Peter Sykes' Demons of the Mind (1972) is one of those wonderful Hammer horror films filled with dream-like imagery, over-the-top acting, and gorgeous women with heaving bosoms. Also, the film happened to be hanging out on my Netflix queue near And Soon the Darkness (Robert Fuest 1970), so I went for it.
The film opens with a delicate hand reaching out from the barred window of a carriage. The hand belongs to Elizabeth (Gillian Hills), mad daughter of Baron Zorn (Robert Hardy). She's on her way back from a stint at a Viennese asylum, followed by an escape and a sexy fling with a local doctor, Carl Richter (Paul Jones).
From the period costumes, one has no idea the period, but the lovely Elizabeth is quite free with her gifts. Her creepy nurse, Aunt Hilda (Yvonne Mitchell) spends most of the trip drugging her with some nasty grey liquid, and Elizabeth spends her time fading in and out of consciousness, dreaming of Herr Richter.
A Hammer film is not a Hammer film without lovely female nudity and wildly careening carriages driven by maniacal looking groomsman.
Elizabeth is reunited with her rather dishy brother, Emil (Shane Briant), who rocks a bright orange ruffled shirt, and seems to be under the influence of the same drugs his sister is on. They also bleed Elizabeth for no apparent reason other than to lift her nightgown and expose her pretty breasts.
Of course, these two siblings are very, very close. Incest close. But they are both so pretty, that only their truly demented Dad and the loyal servants seem to mind. The Baron brings in a specialist, Dr. Falkenberg (Patrick Magee), and the two compete to see who can chew more scenery.
Dr. Falkanberg shares a careening carriage with the good Dr. Richter, and on their way to the Baron's castle, they have a carriage accident which breaks the driver's leg. Carl goes for help, and asks Falkanberg to stay with the man, but the good doctor sneaks off to "help" Baron Zorn. Seems that the Baron is concerned that his "madness," one that caused his wife to commit suicide, has been undeniably passed down to his children. Falkenberg is there to help with his crazy, multicolored "universal fluid" device, which includes some things that spin, and a candle on which to focus. Contemporary medicine for the (unknown) time period.
The Baron definitely has a homicidal streak and a thirst for blood, and it looks like Emil might have inherited the madness, because dead bodies covered in rose petals seem to keep cropping up. These victims, all women, seem to look a bit like Elizabeth too.
The crazy villagers are up in arms over these deaths, but they are so nutso and given to such strange rituals, that I'm not sure who's more wacko--the locals or the Baron and his family. One must not forget the token ranting homeless preacher who also joins in on the fun.
While I honestly cannot wholeheartedly recommend this film--I found much of it tedious-- I still think Robert Hardy's Baron has some really great dialogue zingers. He and Patrick Magee spend all of their time yelling their lines at their top of their lungs, which is kind of fun.
The truly standout rewind and play again moment is when the Baron Zorn pulls out a rifle and shouts, "The world will be a better place without me, and it won't even know that you died." Then he shoots the good Dr. Falkanberg dead. This moment is only the beginning of the killing spree in which he shoots his own son and aims for his daughter, but these moments are anti-climactic in comparison. There's a hand chopping scene and someone's impaled by a giant flaming cross, but really, the film ends in kind of a whimper. Meh.
