DERANGED is exactly what you'd expect for a 70's horror film: campy, creepy, and entertaining despite its obsoleteness. The movie was a pet project for successful concert promoter Tom Karr and, for a while, it remained the most accurate portrayal of American serial killer Ed Gein. The names and locations have been changed and a bit of artistic license has been taken, but the core of the Gein story remains intact. The film is portrayed as a special news report or some sort of P.S.A. with host Tom Sims (Leslie Carlson) popping in every so often to feed us more details and transition to the next phase of madness. Ezra Cobb (Roberts Blossom, and the film's Gein character) lives on a farm in small-town Wisconsin with his ailing mother (Cosette Lee) who fills his head with Bible-born hatred for the sins of the world and, more specifically, the women that perpetuate them. When his mother dies, Ezra's mind snaps. He maintains some semblance of normal life with an ongoing friendship with the Kootz family and the occasional odd job, but there's a new Ezra that the town doesn't see. He removes his mother's corpse from the graveyard, brings her home, and patches her up with parts from other bodies. As his madness deepens, his obsession shifts to finding a wife and the women of this small town are in for trouble. This is a great bit of 70's exploitation with the scantily clad women and horror/violence that we've come to expect.
I love that this film wastes no time in trying to gross out its audience. The sole purpose of this film is to make its viewers squirm, and it succeeds. When Ma Cobb is dying, the filmmakers were sure to give us a stomach-churning close up of the blood and thick green soup sputtering from her mouth. It doesn't sound like much, but it's a pretty gnarly sight. It only gets better as the film continues and Ezra discovers his passion for turning human body parts into trinkets. Granted, this was an exploitation film from the mid-70s with a mere $200,000 budget so the effects aren't exactly the greatest. The blood effects look like thick red paint and the corpses and bones bend and flex. None of it really comes off as real or threatening to modern audiences but I imagine people in the 70s might've been more affected. There are still some parts that can give me the creeps; when Mary is searching Ezra's house and comes to Ma's room, loaded with dressed up corpses, and finds him blending in among them with a skin mask it's probably the creepiest scene in the entire movie. Honestly, this movie isn't going to do much to scare a contemporary audience but it's fun.
Roberts Blossom as Ezra is the only one here that seems to be taking his job seriously. He actually does a really awesome job. He gives Ezra extra charisma as the town's simpleton and, for a while, Ezra's too dumb/naïve to really hate (of course, that's only until he starts carving up women). Blossom's performance is the only thing that really keeps this moving from being your average throwaway exploitation movie. He's stupid and slowly goes insane without going too over the top. The majority of the supporting cast, on the other hand, fail. Cosette Lee is laughable in her one and only real scene. It's a shame because it's her death in the beginning of the film and it's supposed to be a moment where the audience learns just how messed up Ezra's upbringing was. Lee, Marian Waldman, and Robert McHeady are the film's biggest culprit of upping the camp. I just wish the movie had taken itself more seriously as a whole (but keep Tom Sims) and think it might've been a better movie for it.
I love that this film wastes no time in trying to gross out its audience. The sole purpose of this film is to make its viewers squirm, and it succeeds. When Ma Cobb is dying, the filmmakers were sure to give us a stomach-churning close up of the blood and thick green soup sputtering from her mouth. It doesn't sound like much, but it's a pretty gnarly sight. It only gets better as the film continues and Ezra discovers his passion for turning human body parts into trinkets. Granted, this was an exploitation film from the mid-70s with a mere $200,000 budget so the effects aren't exactly the greatest. The blood effects look like thick red paint and the corpses and bones bend and flex. None of it really comes off as real or threatening to modern audiences but I imagine people in the 70s might've been more affected. There are still some parts that can give me the creeps; when Mary is searching Ezra's house and comes to Ma's room, loaded with dressed up corpses, and finds him blending in among them with a skin mask it's probably the creepiest scene in the entire movie. Honestly, this movie isn't going to do much to scare a contemporary audience but it's fun.
Roberts Blossom as Ezra is the only one here that seems to be taking his job seriously. He actually does a really awesome job. He gives Ezra extra charisma as the town's simpleton and, for a while, Ezra's too dumb/naïve to really hate (of course, that's only until he starts carving up women). Blossom's performance is the only thing that really keeps this moving from being your average throwaway exploitation movie. He's stupid and slowly goes insane without going too over the top. The majority of the supporting cast, on the other hand, fail. Cosette Lee is laughable in her one and only real scene. It's a shame because it's her death in the beginning of the film and it's supposed to be a moment where the audience learns just how messed up Ezra's upbringing was. Lee, Marian Waldman, and Robert McHeady are the film's biggest culprit of upping the camp. I just wish the movie had taken itself more seriously as a whole (but keep Tom Sims) and think it might've been a better movie for it.