Psychomania

For years after its release, this movie was considered as juvenile, sensationalist trash. It was also 'allegedly' one of the reasons the veteran actor George Sanders made the ultimate career move - after his involvement with the film. However with today's young directors pre-occupied with concrete, drugs and misery, this old film now looks quite stylish and appears to be maturing like a cheerful old wine.

Like a few other people, I first saw this as a kid and it stuck. Anybody who remembers seeing 'Tommy' as a nipper and being hooked by it will know what I mean.

It's really quite a terrible movie, but something saves it from being just another unwatchable 'cult' film. In fact, I would rate it as one of the better cult films I've seen.

The film is actually well paced, and it never seems to drag. The story, although ridiculous, is easy to follow and always makes sense. The whole thing hangs together nicely.

If your a fan of retro 1970s British culture (or atleast silly interpretations of it), this is one film to add to your collection.

PSYCHOMANIA (aka: THE DEATH WHEELERS) is the uplifting tale of a gang of bratty bikers and their hopelessly infantile leader, Tom Latham (Nicky Henson). Growing dreadfully bored with the hum-drum world of anti-social thuggery, Tom decides to dabble in the realm of the occult in order to gain immortality for himself and his terrorizing, turd brigade.

Luckily, his mum (Beryl Reid) is a medium, and their butler, Shadwell (George Sanders), just might be more than he appears to be- Hope you guessed his name! So, Tom attains a toad talisman, and gets a crash course in his diabolical family history. Then, after a fun day of mindless murder and mayhem, including a game of baby-pram-pinball, Tom does the unthinkable! He initiates his infernal plan for his gang's eternal, psychotic playtime!

The rest is about his mates' following his lead, and the unfortunate results. A grand time is had by all!

EXTRA POINTS: For the notorious "biker funeral" and "motorcycle resurrection" scene. It truly must be witnessed to be fully appreciated! Who knew that bikers wove flower wreathes or wore crocheted vests?

EXTRA EXTRA POINTS: For the gang members' names, like,"Hinky", "Hatchet", "Gash", "Chopped Meat", and, of course, "Bertrem"!

EXTRA SPECIAL POINTS: For the novel suicides, including, tossing oneself into a lake, wrapped in battleship chains! Amazing!

These motorbikes run on pure cheeeze! Soooo, squeeze into those leather trousers my friends, for this is why cinema was created! Is that another pram?!...

This movie is great if taken in the right perspective.A motorcycle gang kills themselves one by one and come back to wreak terror.Watch for two scenes in particular one where the leader rides his motorcycle out of his grave the other scene where the police are investigating the morgue then in the next instant the police are lying in the morgue.Truly incredible stuff.I highly recommend it.If you like this i also recommend Children shouldn't play with dead things.

This is the stuff late night B-movies are made of! In more ways than you can count this simply should not work: a group of well-spoken, middle-class motorcycle *cough* rebels called (in an act of Shakespearean foreshadowing) "the Living Dead", whose whole raison d'etre seems to be raising terror in local supermarkets and such, decide to become zombie bikers for a hoot. They are able to achieve this with the aid of hidden knowledge from their leader, Tom, (who has a butler for God's sake!) who has made an occult alliance with a hoodoo frog…or something, and who get eventually get thwarted, in (it must be said) quite a chilling way, before they presumably wreck havoc by knocking over another bin. And yet…despite the ludicrous plot, executed with some ludicrous suicide scenes, and the ludicrous funeral scene for Tom (which will genuinely have you mouthing "what the…?")…not to mention Tom's ludicrous Lazarus moment, the film does have a certain eerie feel to it which, although not particularly scary, nonetheless raises it above the slight 70s campiness of it all and makes it a watchable flick. A lot of this vibe is certainly owed to the music which, in addition to the wah-wah pedal getting an inevitable seventies workout, has a memorable recurring motif and certainly adds a tinge of mystery to proceedings…especially in the morgue scene. Certainly the movie, along with the likes of 'Dracula AD 1972' and 'The Satanic Rites of Dracula', signalled the death knell of British horror which had ruled the sixties, but if you happen to come across it nestled among the late night schedules and you don't have work the next day, then with your tongue set firmly in your cheek settle down and enjoy...you could certainly do a lot worse.