Demons of the Mind (1972)

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.

Director:

Peter Sykes

Writers:

Christopher Wicking (screenplay), Christopher Wicking (from an original story by)

Stars:

Robert Hardy, Shane Briant, Gillian Hills

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robert Hardy	...	Zorn
Shane Briant	...	Emil
Gillian Hills	...	Elizabeth
Yvonne Mitchell	...	Hilda
Paul Jones	...	Carl Richter
Patrick Magee	...	Falkenberg
Kenneth J. Warren	...	Klaus
Michael Hordern	...	Priest
Robert Brown	...	Fischinger
Virginia Wetherell	...	Inge
Deirdre Costello	...	Magda
Barry Stanton	...	Ernst
Sidonie Bond	...	Zorn's Wife
Thomas Heathcote	...	Coachman
John Atkinson	...	1st Villager

Storyline

Baron Zorn (Robert Hardy) keeps his teenaged children locked up and drugged, fearing that his insane wife passed along a congenital curse to them before her own suicidal death. Elizabeth (Gillian Hills) escapes for a brief tryst with a local before being recaptured and subjected to a bleeding process to "draw out the bad blood". Emil (Shane Briant) keeps trying to escape, but is thwarted time and again by his Aunt Hilda (Yvonne Mitchell), who runs the house like a prison. One reason the siblings have to be kept apart is their incestuous attraction to each other. Local wenches are being murdered in the woods, and the superstitious peasants think demons are responsible. A wandering Priest (Sir Michael Hordern) dedicates himself to root out the evil, but isn't taken seriously. Arriving at the castle are two more interested parties: Mountebank scientist huckster Falkenberg (Patrick Magee) stands to make a small fortune if his strange apparatus can cure the children of their inherited evil...

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Plot Keywords:

religious fanatic | secret | psychotronic film | downward spiral | blood | 

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Taglines:

They came to torture an agonised mind

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Genres:

Horror | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Trivia

The role of Baron Zorn was originally offered to Paul Scofield and James Mason, both of whom turned it down.

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Quotes

[to his daughter, Elizabeth]
Zorn: This is where you should be. Here... with us.

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Alternate Versions

The original UK cinema release was cut by the BBFC to remove shots of dirt being forced into Inge's mouth and the stabbing of Hilda with a set of keys, and to optically blur shots of the scarred body of Zorn's wife and of her cutting her throat. The same cut print was used for the 1990 Warner video though this was then cut by a further 18 secs to remove shots of Inge's topless bloodstained body and a bloodstained woman caressing her breasts during a flashback montage. The 1990 video cuts were waived in 2006 for the Optimum release though the original cinema edits now appear to be lost.

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Connections

Referenced in Inside the Tower (2015)

User Reviews

Nasty satire of religion and science

This film is a nasty satire of science and Religion. Peter Sykes undoes the Hammer Horror conventions in favor of a free-floating, experimetal narrative. Patrick Magee and Micheal Holdern both turn in brilliant performances. Patrick Magee as the inneffectual, sadistic psychiatrist who drives people mad to have better papers published and Micheal holdern as a wandering beggar dressed as a priest, blending fervor with madness. The entire free-floating poetic structure is ended with a brutal, grisly ending that helps this movie break from the silly hammer horror conventions most of the films suffer from. If Hammer had made more films like this they might still be relevant to modern horror.

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

May 1974 (USA)

Also Known As:

Demons of the Mind

Filming Locations:

Black Park, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Anglo-EMI, Hammer Films, Frank Godwin Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1