The film Russ Meyer made just before his classic FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! (also 1965) gets the top class treatment of being released in 4K by Severin Films on UHD and Blu-ray, scanned and restored from the original 35 mm negative.
MOTOR PSYCHO is 74 black and white minutes of hoodlums and Meyer's trademark gravity-defying large breasted women. Three bikers (all suffering from war trauma, it turns out) descend on a desert town to rape and kill. When they attack Gail (Lane Carroll who would go on to appear in George Romero's THE CRAZIES) they figure without her husband, localveterinarian Cory (Alex Rocco) who sets off in pursuit, picking up the bountiful Ruby (Haji), whose husband (Coleman Francis, director of Tor Johnson starrer THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS) has been killed by the gang, along the way. The inevitable desert confrontation follows.
Working with a minimal budget, MOTOR PSYCHO is fast-paced and benefits from a snappy script with some great biting dialogue, especially between Haji and her soon to be late husband. The crisp black and white photography of the desert locations gives them a better sense of eeriness than colour, and the concept of a collection of women with similar physical attributes in a small desert town adds to the sense of slight otherworldliness.
Severin's 4K transfer is, as with all their other 4K Meyer releases, out of this world. Who would ever have thought any of the films of Russ Meyer (and certainly a more obscure one like MOTOR PSYCHO) could be made to look this sparkling?
The disc comes with a new commentary track by academic Elizabeth Purcell and film-maker Zach Clark which discusses not just this film but other Meyer films in context with it. On the Blu-ray (which comes with the UHD if you get that) there are also archival interviews with Haji and Alex Rocco that last about 21 minutes.
Russ Meyer's MOTOR PSYCHO is out from Severin Films in a UHD / Blu-ray combo, or just the Blu-ray, on Monday 28th April 2025
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