Movie Review: Witchcraft

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Witchcraft (1964)
Directed by Don Sharp
Starring Lon Chaney Jr., Jack Hedley, Jill Dixon, David Weston, Diane Clare, Yvette Rees, Marie Ney, Viola Keats, Victor Brooks, Barry Linehan

I don’t remember if it was due to a review I had read, but for some reason, I had always thought this film to be one of those poverty row pictures, featuring Chaney Jr. who would appear in just about anything just to keep working, so I never sought it out or bothered with it. This is another example that shows even a well seasoned student of the genre like me can completely misjudge a movie, just because of what they may have read or heard. I was in the mood for an old black and white film and figured that since I never had seen it, I might as well fix that and at least give it a try. What I wasn’t expecting was to find just how much I really enjoyed it. Continue reading

Movie Review: Psychomania

Psychomania (1973)
Directed by Don Sharp
Starring George Sanders, Beryl Reid, Nicky Henson, Mary Larkin, Roy Holder, Robert Hardy, Patrick Holt, Denis Gilmore, Ann Michelle, Miles Greenwood, Peter Whitting, Rocky Taylor

The film, also known as The Death Wheelers, is about a biker gang that call themselves The Living Dead, that tools around England causing the usually sort of trouble like forcing cars off the road and just being royal pains. But their leader Tom is getting bored with the normal stuff. In fact, he often thinks of doing something really wild like killing himself. When he learns a little secret from his mother, that if you really believe that you’ll come back when you kill yourself, you will. It’s apparently that simple. Even better though is when you do rise from the grave, you can’t die and seem to be super strong. So he convinces the rest of his gang to follow his lead, in usually interesting ways.

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Psychomania Rides Again…on Blu-ray!

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Fans of ’70s British horror films are well aware of the 1973 film Psychomania, also known as The Death Wheelers! Director Don Sharp gives us not just a film about a ruthless gang of bikers, but undead bikers! Sharp gave us a The Kiss of the Vampire (1963), Devil-Ship Pirates (1964), and Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966) for Hammer Studios, but also gave us two treasures that don’t get enough love, Witchcraft (1964) and Curse of the Fly (1965).

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