Psychomania

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antnield
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:59 pm
Location: Cheltenham, England

Psychomania

#1 Post by antnield » Thu Jun 02, 2016 1:55 pm

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Upon discovering a dark family secret Tom Latam (Nick Henson), the leader of hell-raising teen motorcycle gang 'The Living Dead', decides to take drastic measures to ensure his gang's superiority.

Through his devil-worshipping mother (Beryl Reid), Tom makes a pact with Satan to ascertain the secret of immortality. Using this information he encourages his fellow riders to end their lives, safe in the knowledge that they'll soon return from the dead to invulnerably terrorise the locals.

Packed with gothic tropes, black humour and eccentric performances (including George Sanders final screen role), Psychomania is a cult horror classic brimming with exciting action and fantastical mayhem.

Specs:

- Newly remastered in 2K from the original negatives
- New interview with actor Nicky Henson
- Restoration featurette
- Fully illustrated booklet
- Other extras TBC
Release date: September 2016

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RossyG
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 5:50 pm

Re: Psychomania

#2 Post by RossyG » Fri Jun 03, 2016 6:24 am

My favourite film when I was a teenager. Being filmed in my town helped.

A perfect choice for Flipside. Can't wait.

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Banasa
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2015 12:35 am

Re: Psychomania

#3 Post by Banasa » Fri Jun 03, 2016 11:20 am

Psychomania is quite bizarre. For a 1970s film about people who decide to kill themselves finding out that if they die, that they do not really die if you have no actual fear of it, it's virtually gore free and mostly has people running around leaping out of buildings to show off how little death effects them.

I don't know if it's great, but after seeing it on TCM years back I felt the urge to tell all my friends about it.

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domino harvey
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Re: Psychomania

#4 Post by domino harvey » Fri Jun 03, 2016 11:56 am

My mom had this double feature VHS when I was a kid and the packaging always made this and Alice Sweet Alice look like the two most horrifying films imaginable

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Psychomania

#5 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Jun 03, 2016 12:56 pm

I just love how low key the antics in this film are. The literally suicidal biker gang-turned-deathless racers don't really seem to have any grandiose plans for world domination, just annoying truck drivers and terrorising their local town centre! Its really less about the scares and more a post-Easy Rider moral tale about the perils of succumbing to peer pressure and the thrills of the road! But the motorbikes are still cool enough to subvert any preaching to the kids about not falling in with the pack!

While they're a bit jarring in comparison, I seem to remember that the film goes truly loopy in its subplots with the duo of satanic psychic Beryl Reid and jaded toyboy butler George Sanders. Doesn't it also involve the biker leader coming face to face with something like his 'spirit animal' - a giant toad?

Though this is also worth watching to see the way that British horror films of the early 70s were falteringly trying to move away from the period gothic Hammer horror approach and trying to directly appeal to contemporary 'youth' audiences. Films like The Haunted House of Horror, Tower of Evil, The Satanic Rites of Dracula (starring Joanna Lumley just prior to her New Avengers/Sapphire & Steel TV fame), and so on, in which groovy kids meet a horrible end! Though Dracula A.D. 1972 was perhaps the most hilarious and notorious example!

(Its also these slightly tone-deaf with regards to the youth of today, though often fun to watch, films that makes Pete Walker's films like Frightmare and House of Whipcord stand out even more, especially as they literalise the generational conflict angle and develop the youngsters more than just being one-note groovy! In fact House of Whipcord and House of Mortal Sin are all about the older repressed generation trying to reduce the younger one into just being licentious kids deserving of punishment!)
Last edited by colinr0380 on Sun Sep 03, 2017 7:46 am, edited 2 times in total.

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MichaelB
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Re: Psychomania

#6 Post by MichaelB » Fri Aug 26, 2016 11:26 am

Full specs announced:
BFI Flipside presents
Psychomania
A film by Don Sharp

Nicky Henson, Mary Larkin, George Sanders, Beryl Reid, Roy Holder, Robert Hardy

Soundtrack by John Cameron


Packed with gothic tropes, black humour and eccentric performances (including George Sanders’ final screen role), Psychomania is a cult horror classic brimming with exciting action and fantastical mayhem. On 26 September 2016 it will be released on DVD and Blu-ray in a Dual Format Edition by BFI Flipside, stuffed with special features including interviews with cast members, rare short films, a new interview with Nicky Henson, a new short film about Lewis Leathers and more.

