| Product: |
Demons Of The Mind (DVD) |
| Date: |
14.04.08 (70 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Great cast, great story
Disadvantages: A bit slow
A review of the Hammer Collection DVD.
Made in 1972, this is probably the last good (or at least interesting) film that Hammer made. It's one of their very few good films that isn't based explicitly on one of the classic old monsters. It's a very atypical Hammer horror.
The rather complicated story involves Baron Zorn (Robert Hardy) and his two children Emil and Elizabeth (Shane Briant and Gillian Hills); all three are insane. Elizabeth has fallen in love with a medical student (Paul Jones), and the Baron has hired a mountebank mesmerist (Patrick Magee!) to try and cure his family. Meanwhile, local girls are being murdered, and a deranged priest (Michael Hordern!!) is wandering around warning about a demon...
This is a more impressive cast than Hammer normally managed. It's unusual for there to be this many important characters in one of their films. The younger cast members are much better than Hammer's usual pretty clothes horses (although Paul Jones, the singer of Manfred Mann, could perhaps have been better). Shane Briant, an intense screen presence, is especially good as Emil. The older cast members are allowed to act it up a storm. Robert Hardy thankfully doesn't go to the annoying, mannered lengths he does in his later work. Michael Hordern is amazing, doing his usual twitchy, muttering thing, which works very well in the context. Best of all, as ever, is Patrick Magee, a jowly Northern Irish actor with the most astonishing vocal inflections and an incredible raspy voice.
Although the storyline is rooted in the usual killing-peasants-in-the-woods antics, it's a great deal more intelligent than most Hammers. The plot takes in various discredited medical theories, from bloodletting to mesmerism - both of which are recreated in loving detail here. There's also a very peculiar but effective scene in which the village children enact a bizarre, near-pagan ritual, a very odd detail that you just wouldn't normally find in a Hammer film. Although the direction, by Peter Sykes, doesn't show any massive flair, and there's plenty of wretched day for night photography, there is a lot here that's mould-breaking.
It's all shot on location, which is extraordinary for Hammer - so no wobbly sets and polystyrene tombstones. The violence is also explicit in a very non-Hammer way - someone being stabbed in the throat with a bunch of keys isn't what you normally see in the studio's films. There's also a lot more nudity than Hammer usually gave us. In its intense family relationships and general sense of impending gloom, this feels more like one of Roger Corman's Poe adaptation than a Hammer horror. And it still has the very rich colours that typify Hammer.
It's not perfect, though. The music is disappointing, generally bland but with the odd stab of urgency. There are some bad distorted lens effects at the beginning - I think they're meant to evoke the madness of one of the characters, but they don't really do any such thing. And it's a bit too slow, even at a mere 85 minutes - Hammer's films always feel about 15 minutes longer than they should be.
But still, it's great that they made a film like this, even if it came too late to save them. It's obviously influenced more by the likes of Witchfinder General or Blood on Satan's Claw than any of Hammer's own films (although it lacks the social commentary of either of those films).
The DVD has a trailer, which isn't very exciting. There is also a commentary by the director, the writer and one of the actresses (Virginia Wetherell, whose part isn't that big. She does disrobe a lot, though). It's OK, a fairly typical Hammer commentary really - I'd guess everyone knows each other well from the horror convention circuit, so there are no scurrilous anecdotes.
This can be had for £6 on amazon, but HMV are *still* selling the whole 21-disk Hammer Collection boxset for a mere £40 (its RRP is £150).
Summary: The last really good Hammer horror
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