Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		2.5

Psychomania Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 20, 2017

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.

Early on the film details the mayhem that Tom’s gang, The Living Dead, wreak in the local village, though some of it’s kind of comically lowkey, rather similar to the shenanigans in Herschell Gordon Lewis’ immortal She-Devils on Wheels. A more serious incident involves causing a guy in a car to crash, something that Tom brags about to his mother and Shadwell when he returns to their luxurious mansion. He has to wait for a few minutes, though, because it appears that Mrs. Latham is a medium, offering messages from what appears to be a dead little girl to the girl’s distraught parents. This element of Psychomania is something else that isn’t developed in the slightest. Clear dubbing of a real little girl’s voice for Reid in the trance state might indicate a real psychic ability, and the fact that Shadwell refuses payment from the girl's family for Mrs. Latham’s services comes off as downright odd, since there seems to be an undeniable subtext that this group is made up of charlatans, one way or the other. The fact that Shadwell shies away from a bejeweled cross the distraught family begs to give him in payment at least hints at a demonic aspect that the film also touches on if never fully exploits, a sidebar that also includes toad worship. (If by now you're not at least slightly intrigued by this already wacko assortment of plot elements, even if virtually all of them are just trotted out before something else follows in quick succession, that might indicate Psychomania is not the right film for you.)

Believe it or not, all of this occurs in just the first few minutes of the film, leaving the “rest of the story” to detail Tom’s desire to make his gang name more literal. It turns out that Mrs. Latham and Shadwell are part of a death cult, or perhaps to state it more accurately, a back from the dead cult, in another plot point that’s dismissed in a couple of throwaway dialogue lines. Kind of akin to clapping and believing in Peter Pan brings Tinkerbell back to life, a firm faith that coming back from the grave evidently is all that’s needed to become an immortal, and so Tom decides to go for it. In a none too surprising development, it turns out that dear Mom’s advice about how the whole “living dead” thing works actually turns out to be correct, and soon enough Tom is back to wreak more havoc, which in this case includes convincing his gang members to follow in his (temporarily) suicidal footsteps. (An unintentionally hilarious sight gag involves how the gang decides to bury Tom, but I’ll leave that little surprise for enterprising viewers.)

As should already be patently obvious, there is a ton of potentially fascinating material being mined in Psychomania, but the film’s slapdash manner of treating what should be major narrative points repeatedly hobbles the effort. Any number of elements could have been developed better, strengthening the whole back from the dead angle significantly. The film still manages to have fitful bursts of energy, including some great stunt work on the motorcycles, and Sanders, usually kind of a curmudgeon in his roles even in his relative youth, is actually kind of weirdly avuncular as Shadwell.

Psychomania Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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.

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.

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.

Psychomania Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview with Nicky Henson (1080p; 13:57) is a fun reminiscence by the actor, who gets into some of his personal history while also discussing the shoot.


• Return of the Living Dead (1080p; 25:02) is a piece from Severin Films done in 2010 featuring interviews with Henson, Mary Larkin, Denis Gilmore, Roy Holder and Rocky Taylor.


• The Sound of Psychomania (1080p; 9:06) features composer John Cameron.


• Riding Free (1080p; 6:25) interviews Harvey Andrews, singer of the film's folk anthem.


• Hell for Leather (1080p; 7:52) is an interesting interview with Derek Harris, owner of Lewis Leathers, the firm that provided the distinctive outfits the biker gang wore in the film.


• Restoring Psychomania (1080p; 1:47) is a short piece documenting the heroic efforts to rescue a color presentation from black and white separation master source elements.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:50)

An informative illustrated insert booklet is also provided.

Psychomania Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.