Psychocinema

I first became aware of 'Psychomania' in the early eighties, when my friend Gary came into art class and started telling me about this bizarre hells angel zombie film he'd seen on the telly last night. I'd missed it, of course, so, in those far flung pre-internet, satellite and DVD days, rued my bad luck and settled down to wait for it to come around again and kept an eye out for it at the garage where we occasionally rented videos.

When I did see it, about five years (!) later, I was absolutely blown away. It's a unique film, and you can take that any way you want to. True, it's too British and cheap to be really scary, but it's brilliantly put together, has a great cast, a superb soundtrack and it's very funny, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. What more could you ask for? Nothing, that's what, nothing more.

Here's a clip where the motorcycle gang, The Living Dead, terrorise a parade of shops in Walton-On-Thames. Chock full of period detail (hot panted Mums, men in their thirties wearing cardigans and ties) look out for the man who decides to climb a ladder during a hell's angel attack: what did he think was going to happen?

Nice close ups at the end between the gang leader, Tom (played by Nicky Henson, who always reminds me of a more fully evolved Robin Askwith) and his prim, posh totty Abby. Look at the glances that pass between them: she really likes it when he's bad. Luckily for her, he's going to get a lot worse...