"It's easy to kill live people"

During some of my reading/research in one of the many horror magazines out there, I came across an article on the film Psychomania. Before I even read anything, I took one look at the bikers in the picture and asked James if he'd ever seen it. He hadn't and we were both shocked that neither of us had even heard of it before. We were immediately seduced by it's quirky charm and premise, and vowed to see it as soon as possible. Our viewing has finally occurred and we were quite enticed by what we saw.

Don Sharp directs the undeniably likeable 1973 euroshock, Psychomania (or The Death Wheelers) about "The Living Dead" biker gang who end up quite literally being just that. Tom Latham (Nicky Henson) is the leader of this fab gang, clad in embroidered leathers and some wicked matching skeleton helmets. The gang likes to pass their time playing chicken with highway motor vehiclists, driving in circles around 7 big stones (or witch burial rather) and driving through city squares and grocery stores, knocking things over.

Tom is a bad boy. He wears leather pants and has funny, Brian Jones-esque hair (Nicky Henson blames other roles for the hair but I think he dug it) and at the ripe age of 18, just isn't feeling satisfied with his life. He confesses to his girlfriend Abby, the nice one of the gang, that he wants to commit suicide and she tells him that she can't join his suicide pact because she has to help her mum with the shopping tomorrow. He also appears to have a short attention span because midway through their graveyard make-out session, he stops to snatch up a frog (and I do mean that literally). He takes it home to his mother (Beryl Reid) and her manservant Shadwell (George Sanders who ironically committed suicide before the film's release, claiming to be "bored", but sadly did not come back on a motorcycle) and tries to figure out it's relation to his family and bringing back the dead. Turns out his family are some sort of occultists and after getting trapped in a secret room in the house and having vague, frog related hallucinations, Tom learns the secret to coming back from the dead. Turns out all you have to do is really, truly believe you can come back. Hmm...why have I never thought of this? Oh yeah, and some sort of frog ornamented jewelry is also required.

Tom wastes no time in meeting his demise and drives himself off a bridge. Abby requests that his mother let the gang bury him their way, which is sitting upright on his bike in the grave (which was cool until you saw the gang out of their leather and in garish hippie attire, singing cheesy acoustic ballads and making floral wreaths). There was something about this that seemed vaguely familiar to me, that I just couldn't put my finger on. Turns out Lemmy from Motorhead must have been a fan of this film because he pays homage to it in their video for "Killed by Death". Anyway, back on point, Tom drives out of his grave, in the same perfect condition he was in before he died, hell-bent on wreaking havoc and taking lives. His gang decides to follow suit, jumping out of buildings and planes, riding in front of trucks, walking into the river donning chains and a speedo...Amazingly, only one or two chicken out right before death, even though most of their methods spare plenty of time for second thought before actually killing you. Abby however, is not so easily seduced by the idea. As the police close in on Tom and his undead comrades, Abby struggles with her will to live and her inexplicable love for Tom who, let's face it, is kind of a cold-hearted ass. She also picks the least fail-proof way to attempt to off herself. Can these evil forces be stopped or will idiotic romanticism win out?


Nicky Henson delivers a pretty solid lead as Tom, a rather spoiled and selfish outsider who just wants to live forever and mess with people as he pleases. George Sanders brought such a great sense of old-school sinister and macabre acting that made all of his scenes increasingly enjoyable. The rest of the gang all brought their own little quirks to this charming cast, each with a different, odder-looking British face than the next.


Psychomania isn't your typical film involving the undead. It isn't laden with gore and special effects, nor is it rampant with nudity or really much sexuality at all (seriously no boobs!). It instead utilizes the grainy 1970s cinematography that we know and love to set the tone of the film, with foggy moors and some simple live action stunts to the tune of an awesomely psychedelic soundtrack by John Cameron. That, paired with the colourful characters and the aforementioned bad-ass outfits, are what make this stylish biker flick a cult classic.


As for the DVD, it has some pretty informative special features that are definitely worth checking out, including an introduction by Fangoria Editor Chris Alexander, interviews with the cast, and an interview with the writer of that cheesy, hippie ballad. The film's negatives were apparently lost, so it's been taken from the best 35mm stock available, and looks pretty good.


All in all, Psychomania is a fun, stylish film that will keep you grooving and hanging on from that foggy opening scene to the utterly surreal ending. You really can't miss out on seeing "the grooviest zombie biker movie of them all!"