6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.9 |
The leader of a notorious motorbike gang, The Living Dead, believes he has found the secret to immortality: all you have to do is commit suicide while firmly believing you will come back. The result: a uniquely bizarre blend of vintage British biker flicks and Dennis Wheatley, from the writers of the equally unusual "Horror Express".
Starring: Nicky Henson, Mary Larkin, Ann Michelle, Roy Holder, Denis GilmoreHorror | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
English: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
BDInfo
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Region A (locked)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
The British, for all their vaunted reserve, keeping calm and carrying on, also not so coincidentally tend to be a very polite lot, and all of those elements might point to a central reason not to believe a major plot conceit in Psychomania. Could there even be renegade biker gangs in England? Well, fear not, for believing in English biker gangs will actually be the least of your challenges when it comes to credulity levels in this bizarre and maybe even downright gonzo offering from 1973. This is a film that combines a number of disparate elements, including the aforementioned biker gang angle, along with an occult ambience and what might even be seen as a tip of the disinterred head to Night of the Living Dead. Featuring two notable British character actors, George Sanders (in his last film role) and Beryl Reid, the film might seem on its face to offer the sort of quasi-highbrow aesthetic that colored a number of other horror films of this period, like The Creeping Flesh. Despite a game cast, though, Psychomania suffers from plot points being posited rather than adequately explained, leaving the viewer to fill in any number of blanks as the story details the adventures of smug biker gang leader Tom Latham (Nicky Henson, who himself appeared in a kind of quasi-highbrow horror thriller a few years previously to this one, in 1968’s Witchfinder General). The film documents the gang’s evident fascination with a henge (not quite at the level of Stonehenge), which they ride in and out of first under the opening credits and then later in the film. That henge also pops up in a flashback which details some kind of ritual being performed with Tom as an infant with his mother (Beryl Reid), one that would seem to have also involved family butler Shadwell (George Sanders), at least if a distinctive ring is any clue. But the fact that none of these elements is really developed in any meaningful way may leave some struggling to connect the dots.
Psychomania is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.66:1. Arrow's typically informative insert booklet contains the following information on the transfer, which includes a restoration done in collaboration with the British Film Institute:
When research began prior to the restoration of Psychomania, it was discovered that the only surviving elements were a damaged color reversal internegative (CRI) held in Los Angeles, a heavily worn and faded 16mm print and miraculously, a set of 35mm black and white separation preservation masters (Promaster) held at the Filmoteca Espanola in Madrid. These separation masters were created from an original 35mm negative element in the 1970s.From the pure technical mastery on display to salvage a presentable image, Psychomania deserves as many stars as anyone could possibly give it, but the actual image here can show the struggles that this attempt provided. Color is generally fairly good, if a little wan looking, and there are obvious if at times slight differences, sometimes from moment to moment, in general color temperature. Grain also resolves differently at different moments, and there are a few times when it assumes a kind of unhealthy swarming look that makes the image pretty gritty looking and also reduces fine detail levels (one of the more notable examples in this regard is when Tom first enters the "locked room" relatively early in the film). Detail levels are generally good to very good in midrange shots and close-ups, and understandably a bit fuzzier in wide shots, though the entire transfer is on the soft side. There is some occasional and very slight chemical damage which can be seen at the very corners of the frame from time to time. All in all, this is more than watchable, especially considering the hoops that had to be jumped through to attain even this, but the most demanding videophiles would be best advised to temper their expectations for a pristine video presentation, since that's just not in the cards for this film given the elements that were utilized.
Black and white separations come in three reels for every one reel of film, and are a form of preservation aimed at combatting long term color fading. They are black and white records of the additive primary colors (red, green and blue) created by printing the negative element three times through cyan, magenta and yellow filters. Each reel of the Psychomania separations was ultrasonically cleaned then scanned one frame per second in 2K resolution using a Northlight II scanner at Pinewood Studios. Digital tools were then applied to reduce flicker (the yellow layer being particularly problematic), neg sparkle and dust. The images were then recombined digitally to create a full color image which was then graded before further picture restoration was undertaken. The film is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.66:1.
Psychomania's uncompressed mono track shows none of the (understandably) variable quality of the video presentation, and in fact the film's nice rock and folk inflected score comes through with a fair amount of energy. Occasional sound effects, like some of the screeching tires and roaring motorcycle engines can sound just a trifle boxy, but dialogue is delivered cleanly and clearly and there are no issues with outright damage.
Psychomania is a near miss from a number of standpoints. If it had only taken just a little more time to clearly lay out some of its plot conceits, I think the ultimate effect of a really "living dead" biker gang would have been more forceful. As it stands, the film is weirdly goofy and more than a little anchored in its time period, with renegade bikers who come off as slightly more aggressive Flower Children. The technical feat of rescuing this film from the dustbin of history is commendable, and as usual Arrow has assembled a nice supplementary package.
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