The 70's is a period where it is often said that Hammer Films were in a bit of a quandary and putting out inferior product. While I agree that the famous old studio was struggling to keep up with the new horror trends that were coming in fast and furious at the dawn of the 70's in a new age of permissiveness but I can't really go along with the idea that their films of that decade were markedly worse. In fact, I think they put out some of their best movies at this time such as their erotic vampire movies, the incredibly fun Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires (1974), the impressive Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter (1974), the decidedly odd Straight on Till Morning (1972) and I even liked Count Dracula and His Vampire Brides (1973). So, yeah, I like 70's Hammer and so we come to Demons of the Mind. A 19th century baron keeps his two adult children imprisoned in the family home fearing that they both suffer from a form of madness inherited from their mother, meanwhile, a series of women are murdered in the local vicinity.It's actually quite an odd story for Hammer really, as while on a superficial level it is a typical Gothic costume horror that they knocked out ten-a-penny, on the other hand it is very heavy on the psychological side of things. The upshot is that we have a film which avoids one of the criticisms you could reasonably level at Hammer, that of cosy predictableness. This film has so many disparate ideas kicking around that the end result is decidedly unusual. We have paganism, a fire-and-brimstone travelling preacher, a sinister bald henchman, a spate of serial killings, an ominous doctor, a hint of incest, historical suicide, some exploitation content in the form of a little nudity and gore, Freudian elements and a nihilistic ending. It's a pretty varied mix. It also would have to be admitted that the various parts out-weight the whole, as the story doesn't really connect together entirely cohesively. So, I would have to put this down as an uneven, yet commendably less derivative effort from Hammer.

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.

I watched "Demons of the Mind" after not having seen it since it originally appeared. My memory of the film was very positive, and there are some interesting ideas in the script. However, there are an overabundance of plot elements that are presented in a haphazard and overly hysterical form by director Peter Sykes. One other reviewer here calls this a free-form narrative, but for me it was a confused jumble.Robert Hardy plays (or overplays, as others here have noted) Count Zorn who is convinced that there is madness and other evil in his family's bloodline.His wife had committed suicide, so he decided that he needed to lock up his children in case they started manifesting any insanity. Years later he has a controversial doctor (played by Patrick Magee in his usual mannered way) treating both grown kids (Shane Briant, Gillian Hills).At the same time there are young women being brutally murdered in the woods and local superstitions are being whipped up, while a wandering evangelical (Michael Hordern) mutters religious dogma and joins with the locals.A good director could have woven all these piece together nicely and provided a solid, disturbing thriller. But Sykes is more interested in whipping up a lot of intensity in each scene, which is why there's more overacting than needed and why the film winds up becoming exhausting to watch after a while. Too bad. It had the makings of a fine film. Perhaps the usual rushed schedule that Hammer Films had didn't allow for sufficient care, though screenwriter Christopher Wicking had history of penning horror films that were more interesting in concept than in execution.

This 1972 horror/suspense thriller is a truly odd film. I really like this movie, but those who don't like weird Hammer Studios horror films ought to tread warily. The atmosphere is eerie and just plain creepy sometimes. The plot is better left seen than described, but this film is for patient viewers who don't mind not having the plot spelled out for them -- but who like to try and figure things out themselves. And there are lots of things to figure out! When I watched this movie the first time I really had no idea how it would end. This film also made me wonder how the people who concocted the story came up with such a diffuse plot with so many different things going on at the same time. Truly boggles the mind. No pun intended! It's a mad movie with a fiery finale.