PSYCHOMANIA – The Blu Review

Review by Roger Carpenter

PSYCHOMANIA tells of a group of n’er-do-well teens, led by a rich and mean-spirited young man, who skip school, ride motorcycles, and cause trouble and general panic wherever they go.  They dub themselves The Living Dead and enjoy causing death and chaos at nearly every turn.  However, if things seem bad in the little English village in which they reside, they take a decided turn for the worse when Tom Latham (Nicky Henson) discovers his psychic mother and the mysterious butler Shadwell (George Sanders) harbor a shocking secret—the key to life after death.

It seems that Mrs. Latham (Beryl Reid) and her husband made a long-ago deal with the devil for immortality. The couple committed suicide only to come back from the dead.  Unfortunately, the late Mr. Latham found out he wasn’t a true believer and never made it back across.  But Mrs. Latham did, inheriting a fortune from her late husband and gaining apparent psychic ability as well.  Mrs. Latham’s son Tom may be a thug, but he’s a bright thug.  He finally forces the secret from his mother and Shadwell and promptly commits suicide, only to return after his own funeral.  He soon convinces his gang of cutthroats to follow him across the forbidden boundary and become one of the living dead—powerful, invincible, and immortal.  All but one of the gang members buys in, and that’s Tom’s girlfriend, Abby (Mary Larkin).  She doesn’t fancy a living death as she is perfectly content with her mortal life.  And so the group embarks upon a hellish orgy of death and violence all the while trying to convince Abby to kill herself.

Made for mere pennies in the early 70’s, PSYCHOMANIA is England’s answer to the peculiarly American concept of midnight movies.  It’s cinematic junk food at best and, for all the death and human misery the gang cause in the film, it’s surprisingly tame in its depiction of violence.  Heck, there isn’t even any blood at the corners of one biker’s mouth although he gets run over by a truck!  This decided lack of blood, along with no nudity or overt sexual references, made PSYCHOMANIA prime fodder for late-night British television filler, cementing the film as possibly one of the most-viewed English B-films of all time.  I’m sure there was a certain segment of filmgoers who were disappointed with the sheer lack of sex and violence in a film of this kind upon initial release.  Regardless, the film is still loads of fun to watch.

There are plenty of chase scenes and set pieces designed around the motorcycle gang creating maximum havoc.  There is also a good deal of fairly cheesy early-70’s Satanism, including a séance as well as a weird scene whereby Tom discovers the secret his mother harbored for so long after entering the locked room where his father died.  There are plenty of deaths, all completely bloodless, and a totally groovy score that sounds as if it would fit in any number of pornos of the time as well as it fits into Psychomania.  Plus there are plenty of laughs.  The acoustic folk song played during Tom’s funeral is horrendous and it’s more than a little stretch that such a tough biker would shed his leathers to put on a flower-child costume to sing about being free.  It’s also silly to think that a morgue would have glass doors on each freezer to make for easy viewing of the corpses.  When one “dead” biker props his head up with one arm and waves to the coroner you get a sense the whole affair is a bit tongue-in-cheek.  It’s entirely innocuous but still tremendous fun.

So what could possibly account for this film’s popularity after more than four decades?  Perhaps it’s the acting.  Many of the young bikers were serious theater actors who did low-budget film on the side to survive and continue acting in theater.  By their own admission in some of the featurettes they didn’t treat these low-budget quickies seriously and certainly didn’t think any of them would still be remembered 40 years on.  Nevertheless, these young actors and actresses have chops, with Nicky Henson as the sadistically maniacal leader of the gang, Tom, as a particular standout.  He’s known for the genuine horror classic Witchfinder General (1968) as well as the popular Downton Abbey.  There’s a reason he’s been around for so long, and it shows even in this film.  Mary Larkin co-stars as Tom’s girlfriend, Abby.  Though she participates in much of the violence in the film, she never comes up with any of the ideas and seems like she is only along for the ride.  Amazingly, she is able to generate a good deal of sympathy for her character though she’s into the carnage up to her eyeballs.  Beryl Reid was already a veteran of film and television for nearly a quarter of a century when she played Mrs. Latham.  Reid might be most recognizable in the U.S. for her role in Dr. Phibes Rises Again.  And George Sanders, who plays Shadwell, the devilish butler, receives top billing though his role is only a supporting one.  He was really a grand master actor with many A-list films to his credit such as All About Eve, The Jungle Book (voice of Shere Khan the Tiger), Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca, and The Picture of Dorian Gray.  He was also well-known for his role in The Village of the Damned.  Sadly, PSYCHOMANIA was his last picture.  As so often happens with aging stars, they tend to be forgotten and end up laboring in films they once would not have considered.  Rumor has it that Sanders committed suicide just after watching a preview of PSYCHOMANIA.  It remains a mystery what, if any, role the film had in his death.  Regardless, he gives the film an aura of respectability in his scenes, which he seems to play rather gleefully.  It’s a layered, nuanced performance one doesn’t realize until his actual identity is revealed.

Befitting a cult classic, Arrow Films has released PSYCHOMANIA in a 2-disc special edition, with both Blu-Ray and standard DVD presentations.  The film has long suffered (at least in America) as a cheap, muddied pan-and-scan release for several budget labels.  But the film looks remarkable thanks to a new 2K restoration from the preservation negative.  While the film is fun itself, the real fun can be found with the special features which include several interviews with cast members who thoroughly enjoy talking about a film they thought would disappear almost as soon as it was released.  An archive featurette is available with many of the stars while Nicky Henson also is present in a brand new interview as well.  There are also short features with composer John Cameron, Harvey Andrews—a long-time musician who sang the song “Riding Free” for the film—and another feature with the owner of a famous British leather shop where the original costumes were purchased.  Along with the theatrical trailer, the first pressing comes with a booklet as well.

PSYCHOMANIA may not be particularly special, but it’s a fun and painless popcorn movie with a really enjoyable set of special features that are worth the price of admission alone.  You can purchase the film through Amazon or directly from Arrow at http://www.arrowfilms.co.uk/category/usa/.