Rating: 
Summary: i was eternally touched by this film
Review: oh baby..............i was so happy to find this vid a couple years back cause it reminded me of all the great supernatural horror flicks i grew up with...psychomania also was called something else if i remember in ny tv guides can anyone help?
Rating: 
Summary: Beware! Bikers From Heck!!
Review: OK, let me first point out that the members of "The Living Dead" motorcycle gang are almost as intimidating as a group of psychotic girlscouts. That said, I still enjoy this movie. Plot? Well, our dreaded heck's angels spend their time causing murder and mayhem. Their leader Tom decides that he wants to be a social liability forever, so he commits suicide in order to come back as an immortal jerk. This all has to do with his mum's involvement with a toad cult (???). Tom is buried, sitting on his motorbike! His funeral involves "hardcore" bikers making flower wreathes while one of them strums a guitar, singing like Cat Stevens with a headcold. Evil Tom comes riding out of his grave, just in time to mow down a meandering pedestrian. He convinces the others to do the same (all but his drag of a girlfriend). The suicides are pretty funny. One guy tosses himself in the river, chained to about a ton of scrap iron, with nothing on but his black underwear. With the whole gang re-animated, the carnage begins. The "Living Dead" cause fatal accidents, ride through a grocery store, and hit-and-run a baby carriage. Great fun is had by all! Yes, they do get there just desserts, but I won't give away the groovy climax. Buy immediately...
Rating: 
Summary: One toad stroganoff, extra cheese, please!
Review: Psychomania (Don Sharp, 1971)Perhaps the most amusing thing about Psychomania is that it wasn't the first film with that title (a previous film about an axe murderer called Psychomania was released in 1964. The two are completely unrelated). Avengers TV series director and veteran horror-film helmsman Don Sharp get behind the camera for this tale of a biker gang called The Living Dead. One wonders how, exactly, a town as small as the one in the film could sustain a biker gang, but there you go. Tom (Nicky Henson of The Conqueror Worm, There's a Girl in My Soup, etc.), the gang's leader, is almost too stereotypical for words; rich kid gone bad after catching a case of terminal hippie-dom. (Because, after all, all hippies are bikers.) Tom's mother (veteran TV and film actress Beryl Reid) and her sinister butler Shadwell (George Sanders, the voice of Shere Khan in The Jungle Book, in one of his last screen appearances) are members of an odd cult of frog worshippers who believe they know the secret to coming back from the dead, something they're quite anxious to keep from Tom. Or so we're led to believe. But he manages to trick it out of them... To call this movie "cheesy" would be understating the case in a major way. When two people commit suicide by jumping to their deaths--one via skydiving!--they're not going to show up in the morgue all in one piece. And yet, through the magic of filmmaking, they do. Lovely. Amusing little goofs like that are scattered throughout the film. And yet, somehow, Psychomania is one of the good bad films, rather than one of the bad bad films. Perhaps it's Nicky Henson's charm. Perhaps, in hindsight, it's playing "spot the bike gang member" (one of them has been in about half the James bond films, always uncredited, always playing a different walk-on character; two others are Shakespearean actors; etc.). Perhaps it's wondering how Don Sharp got George Sanders and Beryl Reid to take these roles seriously. Perhaps it's just the oddly catchy "Riding Free," which drifts through the movie like the wind. Who knows? In any case, this is one of those rare bad films with entirely too much rewatch value for its own good. Unfortunately, like most of the other Euroshock Collection DVDs I've encountered, this one comes with a dearth of special features (and it looks as if the film was simply transferred without any cleanup being done from a degraded master, just like Oasis of the Zombies). I know there aren't nearly enough fans of movies like this to make a major restoration project worth anyone's while, but it would have been nice to see it as a labor of love. In any case, if you've never seen Psychomania, now's your chance; don't miss it. *** ½ (lost half a star for the lackluster DVD presentation.)
Rating: 
Summary: How to bugger up a great movie
Review: Psychomania is a highly enjoyable movie, but is poorly served by this DVD release. The first 2 reels look like they have been sourced from the same print that has been circulating on US video for years. After this, the print becomes pretty good, but cannot make up for what has gone before. It's a pity this had to happen, as this is one movie that deserves better treatment than has been given here. I mean, what other movie could possibly offer George Sanders, a frog-cult, rough, tough bikers who don't even swear and Beryl Reid in a ludicrous syrup? Image should have used their heads when looking for a print and contacted the British Film Insitute in the UK. When looking for a print of Independence Day, you don't make a B-line for Holland, do you? Overall, a major disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Get ready to laugh!
Review: The much ballyhooed biker film genre is one I rarely, if ever, visit on my cinematic excursions. I have never seen more than ten minutes of "Easy Rider," nor have I witnessed Marlon Brando donning the leather jacket and rebellious attitude in "The Wild One." Forget "Quadrophenia" or even Herschell Gordon Lewis's "She-Devils on Wheels." If it's got a guy throwing caution to the wind on the back of a hog, I have not been there to witness it. The closest I get to a motorcycle movie is when I happen to catch a James Bond film where guys on bikes try to chase down 007. Heck, I can't stand watching that motorcycle show on television where the blowhard screams at his sons all day. That is why I am so surprised I not only rented "Psychomania" but also liked it immensely as well. Here's a movie every lover of low budget cinematic sludge can fully endorse. Here's a movie loaded with ugly guys sporting atrocious haircuts zipping around the highway. Here's a movie where reanimated biker gang members can ride through a brick wall without putting a scratch on their choppers. Here's a movie with characters named Hatchet and Chopped Meat. What are you waiting for?
