The bike gang The Living dead are out to cause havoc. Their leader Tom Latham has an obsession with death and in particular his own death. He wants to die and come back and thanks to a deep family secret, he thinks he can. The process has him return to the living but he now is invincible. He can do anything and not die, he can kill and not be stopped, he can harm and not come to any. The problem is that he wants the other members of the gang to join him in the afterlife and return. some don’t want to but others are ready to do it without question.
Some films from the halls of British cinema carry real weight. Weight in the sense that they carry a history that they are swamped in it. Steeped in the remembrance of a time when the industry was at its zenith. This film has that in droves. It has a Stella cast, Gothic arch-tropes and modernity of the period that is deeply resonance. Moviedrome my personal passion and series that I rebooted, Idolised this film as a work that defined cult and contemporary. It was a standout that Alex Cox hailed as a bench mark in the annuals of cinema from this isle.
For my the film has aged in its spaces. For me the themes are dulled slightly. It is a film about the past haunting us and its themes of youth subversion felt slightly weaker when viewed that the gang look all over 30. I also disliked the high camp of Reid and Sanders (in his final role) and find it a little bitter. The film however is still dynamic and by this I mean the film is tense, action packed and takes risks. These often work and the direction is playful and paced with real body. I feel you have enough with for it to not only work as a relic and as a piece of cinema legacy.
Great extras are in this package. Ignoring the great interviews the stand outs are the Roger Wonders Why, a strange slice of cheap cinema that is very good indeed and the Wilson Bros trivia track that is amazing. AMAZING…
- Return of the Living Dead (2010, 25 mins): interviews with stars Nicky Henson, Mary Larkin, Denis Gilmore, and more
- Sound of Psychomania (2010, 9 mins): interview with soundtrack composer John Cameron
- Riding Free (2010, 6 mins): interview with Riding Free singer Harvey Andrews
- An interview with Nicky Henson (2016): a new interview with actor Nicky Henson, star of Psychomania
- Leather and Hell: Dressing the Living Dead (2016): new featurette on the company who supplied the film’s costumes
- Discovering Britain with John Betjeman: Avebury, Wiltshire (1955, 4 mins): the famous British poet narrates this travelogue about the Avebury stone circle and nearby burial grounds
- Roger Wonders Why (1965, 18 mins): a church-made amateur film which sees two Christian biker youths visit the legendary 59 Club, where they meet its founder, Rev. Bill Shergold
- Remastering Psychomania (2016)
- Original theatrical trailer
- Fully illustrated booklet with new writing by Andrew Roberts, Vic Pratt, and Will Fowler
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