By Melissa Antoinette Garza
A kind and pleasant Twitter pal reminded me of this movie after I reviewed VIRGIN WITCH (1972) as both films have Ann Michelle in them. I hadn’t reviewed PSYCHOMANIA yet, so here goes that.
Admittedly, I’m not big into bikers at all. Unless there’s a motorcycle resting in between the legs of Richard O’Brien, I’m really not that interested – and honestly, I can assure you when I’m looking at pics of O’Brien, I don’t see the bike. I’m just fantasizing about being in its place.
Still, despite my disinterest in bikers, Tom Latham (Nicky Henson) is pretty interesting and very attractive. He’s the leader of the gang, THE LIVING DEAD. He has a hot devoted girlfriend named Abby (Mary Larkin) who is clearly a good girl gone bad. Tom, like his mother (Beryl Reid), is into black magic. He tries to get Abby into a suicide pact so they can come back and live forever. The talk and craziness turns her on, but she won’t kill herself stating that she has to help her mother shop in the morning. You know, priorities.
Other than being a ruffian delinquent, Tom keeps begging his mother for the secret to life after death. She’s holds seances for kicks and is kind of a rock-star at witchery. Shadwell (George Sanders) the trusted butler, partakes in the seances and with permission from Mrs. Latham, gives Tom a chain with a symbol on it and a key to a locked door. He’s afraid and nearly turns back once inside, but a smoke filled mirror and the vision of a toad he took home earlier appear to him. He sees his gang circling around a graveyard and soon the image shifts to reveal his origin story and how his mother made a sinister deal when he was a baby.
When Tom reemerges momentarily catatonic from the experience, Mrs. Latham reveals some new information. Tom’s dad killed himself with the hopes of coming back. Sadly, his father didn’t have enough faith to return. Tom overhears enough for him to move forward with his plan to kill himself.
Tom brings his gang together to cause some chaos. Abby isn’t sure she wants to risk it, but when the vampy, voluptuous Jane (Ann Michelle) shows no fears, they all go. First, they fuck with shoppers and people sitting down relaxing on public benches. Jane knocks someone off of a ladder and laughs as they come crashing down in a wickedly humorous moment. The cops arrive to round them up and a chase ensues. Poor Jane goes flying, but thankfully her tight, fire-engine red leather jacket was unharmed.
Tom drives himself into a lake despite Abby begging him not kill himself. Abby runs to his mother, shares the news and tries to figure out more detail as to why he was so suicidal. Abby asks if she can bury Tom at a place with great historical significance called The Seven Witches. Mrs. Latham agrees and the gang puts together a small funeral, plays music and makes flower arrangements and wreaths.
Things are going well, until Jane makes a move to take over as leader Abby, still wrecked over losing Tom, says that he’s not buried yet and is obviously angered over the disrespect. Before things can get too ugly, Shadwell comes to bury him with a strange symbol that will help with the resurrection process.
Tom does come back out of his grave with his motorcycle and he’s as bad as ever. When he steals gas from an attendant and the clerk gives him lip, he takes him down with one hand. He heads to a bar where he meets two blondes. They pay for him to make a phone call to Shadwell and his mother, who are both ecstatic that he’s now among the actual living dead.
When the blonde at the bar thinks her money for the phone call and a quick drink buys her a place on his bike, he tells her to get off. When she refuses, he goes violent gang-banger on her and a few others.
The gang starts pointing fingers at who may have killed the victims from the night before, but soon Tom arrives and declares that he’s back. They think he’s a fraud impersonator, but he proves them wrong by not flinching when stabbed.
Jane and Hinky (Rocky Taylor) take the suicide plunge and Jane is able to return. Hinky hesitated and didn’t have enough desire to die, so he’s gone.
Jane, however, comes back before her parents even gets a last look in the coffin. She is a free fucking spirit and loves life even more when she’s dead. Now that they’re immortal, Tom and Jane have fun terrorizing everyone. It’s wrong. Some of the people are old and helpless, but they are so good at being bad together. They are immature and have so much fun with their antics that it makes a great deal of their hijinks sinfully enjoyable. I don’t often get angry with them.
When Jane coyly asks Tom if they should teach a to a driver who dare question their tomfoolery, he’s killed. It’s done for kicks and laughs. They’re bad people, but it isn’t hard to see why someone like Abby likes to be around them.
Abby still isn’t sold on killing herself, but when Tom breaks her out of jail she decides he’s a sociopath to spend eternity with. This is a romantic flick I can get behind! Abby tries to kill herself, but fails. When Tom finds out she’s still alive, he can’t deal and demands she kill herself.
The rest of the gang all end up killing themselves in different ways. There is something refreshingly cool about them getting infinite power to live forever and using it only to get away with the shit they’ve already been doing. They do a little more, but the movie remains focused. This really feels like the thing a bunch of stupid reckless late-teens would do if they killed themselves and came back. They are so short-sided, but that’s not an insult. It’s just a matter-of-fact. They use their existence to make things easier. They still continue to rebel against the powers-that-be and anyone else who they come across. They are intent on disrupting the establishment at its core for no other reason than to shake things up.
In the end, we learn more about Mrs. Latham’s bargain and a subsequent curse that ties the film together nicely.
PSYCHOMANIA (1974) is a strange little oddity that though has a cult following isn’t as known as it should be. It’s certainly a great flick to throw on at parties and introduce people to.
It’s a peculiar film where you probably shouldn’t root for the bad guys, but do anyways.
Scared Stiff Rating: 7/10
