Was Hammer Studios ever capable of making anything else than traditional horror movies with monsters and madmen? The answer to that is clearly YES, and this "Demons of the Mind" is the irrefutable evidence to back up that statement. Were they any good at it? Well, that's a different question, of course. "Demons of the Mind" is a long way from Hammer's best accomplishment, but it surely is an ambitious, visually innovative and intriguing. What this movie lacks, unfortunately, is a minimum of respect towards the viewers. The script, co-written by Christopher Wicking of "The Oblong Box" and "To the Devil a Daughter", is unnecessary complex and even on the verge of pretentious. Director Peter Sykes is so busy with building up an atmosphere of mystery and pseudo- psychology that he completely forgets to properly introduce the main characters and their backgrounds. The plot introduces the highly unusual family situation of the Van Zorn's; a British noble family in the late 19th Century. The baron is somehow convinced that his children, a son and a daughter, will eventually fall victim to a hereditary illness and thus keeps them locked away in their rooms. Personally I would keep them apart because of their incestuous cravings, but still… Anyway, the baron seeks the help of a notorious psychologist who talks a whole of gibberish that I totally didn't understand. Meanwhile, the docile and superstitious villagers living nearby the castle are growing petrified as they discover the bodies of some brutally murdered local town girls. In spite of the numerous fascinating and controversial themes (incest, hereditary madness, unorthodox psychology methods…) and some beautifully artsy elements of symbolism (rose petals covering naked corpses, flowers through keyholes…), "Demons of the Mind" remains an overall nebulous film that could – and should – have been much better. The film eventually even reverts to old-fashioned and heavily clichéd solutions, like the angry mob with torches, for example. The most notable performance is delivered by Patrick Magee as the charlatan psychiatrist. Magee nearly always has this decadent and sinister aura surrounding him, but it really works well in this film. There's also gratuitous nudity and quite a bit of explicit bloodshed to find in "Demons of the Mind". The strangulation sequences are reasonably perverse and the suicide scene (featuring inside a flashback) even qualifies as nauseating considering the time of release. I prefer Hammer's entries in the Dracula and Frankenstein cycles at any time, but nonetheless this is an interesting film to watch and get confused over.

Fabulous and thoughtful, near delirious madness and mayhem from Hammer. Not at all your typical Hammer movie, this has no respectful and predictable plot and instead a wild and roaring reality of its own. We struggle to keep pace with the craziness and the violence as this gradually reveals itself to be a most demonic monster. Helped enormously by near hysterical performance from Robert Hardy offset by Patrick Magee doing marvellously what he always does and out in the woods is Michael Hordern portraying a deranged priest to the hilt and beyond. Unlike some viewers I loved every second of this until the end when, for me, there was just too much time with everyone running around in the forest. But it least it gave time to get your breath back before the final outrage. Truly excellent stuff comparable with the very best giallo.

Wicked, decadent Baron Zorn (a robust, rip-snorting portrayal by Robert Hardy) keeps both his frail daughter Elisabeth (touchingly played by the delicately comely Gillian Hills) and tormented son Emil (Shane Briant in his excellent film debut) locked up inside his dismal castle because of a hereditary family curse of insanity. Meanwhile a bunch of gorgeous peasant girls in a nearby village are being brutally murdered by a mystery maniac. Pretty soon the frightened townspeople succumb to mass hysteria. Director Peter Sykes, working from a quirky, intricate, literate and compellingly subversive script by Christopher Wicking (who also wrote "The Oblong Box" and "Scream and Scream Again"), expertly crafts a spooky, artsy and intriguing psychological portrait of madness and despair, relating the story at a slow, stately rate and deftly creating a potently gloomy and melancholy atmosphere. Popping up in enjoyably colorful supporting roles are Patrick Magee as a cynical, unhelpful charlatan psychiatrist, Yvonne Mitchell as a loyal housekeeper, Manfred Mann lead singer Paul Jones as Elisabeth's ardent suitor, and Michael Hordern as a deranged, doddery priest. Arthur Grant's exquisitely lush'n'lovely pastoral cinematography, the brooding 19th century setting, Harry Robinson's eerie, elegant score, and a dark narrative which boldly explores such disturbing themes as incest, repression and the sins of the fathers further enhances the overall fine quality of this flavorsome Gothic horror outing.