It saddens me that people today wouldn’t know the difference between a VHS and Betamax cassette if it hit them square between the eyes. What a time they missed and the joy of collecting films by this clunky medium is one that is nostalgically looked at by all those that were obsessed with them during times when it was the only way of seeing such films via imports or bootlegs due to availability being incredibly limited. Illegality and censorship was what blighted us especially in England where after the Wild West of everything being permitted, draconian laws were brought in around the video nasty scare and suddenly many films had to be removed from shelves of the video stores that had sprung up everywhere, the people renting and selling them unwittingly finding themselves liable for prosecution. Us connoisseurs of such under-counter delights were the psychotronic people but what does that even mean?
Well, there are many descriptions of what is defined by a “psychotronic movie” but I like to think of this somewhat forbidden fruit as a film that is likely to be delirious, deranged and delinquent. These are films made by the mavericks, out to make a quick buck via exploitation of their audience (or giving them just what they wanted) horror, experimental, avant-garde and introductions to wonderful worlds far from the conventional mainstream. Examples of such film makers would be Russ Meyer, Herschelll Gordon Lewis, Coffin Joe, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Jess Franco & Jean Rollin to name a few. Auteurs in their own right, visionaries to us, diseased minds to the powers that be, who wanted nothing more than to muzzle them. In these times, though we did to a certain extent get round that by tracking down films imported from Europe, smuggled over and copied, sold off as fuzzy 5th generation boots. Remarkable times when the agitation of a knock at the door by the men in suits was an actual possibility and having your nasties grabbed was a fear many lived with.
This is the story of many involved in this era and Psychotronic Video was a movie magazine writing about such films, straight out the New York grindhouses. More importantly to those of us in the know it was also a store in London where if you knew what you were on about such delights could be purchased or traded for. My story is the same as those echoed by others in this feature. Striking car boot sale gold, I found some original Betamax movies which from memory included Zombie Holocaust in a nice gold box VTC edition and Massacre Mansion by some company called Vipco (more on them later) and popped to the store in Buck Street Camden with one goal in mind. I vaguely knew Lino from local video shops to me, he was never the most “approachable” character but luckily at the time I dealt with the lovely, suave and debonair Tony M Clarke whose story as last owner of the store is related in this film. He seemed to make a quick judgement on me and I was ushered into the room which held the real treasures away from the façade of the more respectable main shop area and the deal was struck. He had my films and I had a treasured original VHS import of Jorg Buttgereit’s (way beyond the realms of video nasty) infamous underground feature Nekromantik, a film that has only recently been released legally in the UK for anyone over the age of 18 to see. No doubt I crapped myself several times on the train home, suspecting I was being followed all the way there.
This documentary interviews everyone really connected with the collecting days. Tony M Clarke is part of the story as are the enthusiasts. We have people such as critics Kim Newman, publishers Harvey Fenton (FAB Press) and Allan Bryce (Dark Side Magazine), the producers like Mark Morris (Nucleus Films) and David Kerekes (Headpress) the artists, so important in the marketing of the titles, Graham Humphries (Evil Dead, Reurn Of The Living Dead), the screenwriter and historian David McGillivray, the film makers Lloyd Kaufmann (Troma for US perspective) and Norman J Warren, The actress, Caroline Munro (Maniac, The Last Horror Show) and the bishop.. well maybe not, they were too busy trying to ban these sadist videos. There are many documentaries such as VHS Forever which was originally made in 2014 springing up and they are often shoddy, flung together, cheaply made examples of just what low budget film making was all about. I’m not saying that this one is any different BUT it does gather together all the real and relevant people and tells a cohesive story and one that is essentially important as far as I am concerned as it documents a historical time entirely relevant to me.
Many of the people are still actively involved in an age where these taboo films are now legitimate and getting released on sparkling high def blu-ray’s by labels both new and old. The Psychotronic Store moved down the road and was a well-loved fixture to many. A visit to Camden always involved popping into see Tony and coming out with a selection of films, now on shiny disc and often given for free. Unfortunately, gentrification soon put paid to that and it’s a much-missed place. Another part of all this is the movie fairs which were the other place for tracking down the infamous titles and held at places like The Electric Ballroom and Watford (Garston Leisure Centre). The latter was a great place that I attended frequently and the stories of went down there with punters trying to get at the titles before customs and excise raided and took them all off in big see-through plastic evidence bags is another trip down memory lane.
Available now on DVD and blu-ray but with guaranteed VHS quality Psychotronic People is available now from Vipco and that is where this story must continue. Vipco or The Video Instant Picture Company was one of the key labels in the video era. Set up by Mike Lee around the boom, they were responsible for the release of many films that got caught up in the video nasty scare such as Zombie Flesh Eaters, The Bogeyman, Driller Killer and I Spit On Your Grave (still not available in a complete uncut form to this day). They released strong export copies of many of these but in a time where censorship was not transparent that did not necessarily mean uncut. Many a buyer found themselves with eyeball popping scenes missing. This is something that in these Covid times has unfortunately been pushed through again, the revamped BBFC website is again not detailing cuts to films leaving collectors and sites such as Melonfarmers and DVD Compare uncertain of just what is occurring to newly released titles in the UK once more. I am sure the newly revamped company set up by director of operations Peter Hopkins will be far more responsible though in these times and have just announced three new titles for future release. These are “acid western” Day Of The Stranger, Harvest Of The Dead: Halloween Night and I Scream On The Beach and if those titles don’t make you have to see them you obviously aren’t a psychotronic person. It’s great to have Vipco back and here’s to a bloody bright future!
(Pete Woods)
14/12/2020 at 1:22 pm
Great review!!!
Many thanks
Mark & Darren