Demons of the Mind

Deathly afraid that his daughter and son have gotten a touch of the crazy from their mother, a local Baron locks them up (seperatly of course, since they have a thing for each other, or more precisely the brother has a thing for the receptive sister *wink*) and keeps them drugged up. After the daughter escapes, she's subjected to having the 'bad' blood dispelled. Meanwhile, a string of murders of town women are occurring. Are these connected? You'll have to find that out for yourself. More anti-science then anti-religious. Snd while this isn't Hammer's finest hour, it's still engrossing (Over-acting and all) However, I thought that Shane Briant who plays Emil, the son was much better in the same year's "Straight on Till Morning"

DVD Extras: Commentary with Peter Sykes, Christopher Wicking, Virginia Wetherell and Journalist Jonathan Sothcott; Theatrical Trailer

Eye Candy: Fleeting glimpses of Gillian Hill's 'hills', and Virginia Wetherell full frontal.

My Grade: C+

Demons In The Mind is a left turn for Hammer, taking the Gothic horror into different territories. This has a very similar look and ambiance comparable to the other horror films made by the studio. However, this is a very psychological horror film that is devoid of monsters(unless you count human ones), but still very much feels like a Hammer movie. The movie is unpredictable and sometimes gets confusing, but overall I still enjoyed it quite a bit. Patrick Magee from A Clockwork Orange appears and delivers a sound performance to this unusual film. Demons In The Mind is a little off the wall, but somehow works. The sex and violence is at around the same level as other Hammer productions at the time. While this was not well received around the time of its release Demons In The Mind is a solid piece of work and a very interesting film.

In the 19th Century, a depraved Baron Zorn keeps his two adult children locked up and drugged in his castle, as he fears that they have inherited the curse of his wife's unstable mental illness. His daughter Elizabeth manages to escape, and encounters a young man Carl and spends a short time before she's recaptured. Heading to the castle is doctor Falkenberg to hopefully cure the kids, but Carl who tags along wants to free Elizabeth. Meanwhile hysteria is slowly building in the local village, as there's a sexual predator killing their young woman. They think its demons, but a drifter Priest sees it as his job to rid the area of evil and he points them to Zorn.

Eccentrically ham-fisted and downbeat, but lush looking and skilfully illustrated Hammer Gothic horror period piece that might not have the class of some other Hammer entries, but it sure was entertaining. The negative press might have its reasons, but I didn't find it a complete waste. The psychological story is absurd, glassy and lurid in every aspect, with gratuitous blood letting and excessively pointless nudity equalling extreme blood-lust. However a solid, well-serving cast (featuring Patrick Magee, Paul Jones, Yvonne Mitchell, Gillian Hills and a perfectly impulsive Robert Hardy) and Peter Sykes' pastel, well-etched direction (with inspired strokes and suspenseful fits) counter-pouches its weak, plodding and downright exploitative script of stock arrangement. Striking a big tick to their names were Harry Robinson's sweeping music score of harrowing scope, and Arthur Grant's fluid cinematography of scenic panache. On paper this one got better treatment, than what it really deserved. Fun and trashy Hammer mayhem.

A mad baron (Robert Hardy), haunted by memories of driving his wife insane, is obsessed with the "heritage of disorder" that he thinks might afflict his two grown children (Gillian Hills and Shane Briant), whom he keeps locked up in his beautiful castle home, searching for a "cure." With the help of bald manservant Klaas (Kenneth J. Warren) and stern aunt Hilda (Yvonne Mitchell), he drains their blood to keep them weak, forbids them to see each other (there's incest involved) and ignores the expert opinions of a doctor (Patrick Magee). Meanwhile, there's a rapist/murderer on the loose terrorizing a quaint neighboring village.

This psychological horror story is a fine deviation from Hammer's cycle of monster movies, highlighted by excellent period costumes and sets (especially the castle) and Christopher Wicking's provocative, complex screenplay (which resembles V.C. Andrews' FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC, written later). Only the finale, with a mob of torch-carrying villagers hunting Hardy down a la FRANKENSTEIN, really detracts from this well above par Hammer production.

There are many films like this - brilliant, thoughtful, stylish, inventive, provocative - that are largely forgotten because they were made by Hammer. Scan through the recent list of the BFI's 100 best British films, and there are very few gems like this. Apparently, its alright to reappraise Ulmer, Lewis, Fuller et al, but we British are above that kind of thing. If you ever see DEMONS, or something like THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES, on your TV listings, don't overlook it. It's always the snobs who lose out.

This is an astonishing film, a success in every way, a truly thoughtful horror film. The story concerns an aristocrat who believes his family line is infested with bad blood. He had married a peasant woman to offset this, but has instead infected the peasantry as well. He has locked up his son and daughter, and is bleeding them, to stop the rot. Meanwhile, peasant women are being raped and murdered throughout his estate.

From such a scenario, ripe for exploitation, is weaved a remarkable series of themes and variations. The film's first image is of a horse and carriage rushing through a forest, a white hand groping outside, only to be pulled back. Like THE AVENGERS, the best Hammer films revealed the horrors and insanities lurking behind placid, heritage, British rural life. On the surface is a gorgeous idyll - a beautiful Big House, a forest, grassy rivers. Beneath is incest, madness, hysteria, paganism, murder.

The house, like most horror films, is a metaphor for the mind. It is literally a prison, but also a labyrinth, mirroring the maze created by the disjointed gazes of the occupants. There are some amazing long shots of the house's inside, haunting, vastly empty, tilted - a mind off balance. The family is no longer a site of continuity and order, but discontinuity, inbreeding, misery and chaos.

But the house also shares the literary association as a figure for the state, and the poisonous madness within affects the peasantry too. They partake in pagan rituals, follow mad, gibbering priests, who offer destruction, not redemption, and become a terrifying, cross-burning lynch mob, roaming the country.

Ironically, the film is set at the beginning of the century, and Freud's contemporary attempts to throw light on the darkness of the mind is alluded to, and compared to the descent into medieval dank of the film's characters. BARRY LYNDON shares many of this film's themes, and it's hard to believe Kubrick never saw it - both feature Michael Hordern and Patrick Magee.

The creation of an actual world mirroring a psychological world is superbly realised. The two levels co-exist, intertwine, and some of the film's most extraordinary and beautiful images are visualisations of Freudian symbals and ideas. Like many great horror films, this is a family saga, but a very mature one. Its refusal to demonise adds greatly to the helplessness of the terrors. Its 'closure' is as bleak as ever Hammer dared. A masterpiece.