Psychomania (1971) *****

[Scott]

Just viewed PSYCHOMANIA. Its a Britiish film made in 1971 and is about a motorcycle gang called "The Living Dead". The leader of the gang has a mother who is like into the occult and seances. The leader named Tom is also into the occult and wants to know what happened to his father. After finding out the truth he sets out to do the same by killing himself, but he must really believe that he will come back to life for him to come back to life. So he intentionally crashes his bike off a bridge and kills himself. Later after the funeral where he is buried on his motorcycle he flies out of his grave and starts creating more mayhem and murder than while he was alive. He also talks his gang members into doing the same so the gang really lives up to the name "The Living Dead". A side note that frogs are involved in this movie and the gang turns to stone in the end by the mothers doing.

The film is just a great biker/horror film. I give it the highest rating. I remember seeing the film on my b/w TV in the 70's, but its even better in color. Not many films can say that. Watching the film brought back memories of other films that I watched during the same time period, like THE FLESH EATERS, THE SCREAMING SKULL, and THE CRAZIES during the Saturday afternoon 1pm horror hosted show that I can't remember the name of during the mid 70's.

Favorite Biker Films:

The Wild One
Psychomania
Easy Rider
Mad Max
Quadraphenia
Wild Angels
Hells Angels on Wheels
Born Losers

Are there any other biker films I should know about?

[Deej]

Haven't seen Psychomania, but I agree with your Biker Flick pics. I especially like the biker flicks with Petey Fonda. There is something comforting about watching a flick whose protagonist is a biker that you could easily beat hell out of! That goes double for Bruce Dern! If the Hell's Angels were all like Fonda, Dern, and Dennis Hopper, Altamont would have been a much different affair entirely.
                                                                                       DJ

[Culllen]

I wouldn't have given "Psychomania" 5 *'s, but I think it's an okay flick.

Two points of interest:

* The is an interesting game that goes with watching British Horror films around that time: call it Spot the "Doctor Who" Actor.  It sort of like the "Star Trek" actor lists made at the Cold Fusion Video Review site (http://www.coldfusionvideo.com/).  Sometimes it seems like you couldn't watch a British film without seeing an actor who popped up on "Doctor Who."  (Not too surprising, all things considered.)

Anyway, "Psychomania" has the distinction of having John Levene playing one of the cops.  Levene is better known as Sgt. Benton on "Doctor Who", a fairly major character at on point.  When I saw him, I wondered if the Brigadier was far behind.

(You'd probably have to be a "Doctor Who" fan.  An easily amused "Doctor Who" fan.)

* This was George Sanders' last film.  Sanders, who plays the butler in this film, had a wide and varied career, from playing the Saint in several films to appearing in movies such as "Rebecca" and "Forigen Correspondent".  He might be better known as one of the Dr. Freezes on the T.V. "Batman", as well as Shere Khan in Disney's "Jungle Book"
___________________________________
And now for something completely different.

"Are there any other biker films I should know about?"

You didn't mention "Werewolf on Wheels."  Now, whether you should know about this film or remain blissfully unaware is another matter...


(Haven't seen it myself.  Just heard bad things about it.)

[StatCat]

I like this film but I probably wouldn't have given it 5 stars either. It has some funny humor and I like its morbid kind of style, I haven't seen it in awhile. I would probably give it a solid 3 and half out of 5 based on what I remember about it.

[john]

>Are there any other biker films I should know about?

 How about Chopper Chicks In Zombie Town?