The Living Dead is the name of the game in a small English village as far as threatening motorcycle gangs go. An equal opportunity employer, the group includes both men and women in their reigns of terror throughout the countryside. What do they do? Oh, just your everyday harmless antics like chasing cars off the road, buzzing pedestrians, and speaking bad English. The leader of the gang is Tom (Nicky Henson), a goofy chap with a psychic mother and no father figure. His girlfriend Abby (Mary Larkin) provides a few kicks when fellow member Jane (Ann Michelle) isn't trying to muscle in. Tom's greatest thrill isn't his girlfriend, however, but trying to figure out a way to live on the wild side. Thanks to his mother (Beryl Reid) and their aging butler Shadwell (George Sanders), he's about to do just that. Mum is part of some frog cult (!) that vigorously promotes the idea that anyone may return from the dead if only he or she wishes to hard enough. You've got to be careful that you don't change your mind at the last minute, though, or you won't ever return. Tom's father apparently wasn't sure, probably because he remembered his son's haircut at the last second and decided he couldn't take coming back to that, but Tom is all for trying out the secrets of the frog cult.
Tom, sad to say, moves on to another plane of existence after soaring off a bridge during a police chase. His friends gather at the gravesite for a truly poignant and memorable service, with the high point being the acoustic version of "Ride Free" played with all due seriousness. Tom's demise crushes Abby, but hope blooms anew as her beau bursts out of the ground alive and kicking on his motorcycle! It worked! He goes on a rampage through the town, killing several people who just happen to irritate him, and then begins to pester the other members of the group to commit the final act. Most of his pals take him up on the offer, dispatching themselves through a variety of methods including skydiving without a parachute, diving into the river weighted down with chains, and taking a freefall out of a tall building while calling out to a police officer below "I'll be right down." Abby even attempts to join Tom's brand new version of The Living Dead by taking a heavy dose of pills, but her heart isn't really in it and she survives with the help of the authorities. The cops, mystified why a few deceased gang members killed morgue personnel and then walked out of the building, put pressure on Abby to bring down the group. "Psychomania" ends with a series of spectacularly cheesy special effects.
It's rare to see a movie as ridiculous and over the top as "Psychomania." It's also rare to enjoy a movie as ridiculous and over the top as "Psychomania." But enjoy it I did. I can't decide which I liked better, the motorcycle gang or Tom's mother and the creepy butler Shadwell. I probably should go with the former since we spend the most time following their exploits. I howled with laughter watching these dolts tool around the countryside while wearing little skull shaped masks. You'd think they would know that blocking their peripheral vision could result in an accident, but even if they did they wouldn't care. Part of being in a motorcycle gang is learning how to live life on the edge. Besides, those haircuts are more dangerous than any riding mishap! It's truly amazing to see how society defined bad behavior even a few decades ago. Nowadays we have to worry about all manner of depraved behaviors. Indeed, you only need open your newspaper to see the latest list of atrocities committed right outside our homes. In "Psychomania" the worst behavior seems to be speeding, nudging cars off the road, and being disrespectful to private property. Sure, things worsen after the gang comes back from the grave, but that's only because it's a crime against God and humanity.
I'm a tad disappointed in the DVD. There weren't any extras, and the picture quality was truly dreadful. You'd figure a laugh a minute schlockfest like this would receive the five star treatment from a company like Blue Underground or Anchor Bay, especially considering master thespian George Sanders starred in it. Sadly, the actor took his life a year or so after "Psychomania" was unleashed on the public. Despite this tragic turn of events, I dare you to despise this film. It's too much fun to really dislike it.
Rating:
Summary: So-So Horror
Review: This DVD release is not too bad, the first 20mins of the film suffers from a smeary/smudgy look, but then the picture becomes more stable with good sharp focus. The film itself is one of our (I'm from the UK) lesser Hammer rivals. There is no blood or gore, and the end "fx" are awful. However Beryl Reid and George Sanders are in fine form - the chilling thing is the main plot concerns suicide - which Sanders committed not long after this, his last film.....
Rating:
Summary: Fun 70's horror
Review: This is a fun film that few people know about. It has to do with a motorcycle gang who commit a group suicide and return from the dead to wreak havoc. Not too much violence, but the film has touches of the ambience that some 70's horror films managed to capture. More than that, it's great campy fun with some good laughs, as only the British can do.
Rating:
Summary: BEST of the Biker/Occult Genre!!
Review: Very Creative Plotline!
A true "edge of your seat" thrill-fest! MUST SEE!
=^..^=
Rating:
Summary: A "classic" plot delivered in a cult classic budget.
Review: What a wonderful story, the search for eternal life. This film however, takes an unusual twist. No flowing fountain of youth in this one. You have to want to live forever so bad that you give your life. Questionable acting, rough film quality, strange handling of storylines, can not take away from the "Lost Boy " attraction of this film. How can cheap English motorcycles put through their paces, hard core English wannabees doing themselves in, and ketchup gore be bad. It can't. This story has stuck with me since I was 9. Staying up late that night watching this movie on some obscure cable channel has haunted me ever since. This is pure entertainment at its best. Not for those who like "Titanic", but maybe a "Repo Man" fan could appreciate.
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