Psychomania

Tom Latham, an amiable psychopath, is the leader of a violent youth gang named The Living Dead, which includes his girlfriend Abby.

Tom dabbles in black magic and spends much of his free time at an ancient Surrey countryside ruin known as The Seven Witches, a Stonehenge-like circle of standing stones.

In a similar vein, his mother and her sinister butler Shadwell get their kicks out of holding séances in their home while they worship the Frog God.

One by one, his fellow bikers commit suicide with the goal of returning as one of the "undead", gathering at The Seven Witches to plan their campaign of terror against the locals.

I said, 'Where's the Harley Davidsons?’ They said, ‘You gotta be kidding!’ It's the only show I’ve ever been on where there were eight mechanics working the whole time to keep the bikes fanning because they got ’em in some second-hand shop somewhere and they were falling to bits.

"[8] Henson said the script was written by "two expatriate Communist sympathisers" and that Sanders' scenes were shot in ten days to save money as he was paid more than the rest of the cast.

"[8] Originally produced under the title The Living Dead, principal photography took place at Shepperton Studios in 1971[5] with some exterior scenes filmed in the (now demolished and rebuilt) Hepworth Way shopping centre and Wellington Close housing block in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.

"[13] Sanders committed suicide soon after filming wrapped, putting an end to a period of life marked by heavy drug use, deterioration of the cerebellum and resultant speech problems.

He is careful not to let the tone slip into farce and to keep the action as realistic as possible; and the result of his poker-faced direction is that a ludicrous plot ... emerges as both innovatory and humorously macabre.

The film has its limitations (it was evidently made on a modest budget), but it develops its central idea with enjoyable consistency and sometimes achieves images of startling comic originality ... Sharp's talent for stunt-work also ensures that the gang's hell-raising activities are convincingly exciting, and the kids' joyous obsession with death sometimes seems like an eerie extension of the whole Hell's Angel ethic (itself prefigured in Cocteau's representation of death as a black-leathered motorcyclist in Orphée).

For much of the time this psychedelic zombie biker frightener is utter drivel, but director Don Sharp throws in some cracking scenes, notably the one in which leader of the gang Nicky Henson rises from the grave, bike and all.

Henson has a hoot as the Angel from Hell, and he is superbly supported by Bery Reid as his devil-worshipping mum and George Sanders as his ghoulish butler.

"[21] Shock Till You Drop called the film "a great one-shot horror movie filled with weird, sometimes eerie atmosphere, crazy stunt work, cheeky performances, mild kink and a unique charm all its own".

[26] In 2024, Severin included the film on the first disc in its folk horror Blu-ray collection All the Haunts Be Ours, Volume Two, sourced from a 4K scan of the original camera negative.