Motorpsycho! Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Motorpsycho! Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 28, 2025

Note: Severin is continuing its curation of films owned by The Russ Meyer Trust, with another round of both 1080 and 4K UHD releases of a couple of films, resulting in four total releases (with the 4K packages including 1080 discs): Up! 4K, Up!, Motorpsycho! 4K, and Motorpsycho!. Severin continues its somewhat hilarious branding of these titles under a Bosomania "imprint" of sorts, which I continue to only maybe slightly jokingly wish came replete with a ™ symbol.

With a career that could often resemble a metaphorical roller coaster ride, Russ Meyer experienced both extreme highs and lows, and rather interestingly both of the films Severin is releasing this month kind of chart either an ascent (as in the case of this film) or a descent (as in the case of Up!), at least in terms of characterizing the response any given Meyer film may have had within the overall context of his oeuvre (and, yes, I did just use oeuvre to discuss Russ Meyer). In that regard, Up! was released directly after Meyer's incredibly successful Supervixens, and probably couldn't help but pale by comparison. Both ironically but also curiously similarly, Motorpsycho debuted shortly before the film that would really put Meyer on the map (at least for some), Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, and was therefore kind of subsumed by the success that film enjoyed. Of all of the Meyer Trust related films Severin has thus far released, Motorpsycho is the earliest, stemming from 1965, and is also the only one so far in black and white.

As is disclosed in some of the supplements on this disc, Motorpsycho may have actually given Meyer the idea for Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, insofar as this film offers an out of control gang of male villains, and after the production wrapped, Meyer evidently said something akin to, "Let's do it again with females!" In this case "chief lunatic" status goes to the inimitably named Brahmin (Steven Oliver, who was evidently quite the handful on "set"), who might be thought of as a mid-sixties update of the character of Johnny played so memorably by Marlon Brando in The Wild One. The Wild One, for all its hyperbolic insanity, actually may come off as a veritable Andy Hardy movie in its portrayal of everyday American life when stacked up against the decidedly more provocative approach Meyer takes with this story.

The film begins with just the first savage attack against a female that will be depicted, but that at least sets up the premise that a trio of raucous bikers, including leader Brahmin (as his name might imply) and acolytes Slick (Thomas Scott) and Dante (Joseph Cellini), are out of control and on the hunt, so to speak. That ultimately brings them into contact with veterinarian Cory Maddox (Alex Rocco) and his wife Gail (Holle K. Winters), with the upshot being that Cory is soon on the hunt himself, namely for vengeance. Yet another attack by the biker trio than teams Maddox with Ruby Bonner (Meyer mainstay Haji) as they both seek to bring the "boys" to justice, since official lawman types (including a cameo by Meyer) are seemingly powerless.

Suffice it to say, it's all about as trashy and exploitative as might be imagined, but perhaps a bit surprisingly Motorpsycho really has little to none of the winking quality that suffuses some of Meyer's later offerings. That may actually make the violence here a bit more visceral, but it also may unavoidably lead to a general feeling of smarminess.

Motorpsycho! Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Motorpsycho is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.67:1. A prefatory text card provides the following information:

This 4K restoration was produced by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

The film was scanned, graded, and restored at ImagePro from the 35mm original camera negative, with additional sections scanned from the 35mm interpositive. The audio was sourced from 35mm original track negative.

All of the Meyer films released thus far by Severin have tended to look pretty spectacular, and despite this being the oldest and the only one in black and white so far, that "tradition" is continuing with this presentation, at least for the most part. This may be a bit of an outlier in that while I'd certainly recommend those with the appropriate setups who are interested in this film to opt for Severin's 4K UHD release, there may be less of a marked difference between that presentation and this 1080 one than seen in some of the other Severin dual resolution releases of other Meyer material. I'd actually love to know why some sections of the film were sourced from an IP rather than the negative, and exactly where those sections might be, but one way or the other, while this offers a really solid accounting of the film's cinematography and location shoot, there are a few passing variances which may in fact be due at least in part to the variety of sources utilized. Clarity and grain grittiness can ebb and flow throughout the many outdoor scenes, but on the whole detail levels on everything from fabrics to swirls of dust left in the wake marauding "hogs" are very precisely rendered. The entire transfer struck me as intermittently a bit on the dark side, and that certainly is noticeable in some of the day for night material in particular, where black levels can spike and at least some detail levels become masked. The darkness may be even more noticeable in Severin's 4K presentation courtesy of HDR. As mentioned, grain can flare at times, especially against some of the bright desert sky backgrounds, but resolves without any major issues.

Motorpsycho! Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Motorpsycho features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track which is nicely spry and appropriately reverberant as motorcycles speed across desert landscapes. The film also has its fair share of (supposedly) diagetic music, courtesy of the gonzo character Slick, who is constantly listening to his groovy transistor radio. The glut of outdoor location work has occasional if intermittent ambient environmental effects. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Motorpsycho! Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Elizabeth Purchell and Zach Clark


• Desert Rats on Hondas (HD; 21:16) offers separate interviews with Haji and Alex Rocco.


• Trailer (HD; 3:32)

Severin sent its 4K UHD release for purposes of this 1080 review. It doesn't look like this standalone 1080 release comes with a slipcover.

Motorpsycho! Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The "follow up" to Motorpsycho ended up eclipsing its supposed progenitor so much that this outing has kind of retreated to a second tier of Meyer offerings. It has very little of the winking quality that maybe helped some of Meyer's later efforts go down (sorry) a bit more easily, but it has its own feral energy. Technical merits are solid and the interviews with Haji and Alex Rocco especially enjoyable, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.