Psychomania

The British are one of the few cultures with enough savvy to pull off a good cult cycle science fiction scenario.

This one involves a family of a Satanic nature, the mother of whom is prim and proper, and whose other member, her son, is the leader of a Hellish motorcycle gang.

Goerge Sanders is the wild card as the butler figure.

The son learns that he can have an immortal and immoral life of evil just by dying, under the right conditions. The catch is a series of rituals along with an unfailing Faith in your resurrection into Evil.

He paves the way and convinces the rest of his biker gang to join him. It is a small grass roots gang of 2 women and 5 other men. Most are willing, but a couple of them relent.

Ann Michelle excels with a great presence as an evil biker girl. Too bad she wasn't a heroine more often, but the seventies were not a decade of risk taking, despite what people claim. Stereotyping was a seventies staple.

Still, this film has a great atmosphere to it, a bit of humor, and some creativity, never detracting from the story line.

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?!...

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.

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.

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.