of them steals a baby carriage and rides off with it a ways. They do cause a roll-over accident, and the truck explodes with the driver still inside. Otherwise, there’s not much to it.
It’s up to Mrs. Latham to take a stand against her unstoppable son.
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The Verdict
So which movie is it? That depends on whether you buy into what the movie is trying to be, or what it is.
When I was a kid watching this, Tom and his gang reminded me of the bullies who beat me up in school. That made them scary to me, regardless of what they actually did on screen. When I watched it this year, I thought the attempt to portray the bikers as violent criminals was largely laughable.
You could watch this and think that The Living Dead were just getting started. Left to their own devices, they would have graduated to bigger and more horrible acts. The trouble is, almost thirty years later, we’ve seen much scarier depictions of violence, and much more realistic depictions of anarchists and punk rockers. What’s actually on screen in The Death Wheelers (as it’s also known) is pretty tame.
The ending also leaves a lot to be desired. By that point, we know that Mrs. Latham made some sort of deal with Shadwell when Tom was an infant, and that Shadwell is the agent of some supernatural evil. We never know the terms of the contract, but when she makes a conscious choice to surrender her power, that also undoes Tom’s resurrection. He and his club turn into stone, and she turns into a toad. It’s terrifically anticlimactic.
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One thing that I do like about the movie was the way it hints at an underlying supernatural mythos without being specific about any particular mythology. The Devil is never mentioned. Witches merit a mention in dialogue, but there are no black cats, no pentagrams, no Elder or Yellow signs, and no Necronomicon. There are toads, though.
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So my recommendation to you is this: If you want to see an artifact of an earlier age of filmmaking, Psychomania is good fun. Severin's DVD has some nice extras, too. If you want a serious horror film, though, you should Just Look Away.
The Verdict
So which movie is it? That depends on whether you buy into what the movie is trying to be, or what it is.
When I was a kid watching this, Tom and his gang reminded me of the bullies who beat me up in school. That made them scary to me, regardless of what they actually did on screen. When I watched it this year, I thought the attempt to portray the bikers as violent criminals was largely laughable.
You could watch this and think that The Living Dead were just getting started. Left to their own devices, they would have graduated to bigger and more horrible acts. The trouble is, almost thirty years later, we’ve seen much scarier depictions of violence, and much more realistic depictions of anarchists and punk rockers. What’s actually on screen in The Death Wheelers (as it’s also known) is pretty tame.
The ending also leaves a lot to be desired. By that point, we know that Mrs. Latham made some sort of deal with Shadwell when Tom was an infant, and that Shadwell is the agent of some supernatural evil. We never know the terms of the contract, but when she makes a conscious choice to surrender her power, that also undoes Tom’s resurrection. He and his club turn into stone, and she turns into a toad. It’s terrifically anticlimactic.
One thing that I do like about the movie was the way it hints at an underlying supernatural mythos without being specific about any particular mythology. The Devil is never mentioned. Witches merit a mention in dialogue, but there are no black cats, no pentagrams, no Elder or Yellow signs, and no Necronomicon. There are toads, though.
So my recommendation to you is this: If you want to see an artifact of an earlier age of filmmaking, Psychomania is good fun. Severin's DVD has some nice extras, too. If you want a serious horror film, though, you should Just Look Away.
