Shocktober 2025 – Demons of the Mind (1971)

“Blood will have blood, they say. Well, there must be no more blood on our souls.” – Zorn

I’ll be honest, this is very much a last-minute addition to this year’s Shocktober. I hadn’t added it to any version of my list. It was bought as part of The Ultimate Hammer Films box set many years ago, and then forgotten as my attention was firmly focussed on the Dracula, Frankenstein and Mummy movies among other more high-profile Hammer films. So, there it lay, gathering dust for over a decade, until I realised it’s (I believe) the only Hammer horror movie I had never watched. Ever! Which is ridiculous when I think about how many horror movies I watch in a year, and my fondness for Hammer.

This is one of those Hammer films that as far as I know, was never shown on television. Its theatrical release was delayed and when it finally saw the light of day, it was part of a short-run double bill. Curiouser and curiouser.

As we’ve already seen what American-International were up to in the early seventies, it seemed appropriate to check out this forgotten (or at least overlooked) Hammer entry. We know they were up to their necks in the lesbian vampire Carmilla Karnstein trilogy, and that Ingrid Pitt was a rising star, but other than the gender bending Doctor Jekyll and Sister Hyde, an ill-fated reboot of their Frankenstein series and trotting out an increasingly weary Christopher Lee as the Dracula series trundled on, what else?

Demons of the Mind tries to tackle mental health issues in a gothic setting with a hip cast, featuring a pop singer as a young medical student. (You might already be getting the idea that this one is a little misguided from the get-go.)

A quick bit of background, Hammer were, as usual not particularly financially healthy. Long story short, whatever profit they made on a film had to be spent on their next project, which had already been sold to distributors in advance. They were on a knife edge, and would only be able to survive for three or four more years before their delicate house of cards would inevitably collapse. Their true glory days were over, but they didn’t know it.

The original casting of the film included controversial actress Marianne Faithfull as the lead actress but the deal fell through. Additionally, both Dirk Bogarde and James Mason were in the running for the role that eventually went to Patrick Magee. Having already approached other actors, Hammer felt they couldn’t approach their in-house stalwarts Cushing & Lee, so they went elsewhere. That was in my opinion a mistake. Cushing and Lee could always be relied upon to elevate material they were given and deliver more than the script had to offer them. Casting them would definitely have made for a better film. (You can imagine my regretful sigh here.)

The resulting film seems to be a highlight reel of Hammer’s tried and trusted go-to scenes, lovingly re-filmed with this cast and kind of chucked into a pot to see what would come out. Basically, it’s a movie that is far less than the sum of its parts.

A tormented Baron in a stately home? Check. Black carriages led by black horses, galloping through a forest trail? Check. Mysterious murders of busty young maidens in the forest on the outskirts of a village? Check. Suggestions of supernatural forces? Check. Gratuitous nudity? Check. Dashing young hero? Check. Wise elder played by veteran actor? Check. Crazy priest chasing some evil or other? Check. It’s all here. This IS a catalogue of Hammer in the early seventies. But there’s very little cohesion.

The plot, such as it is, is a little confusing and hard to follow. The individual scenes are well mounted and some of the cinematography is excellent. So much so, you get absorbed into the scene and conveniently forget that you’re still waiting for the murky plot to clarify. That point struck me around halfway through.

Here goes – A carriage is rushing through the forest, carrying a young woman, Elizabeth Zorn (Gillian Hills) and a stern, governess type named Hilda (Yvonne Mitchell). It seems that Gillian is a runaway, being returned home after a dalliance with a young man, a medical student named Carl Richter (ex-Manfred Mann singer Paul Jones), living in the forest. She is being returned to her father Baron Zorn (Robert Hardy) who keeps his son Emil (Shane Briant) locked up and undergoing some sort of treatment.

There is insanity in the Zorn family, going back generations and the good Baron had the idea of marrying a pure-blooded virgin to try and purge the madness. Sadly, having given birth, she graphically committed suicide in front of the young kids. So much for THAT plan.

Emil and Elizabeth have an incestuous relationship, presumably as part of their fragile mental health, and Zorn has called for the help of expert Dr Falkenburg (Patrick Magee) in his search for a family cure. Falkenburg has coincidentally met Richter on his way to the Baron’s home and has asked him to assist, being a medical student.

Falkenburg’s plan is to have a local witless tart who bears a passing resemblance to the kids’ mother dress up as her and pass herself off as their mother (WTF??? How is THIS a good idea?) Anyway, it’s a very, VERY flimsy excuse for gratuitous Hammer nudity as she tries on various dresses for the charade. Evidently, they didn’t have underwear of any kind in Easter Europe back then.

It all ends up with the villagers storming the Baronial home with flaming torches because they think that the Zorns are responsible for the death count of young maidens in the forest, a lot of bloodshed and the remaining surviving family member descending into total madness.

I think.

Sadly, although it’s a stylish looking film, it doesn’t really succeed as either a horror movie or a psychological thriller, or even an exploitation movie. It seems to exist just for the sake of being a retread of some of Hammer’s favourite go-to scenes with added flesh.