Rebels Without a Pulse

Despite popular opinion the 70s were a golden age for cinema, especially for the underground. One of the true lost classics of the era was a little known Brit horror from 1971 called Psychomania.
Tom, the leader of a (oddly middle-class) gang of outlaw bikers, finally unlocks the secret of eternal life from his barking mad, spiritualist mother. After killing himself he returns from the grave and convinces the rest of his gang to do the same. Mayhem promptly ensues as the newly undead bikers murder and pillage their way across the home counties.
While this may sound like pure occult/horror nonsense (no bad thing) the film has been blessed with some awesome visuals. The title sequence for one, featuring slow motion footage of the bikers, skulls emblazoned on their helmets, riding in formation around a circle of standing stones in the grey dawn light, sound tracked by a slab of eerie, Sabbath-esque, downer rock.
Tom’s funeral is another beautiful soft focus scene, where his comrades bury him in the centre of the standing stones, upright, on his bike. The group sit around making wreaths from wild flowers while one of their number plays a piece of trippy acid folk, celebrating the freedoms of the open road. It’s cheesy as, but it beautifully captures the nature of the outsider. The scene is only rally beaten by Tom’s eventual resurrection, with the sound of a revving engine coming up from the soil and the bike exploding forward out of the grave. How is that not cool?
The film is steeped in 70’s camp and bad acting, which to me at least is almost half the fun. The gang act like nihilistic maniacs, but sound like a bunch of Etonians on a punting trip. Tom’s mother (played to perfection by Beryl Reid) is the kind of mad medium who seemed to only have existed in Shepperton studios while her man-servant, Shadwell, is a suitably creepy.
Despite its rather limited availability (it hasn’t been out on DVD for years) the films influence is vast, with everyone from Gabba DJs to Doom Metal bands sampling the film and various experts on British horror championing it as a high water mark.
This movie isn’t going to appeal to everyone, let’s face it the cheese factor is gonna be too much for some people, and the idea that Bikers, even in the early 70s, were as hippyish as this lot is laughable. However for those with a taste for the Satanic, the kitch, or the just plain fucking weird, it is a movie well worth tracking down.

Enter the Zombie

This week we take our first (of many) journeys into the murky underworld of Japanese cinema, specifically the ultra-kinetic mind-fuck that is Versus. The plot focuses on a nameless prison escapee who finds himself in an extremely sinister forest and having to rescue a young woman from a gang of yakuza mobsters. Oh, and zombies; lots and lots of zombies.
This is, off course, without consequence as the main aim of the film is string together a series of ultra-violent set pieces which assault your retina at cartoonish speed. The combination of gun fights and martial arts is nicely done with some extremely inventive choreography. Hell, I know I’m supposed to become more sophisticated as I get older, but if I ever get bored of seeing a guy shoot a zombie in the face and then karate kick his head clean off I’ll feel I’ve lost something in my life. There is a level of action here that you’re usually more likely to find in an anime, heavily stylised but undeniably fun. The actors are all smart enough to not take this movie even remotely seriously and have their tongues firmly in cheeks. The Yakuza in particular are so camp they make Eddie Izzard look like a rugby player.
Now admittedly there a few flaws with this kung-fu zombie epic. For example the whole thing looks like it was made on a budget of five pounds in conveniently located woods. Also despite the high quantity of zombies, the quality does suffer. Most of them look like they’ve just been slapped in the face with a bag of pancake mix and then been given ketchup to drink.
Regardless of a few little disappointments this new cult classic delivers on a number of levels. For one thing the pace is ludicrous, aided along by a soundtrack of pounding techno the action and gore doesn’t let up for a single second. Speaking of gore this film is up to its neck in. Seriously, the claret flows so free and so red you’d think you were at some kind of epileptic wine tasting. To sum up, this film takes all the best bits from Zatoichi, Highlander, The Matrix and Dawn of the Dead, feeds them some go-faster pills and sets it loose. A must see for the discerning gore-hound.