Absolutely Fantastic

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Hammer's psychological horror opus bypasses the usual monster elements and instead gives us a horror film with purely human villains. That's right, there are no rubbery limbs or bats in this film, instead all of the chills and spills are in the mind. The murders that take place aren't even that gruesome, just bloody, which makes them all the more disturbing through the power of suggestion.There are dozens of adjectives I could use to describe this film. Distorting, disturbing, strange, unusual, unnatural, weird. Abnormal fear. The psychology used in the film is strictly Freudian, with a twisted form of the Oedipus complex coming into play. The actors and actresses are exceptional in the film and make it all the more effective, from Robert Hardy as the obsessed father to Shane Briant making his impressive debut as the mentally unstable son.Gillian Hills is also great in another mentally ambiguous role, while Virginia Wetherell is a female victim who screams loudly and is more than willing to strip for her role (indeed, she spends a five minute sequence wandering around completely naked while choosing a dress). Lower down in the cast list are Michael Hordern as a psychotic religious lunatic and the maniac from the same year's monster movie THE CREEPING FLESH as the sinister and bald coachman. Finally, Patrick Magee is on hand as an unlikable but noble doctor, in a role which Peter Cushing usually would play.DEMONS OF THE MIND has a Gothic fairy-tale like ambiance, helped by the use of forest locations to add to the atmosphere, with a spooky music-box like score to add to the feelings of sadness and madness echoing throughout the film. Pretty powerful stuff and an interesting one-off.

The folks at Hammer Studios take one of their usual Gothic environments and use it for a more cerebral and subtle film than what their fans are used to. The title really does make it quite clear: the "demons" here are those that dwell in the human mind, affecting mental stability and having a profound effect on the next generation. It does take the time to include some more exploitable elements - namely, gore and nudity - but these moments feel gratuitous given the nature of the balance of the film.It takes place in Bavaria where a Baron named Zorn (Robert Hardy) is afraid of his children, afraid that they have inherited the madness of their predecessors. They do seem to be showing the signs. More than anything, the Baron is convinced that they are possessed. A self styled psychiatrist named Falkenberg (Patrick Magee) and his young associate Carl (Paul Jones, formerly of the band Manfred Mann) arrive on the scene, using radical methods to probe the psyche of father and children (Gillian Hills, Shane Briant). Meanwhile, the local villagers are convinced of the existence of demons, and spurred on by a wandering priest (Michael Hordern), they determine to take care of the problem."Demons of the Mind" does appear to divide the audience, but this viewer would consider himself in the camp that considers this one of the more interesting and hence more effective of the latter day Hammer productions. Australian director Peter Sykes creates a suitably eerie atmosphere, which is enhanced by wonderfully spooky music composed by Harry Robertson. The script by Christopher Wicking is heavy on symbolism, and it offers meaty roles to a sterling bunch of actors, with the under-rated Hardy delivering the goods in a particularly great role. Magee is fun as always as the hard-driving psychiatrist, and good looking pair Hills and Briant are affecting as the troubled kids.The film does end on a very Hammer-esque note with angry torch bearing villagers set for a final confrontation, but getting there is every bit as enjoyable. Those horror fans looking for different offerings from Hammer are advised to give this one a look.Eight out of 10.

A physician discovers that two children are being kept virtually imprisoned in their house by their father. He investigates, and discovers a web of sex, incest and satanic possession.I was pumped to see this was a Hammer production, despite not having many actors or crew that I am familiar with (I recognized Patrick Magee of "Clockwork Orange" fame). Big names or not, that is a studio known for its quality. I would not say this film ranks among their best quality (and certainly not among their best overall), but it ranks considerably higher than BBC quality.I found the scene with the young woman being bled interesting. I am not sure how people were bled historically, but the kit used in this film looks like something I would believe possible, and the process was quite interesting. Is it accurate? Perhaps?

Was Hammer Studios ever capable of making anything else than traditional horror movies with monsters and madmen? The answer to that is clearly YES, and this "Demons of the Mind" is the irrefutable evidence to back up that statement. Were they any good at it? Well, that's a different question, of course. "Demons of the Mind" is a long way from Hammer's best accomplishment, but it surely is an ambitious, visually innovative and intriguing. What this movie lacks, unfortunately, is a minimum of respect towards the viewers. The script, co-written by Christopher Wicking of "The Oblong Box" and "To the Devil a Daughter", is unnecessary complex and even on the verge of pretentious. Director Peter Sykes is so busy with building up an atmosphere of mystery and pseudo- psychology that he completely forgets to properly introduce the main characters and their backgrounds. The plot introduces the highly unusual family situation of the Van Zorn's; a British noble family in the late 19th Century. The baron is somehow convinced that his children, a son and a daughter, will eventually fall victim to a hereditary illness and thus keeps them locked away in their rooms. Personally I would keep them apart because of their incestuous cravings, but still… Anyway, the baron seeks the help of a notorious psychologist who talks a whole of gibberish that I totally didn't understand. Meanwhile, the docile and superstitious villagers living nearby the castle are growing petrified as they discover the bodies of some brutally murdered local town girls. In spite of the numerous fascinating and controversial themes (incest, hereditary madness, unorthodox psychology methods…) and some beautifully artsy elements of symbolism (rose petals covering naked corpses, flowers through keyholes…), "Demons of the Mind" remains an overall nebulous film that could – and should – have been much better. The film eventually even reverts to old-fashioned and heavily clichéd solutions, like the angry mob with torches, for example. The most notable performance is delivered by Patrick Magee as the charlatan psychiatrist. Magee nearly always has this decadent and sinister aura surrounding him, but it really works well in this film. There's also gratuitous nudity and quite a bit of explicit bloodshed to find in "Demons of the Mind". The strangulation sequences are reasonably perverse and the suicide scene (featuring inside a flashback) even qualifies as nauseating considering the time of release. I prefer Hammer's entries in the Dracula and Frankenstein cycles at any time, but nonetheless this is an interesting film to watch and get confused over.