I want to send out my apologies for the missing column the last few weeks. My computer went out on me. This column is a bit short, but I'm going to make up for it in the coming weeks.
Psychomania: A Remake That Should Be Made
Before I get to the column, I want everyone to take a deep breath, swallow their pride and morality and go out and rent Black Sheep. I have never laughed so hard in a film since Shaun of the Dead. The film had everything that I could ask for in a horror film. There are so many aspects of the film that it would take me forever to get through the column without peeing my pants. If you are a fan of Peter Jackson's early work like Braindead or Bad Taste then you should take a chance on Black Sheep.
One of my first columns was on the way the film industry has lost its originality in releasing remake after remake. It got to the point that I kept thinking what will they remake next. Will it be Citizen Kane or will it be The Shining, oh wait, they did remake The Shining. I still believe that there are too many remakes coming out and that there has been little to no original horror remakes out there. If it isn't a remake then there are sequels to make up for it. I was coming across one film that made me question: why isn't this film being remade. What film, pretel, do you ask should be remade? Psychomania.
Psychomania is a film that I had the pleasure in experiencing about twenty years ago and when I went back time after time the film has not lost any of its appeal to me. There have been films over the years that have given me subtle reminders of the film. Films like: Tron, Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, and even a film like Torque harkens back memories of Psychomania. I keep wondering when this film would be remade and think of the directors that could do the remake possible. Danny Boyle, Edgar Wright, or even David Cronenberg would be perfect to tackle such a project. Would Cronenberg take on such a project? I think he would be perfect to helm this pic. There is certainly enough macabre in the original that would really peak his interest. I think Boyle would bring his style of capturing a fast pace feel to this film and Wright would bring just the opposite in portraying the British reserve.
All of you must be asking and wondering: What is Psychomania, about? Psychomania (1971) was written by Julien Zimet, who co-wrote the 1973 screenplay Horror Express with Annaud d Usseau,. The film was directed by Don Sharp, who directed such films as Dark Places (1973) and Guardian of the Abyss (1980). The film centered around a motocycle gang in England called "The Living Dead" and the gang leader's mother. In the film, the gang leader Tom, played by Nicky Henson, learns the secret of eternal life. In the film, you have to believe deep down in your soul that you will come back from the dead. He succeeds and his motocycle gang follows him ensuring themselves of eternal life. I tell you, you take a group of young ruffians now armed with the notion that they can never die and you have yourself one hell of a time getting them to behave. I digress. The other side of the coin is that Tom's mother, played by Beryl Reid, had made a deal with the devil in exchange for eternal life herself. And there is the butler. You can't have a British horror film without an evil butler. The butler, Shadwell played by the legendary George Sanders is very good at being evil in the film. After the film, Sanders committed suicide. According to Wikipedia, his suicide note said, "Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck." One of the rules of coming back is that if you hesitate for a split second then you won't be coming back. The character Hinky, played by Rocky Taylor, falls victim to the loophole. It was a joy years later to see Rocky Taylor in Titanic playing one of the steerage passengers.
There are other joys when watching the film like the scene where Tom and his mother are doing a waltz after Tom and his girlfriend cause a driver to crash through his windshield. In the scene, there is a banter between the two as Tom is teaching his mother the slang used by the youth of England. Here is just an example of the dialogue:
Mrs. Latham: The police were here today.
Tom: The word mother is fuzz.
It is this scene that could be fun to play around with in a remake. One of the most memorable scenes in Psychomania involves the gang committing suicide in their own sadistic way. One of the suicides involves the character Bertram played by Roy Holder jumping out of a plane with no parachute. How one stays in one piece after falling to his death from that far up is beyond me, but in the world of horror films anything is possible. A scene soon after has all the members, sans Tom and Jane, lying in the county morgue when the assistant hears a tapping and investigates. He soon realizes that it is one of the gang members. The assistant opens up the glass door when he says, "Are you deaf or something?" Oh, those rebellious teenagers sticking it to the establishment.
Seriously, these scenes just reinforces what a diamond in the raw this film is and doesn't get the recognition it deserves. Another element that makes this film special is the music involved. The score was done by John Cameron who has done everything from Peter Cook and John Cleese's The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer to the 2006 horror film After. The score at the beginning film sets the macabre overtone that this film needed. The song, "Ridin Free" composed by David Whitaker sets a different tone for the film. The song is in the scene where the gang is burying Tom after he commits suicide. The scene is much different because the gang is not clothed in their usual black leather, but in rather hippie-esque clothing. The fact that the song is played with just an accoustic guitar lends a simplicity to the scene that it deserves. Everything about the scene plays counterintuitive to the rest of the film. All the members, in this scene, are creating their own flowers for the funeral where each one drops their wreaths into the grave. The fact that one creates a cross out of flowers is a powerful image considering the film's plot.
One of the most proverbial choices that most directors choose to do in a remake is try to create a more horrifying version than the original. These directors and studios that produce these remakes believe that they need to do more in order for a film to be more successful. More gore doesn't mean better film, but I would be dismissive if I didn't mention that one of the things that I loved about the horror films from the 70 and 80's was the gore. The remake of The Hills Have Eyes falls into this category. The irony of this is that the original was a much better film because the story, in itself, was horrific. Another choice that directors make is that they produce a film that is too serious. One of the fantastic aspects of horror films from the 70 and 80's is that they were pretty much tongue and cheek. Some of these films were just fun to watch because they were over the top and as the body count went up then the audience was more into the film.
A few of the films that I have enjoyed over the last few years were not horror films, but were so purposely over the top that I had such a good time watching these films over and over. Films like: Crank, Torque, and Domino were just an hour and a half to two hours of just straight action and dialogue that either made one scratch their head or left you laughing your ass off. These films were made for the MTV crowd and Psychomania would be a perfect film to be done in this manner. I think that they could weave a film around the basic premise of the original and turn out a film that would satisfy today's filmgoer with the following of the original. This film would only be a success if they just went over the top. Even in the original, the music was another character so that would be another aspect of the film that would be enjoyed by today's audience.
The casting of the film would be something that would come easily. In the original, the cast had their share of "beautiful" people, but also had cast that weren't so much. Today, with the success of Knocked Up and SuperBad, the era of casting around a lead that five to ten years ago would not be considered as a leading man is almost a memory. I could see, if Edgar Wright, directed the film Simon Pegg would be a perfect choice for Tom. Actually, he could most of the cast from Shaun, Spaced and Hot Fuzz would make a great version of this film. Forget about the other directors I mentioned, I now believed that Wright would be the perfect choice to do the remake.
Wright does shoot his films from the perspective of the British reserve. He could almost film the remake oppesite from the original and keep all the action in the background and tell the story from the townspeople point of view. Having a film where the people that are supposed to be terrorized doesn't pay much attention to what is going on is in the immortal words of Nick Frost, "Fried Gold."
