Frog - Witch Hunt (UK Psychedelic Rock, Film Score 1973)

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John Cameron brought together a collection of musicians to record a soundtrack for Psychomania, a British horror movie about bikers coming back from the dead to terrorize innocents. These musicians called themselves 'Frog' after a returning theme in the movie: frogs.


Psychomania


This article is about the 1973 British film. For the 1963 American film also released under this title, see Violent Midnight. For the song, see Psychomania (song). For the record label, see Psychomania Records.


Psychomania (U.S. title:The Death Wheelers) is a 1973 British outlaw biker supernatural horror film directed by Don Sharp, and starring Nicky Henson, Beryl Reid, George Sanders (in his final film), and Robert Hardy.

The plot follows the adolescent leader of a biker gang, who has started practicing black magic. After meeting the Frog God, which his mother worships, the leader commits suicide on his 18th birthday. His mother resurrects him as one of the undead, and the process grants superhuman abilities to the boy. He proceeds to turn most of his gang into fellow undead, but his mother petrifies them all in a magic ritual.


Plot


Tom Latham, an amiable psychopath, is the leader of a violent youth gang named The Living Dead, which includes his girlfriend Abby. Tom dabbles in black magic and spends much of his free time at an ancient Surrey countryside ruin known as The Seven Witches, a Stonehenge-like circle of standing stones. In a similar vein, his mother and her sinister butler Shadwell get their kicks out of holding séances in their home while they worship the Frog God. Tom's father vanished in a mysterious room shortly after Tom's birth, a room Tom enters on his eighteenth birthday and where he sees the Frog God.

This incident leads to Tom committing suicide and, with his mother's help, returns from the dead. Being one of the undead means that Tom cannot be killed and has superhuman strength, which he demonstrates when he massacres those at a local pub. One by one, his fellow bikers commit suicide with the goal of returning as one of the "undead", gathering at The Seven Witches to plan their campaign of terror against the locals. Only Abby refuses to participate.

Police Chief Inspector Hesseltine is overwhelmed by the crime wave committed by bikers who are known to be dead; believing that someone is stealing the corpses of the dead bikers, he releases a false report that Abby has died. Hesseltine and his force plan to trap the culprit when he shows up to claim Abby. The Living Dead kill the policemen, while seizing Abby. However, Tom's mother, disgusted with her son's crimes, decides to break her bargain with the Frog God.

The gang tell Abby to commit suicide, but she again refuses, instead shooting Tom, who is immune. As Tom prepares to kill Abby, his mother performs a ritual that breaks the pact. Tom's mother is transformed into a frog while the undead bikers are turned into stone, becoming new statues at The Seven Witches. Abby is left alone, surrounded by those that once were her friends.


Music


The film's soundtrack, composed by John Cameron, was released on LP and CD in 2003 by Trunk Records.

Cameron later said, "“I knew we needed a score that was spooky and different but had kind of a rock feeling to it and it was kind of pre-synthesizer... We had to use Shepperton's recording studios and it hadn't been updated since before the war. The hilarious thing is actually having these hooligan musicians all trying to do strange things, scratch inside pianos and turn sounds inside out, but the recording engineer still had a suit and tie on. It was so anachronistic."

Two of Cameron's score pieces — "Witch Hunt (Title Theme from the Film Psychomania)" and "Living Dead (Theme from the Film Psychomania)" — were released in 1973 as a 7" single on the Jam label, using the artist name "Frog". This Frog record was reissued in 2011 by Spoke Records as a limited edition vinyl 7"


Discography


Album


- John Cameron • Psychomania [archival, motion picture soundtrack] (2003)


Singles & EPs


- Witch Hunt / Living Dead (1973)


V/A Compilation


- Psychamania: Eccentric Sounds From the British Underground 1970-1973
(2003)

- The Electric Asylum Volume Six - Rare British Freakrock 1971-1976 (2014)


Bootleg / Unauthorized


- Various Artists • Appears on: Spacegirl and the Starman: Eccentric British Soundwaves 1970-1973 (2003)


Source


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