"Demons of the Mind" was made by Hammer Film Productions, the best-known makers of British horror films during the sixties and early seventies. (This was something of a golden age for British horror, largely because such material could be shown in the cinema at a time when it was still banned from British television). Unlike most of Hammer's productions, however, this one is what I would class as a "rationalist" horror movie. Most horror films ask us to accept that the supernatural is real; the rationalist variety generally take the line that the supernatural is an illusion and only real in the minds of those who believe in it. (The two best-known British rationalist horror films are probably "Witchfinder General" and "The Wicker Man", neither made by Hammer).
The story is set in 19th century Germany. The main character is Baron Zorn, an aristocratic widower. Zorn's wife, who suffered from mental illness, died by suicide, and he believes that his two adult children Elisabeth and Emil may have inherited their mother's condition. He is certainly right to be concerned about their mental state, because they have formed an incestuous attachment to one another, and he orders that they should be kept apart from one another. He hires Professor Falkenberg, a quack doctor of dubious reputation, to try and cure them. Another young doctor, Carl, falls in love with Elisabeth and wants to rescue her. In the meantime a series of murders of young women have taken place in the locality, and the superstitious peasantry, egged on by a fanatical wandering priest believe that demons are responsible.
Perhaps because the story is in some ways different from their normal fare, Hammer did not want either of their normal leading men, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, to play Zorn. They had some difficulty in casting the role; Paul Scofield, James Mason and Dirk Bogarde all turned it down, something the producers attributed to snobbery about the horror genre. In the event the role went to Robert Hardy after Eric Porter withdrew to make "Hands of the Ripper". Hardy has been criticised, both on this board and elsewhere, for rampant overacting. There is some truth in this criticism, but then he was never the most subtle or understated of actors, and the film-makers must have known what they were getting. Moreover, the role of Zorn (which significantly means "rage" or "anger" in German) was not one that called for great subtlety, as the Baron is nearly as mad as anyone else in this story, so Hardy's acting style was perhaps not inappropriate. There are good contributions from Patrick Magee as the sinister Falkenberg and Gillian Hills as Elisabeth. (Hills was a last-minute replacement for Marianne Faithfull who had to drop out, apparently for insurance reasons). Michael Hordern, however, seems wasted as the mad priest.
The plot is, to be frank, something of a mess and difficult to follow. Seen as an exercise in storytelling, "Demons of the Mind", is not really a success. Yet it does have a certain crazed logic about it, a logic which is not that of the well-made piece of fiction but that of a weird, exotic nightmare which taps into our deepest fears about the hidden and the uncanny. Zorn's castle may seem like an elegant stately home, yet it conceals a world of monsters, monsters which may only exist in the mind and not in flesh and blood and which are none the less real. Hammer may have wanted to make a horror film; they ended up with a strange, hallucinatory art film. 6/10.
The story is set in 19th century Germany. The main character is Baron Zorn, an aristocratic widower. Zorn's wife, who suffered from mental illness, died by suicide, and he believes that his two adult children Elisabeth and Emil may have inherited their mother's condition. He is certainly right to be concerned about their mental state, because they have formed an incestuous attachment to one another, and he orders that they should be kept apart from one another. He hires Professor Falkenberg, a quack doctor of dubious reputation, to try and cure them. Another young doctor, Carl, falls in love with Elisabeth and wants to rescue her. In the meantime a series of murders of young women have taken place in the locality, and the superstitious peasantry, egged on by a fanatical wandering priest believe that demons are responsible.
Perhaps because the story is in some ways different from their normal fare, Hammer did not want either of their normal leading men, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, to play Zorn. They had some difficulty in casting the role; Paul Scofield, James Mason and Dirk Bogarde all turned it down, something the producers attributed to snobbery about the horror genre. In the event the role went to Robert Hardy after Eric Porter withdrew to make "Hands of the Ripper". Hardy has been criticised, both on this board and elsewhere, for rampant overacting. There is some truth in this criticism, but then he was never the most subtle or understated of actors, and the film-makers must have known what they were getting. Moreover, the role of Zorn (which significantly means "rage" or "anger" in German) was not one that called for great subtlety, as the Baron is nearly as mad as anyone else in this story, so Hardy's acting style was perhaps not inappropriate. There are good contributions from Patrick Magee as the sinister Falkenberg and Gillian Hills as Elisabeth. (Hills was a last-minute replacement for Marianne Faithfull who had to drop out, apparently for insurance reasons). Michael Hordern, however, seems wasted as the mad priest.
The plot is, to be frank, something of a mess and difficult to follow. Seen as an exercise in storytelling, "Demons of the Mind", is not really a success. Yet it does have a certain crazed logic about it, a logic which is not that of the well-made piece of fiction but that of a weird, exotic nightmare which taps into our deepest fears about the hidden and the uncanny. Zorn's castle may seem like an elegant stately home, yet it conceals a world of monsters, monsters which may only exist in the mind and not in flesh and blood and which are none the less real. Hammer may have wanted to make a horror film; they ended up with a strange, hallucinatory art film. 6/10.