Demons of the Mind (1972) - film review

Convinced that his son Emil and daughter Elizabeth have inherited his insanity, Baron Zorn imprisons them in his castle and prevents them from ever seeing one another.  Meanwhile, young women from a peasant village in the neighbouring area mysteriously disappear.  These two things are not unconnected.  Out of desperation, Zorn invites a spiritualist to his castle, hoping to cure him and his offspring of their Satanic affliction...

Demons of the Mind is one of Hammer’s dafter and more daring attempts at reviving the Gothic horror formula that had brought the company great success in earlier years.  The film certainly has more graphic violence and nudity than previous Hammer offerings, although what is perhaps more interesting is the way in which the film is shot and edited, in a vivid and frenetic way that makes it feel like someone has their finger stuck on the auteur button.

Whilst the film certainly breaks new ground for the British horror movie, a confused plot, some appalling dialogue and a general impression of over-theatricality make the film pretty indigestible.  The story has some potential but the characters are so poorly developed that they are hard to take seriously and the whole thing just fails to cohere.  It doesn’t help that half of the cast look as if they are in a pantomime whilst the other half seem to think they are in an undergraduates’ production of a Shakespeare play.  The performances range from the mildly O.T.T. to full-blown hysteria, with some of the cast  (Robert Hardy notably) managing to cover the full spectrum of histrionic excess within the blink of an eyelid.  

Demons of the Mind is an interesting (and probably necessary) departure for Hammer and, in the hands of a more mature director, could have been one of the company’s better films in its declining years.  Alas, in his attempt to prove himself, rookie director Peter Sykes fails to rein in his artistic enthusiasm and allows his cast to get away (literally) with murder.   The result is a film that is bold and distinctive but thoroughly muddled – a scrambled potpourri of Gothic horror clichés that lacks charm, coherence and substance.  But it has plenty of ham.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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