Review of Death Wheelers

Death Wheelers/Psychomania (1973), has a whiff of the Marlon Brando classic The Wild One (1953) but with a delicious supernatural vibe. It’s a biker gang movie where leather clad thugs cause havoc in a sleepy English town. But here the twist is that the gang are all dead!

Leader of the Pack is Tom, a saturnine psychopath, who gets his kicks strutting about in tight leather pants, running innocent motorists off the roads and terrorising the local neighbourhood. From his Ma, who holds seances with her sinister butler who may well be one of Satan’s imps, he learns that by committing suicide and believing in an afterlife he can return from the dead. And once back, no bullets, blade or cricket bat can harm him since he’s already dead. So ton-up Tom races his Triumph 650 off a bridge to spectacular doom leaving the gang leaderless until he returns, convincing them to become the real “Living Dead” which conveniently is already their gang handle. And so the rampage of the zombie bikers begins…

There’s much to enjoy in this film. Some great cop v biker chase sequences, small town supermarket mayhem, mumbo-jumbo satanic rituals with an overweight frog, and slapstick violence. It’s not scary or horrific and the suicides and murders are surprisingly bloodless and understated, which is classier than overdoing the “Kensington Gore” and adds to the movie’s old-school charm. With flashbacks to Tom’s childhood providing “context” and warnings about breaking deals struck with “a higher authority” the film reaches a surprise ending. Despite superhuman strength, invulnerability and all the time in the world, Tom and his gang discover there can be downsides to the life eternal! And remember kids, this movie is not to be taken literally and in no way condones suicide or murder. It’s just a movie.