Upon discovering a dark family secret, Tom Latham (Nicky Henson), the leader of hell-raising teen motorcycle gang The Living Dead, decides to take drastic measures to ensure his gang’s superiority. Through his devil-worshipping mother (Beryl Reid), Tom makes a pact with Satan to ascertain the secret of immortality. Using this information he encourages his fellow riders to end their lives, safe in the knowledge that they’ll soon return from the dead to invulnerably terrorise the locals.

Psychomania will be launched with a screening at BFI Southbank (NFT1) on Wednesday 14 September at 8.30pm, followed by a Q&A with actor Nicky Henson, hosted by Flipside curators Vic Pratt and William Fowler. It will also be screened at the Starburst International Film Festival in Manchester on Friday 26 August and around the country as part of Scalarama during September.

Special features
· Newly remastered in 2K from preservation negatives and presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition;
· Return of the Living Dead (2010, 25 mins): interviews with stars Nicky Henson, Mary Larkin, Denis Gilmore, Roy Holder and Rocky Taylor;
· Sound of Psychomania (2010, 9 mins): interview with soundtrack composer John Cameron;
· Riding Free (2010, 7 mins): interview with ‘Riding Free’ singer Harvey Andrews;
· An interview with Nicky Henson (2016, 14 mins): the star of Psychomania recalls his time on the film;
· Hell for Leather (2016, 8 mins): documentary about Lewis Leathers who supplied the film’s costumes;
· Remastering Psychomania (2016, 2 mins);
· Discovering Britain with John Betjeman: Avebury, Wiltshire (1955, 3 mins): the celebrated British poet narrates this travelogue about the Avebury stone circle and nearby burial grounds;
· Roger Wonders Why (1965, 19 mins): a church-made amateur film which sees two Christian biker youths visit the legendary 59 Club, where they meet its founder, Reverend Bill Shergold;
· Original theatrical trailer;
· Wilson Bros Trivia Track (2016, onscreen text): a newly-produced subtitle trivia-track by the horror aficionado siblings;
· Illustrated booklet with new writing by Vic Pratt, William Fowler and Andrew Roberts; and full film credits

Product details
RRP: £19.99/ Cat. no. BFIB1259 / Cert 15 / BFI Flipside No. 033
UK / 1973 / colour / English language, with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles / 91 mins / original aspect ratio 1.66:1 // BD50: 1080p, 24fps, PCM mono (48kHz/24-bit) / DVD9: PAL, 25fps, Dolby Digital 1.0 mono (192kbps)

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Psychomania

#7 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Aug 26, 2016 1:56 pm

That sounds a fantastic and wide-ranging set of extras! While the film specific extras are very much appreciated, it is hard to think of anyone other than the BFI being able to add in appropriate wider context pieces of Roger Wonders Why and a piece on John Betjeman into the extras of a 1970s supernatural biker horror film!

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RossyG
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 5:50 pm

Re: Psychomania

#8 Post by RossyG » Fri Aug 26, 2016 2:25 pm

Can't ask for more than that, really. A great set of extras.

It was filmed in my hometown of Walton-on-Thames.

Fun Facts:

The block of flats the biker dives from is the same one from Monty Python's Flying Circus where the girl is stripping in the window and Cleese appears on a window cleaners' rig blotting our view at the crucial moment.

The parade of shops where the bikers ride riot (now demolished) is where they filmed the Python Stork margarine sketch ("I'll slit yer throat") and where Frank Marker had his Walton office in Public Eye. Also, a bit of the film version of Jack Rosenthal's The Lovers was shot there. It was called Hepworth Way, named after a local film maker as it was built on the site of the old Nettlefold studios, where Robin Hood (1950s TV series) and Old Mother Riley were filmed.

Here endeth the fun facts.

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MichaelB
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Re: Psychomania

#9 Post by MichaelB » Wed Sep 07, 2016 9:24 am

Mondo Digital:
Anyone who had given up hope of a pristine version of this film ever turning up will be truly gobsmacked by the 2016 UK revisit from the BFI. [...] A quite miraculous release for any fan of bizarre horror movies from the genre's wildest decade.

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