Demons of the Mind (1972)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1972
Running Time	85:37
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Peter Sykes
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Paul Jones Patrick Magee Yvonne Mitchell Robert Hardy Gillian Hills Michael Hordern Kenneth J. Warren Virginia Wetherell Shane Briant
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	Harry Robertson

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    By the time this film was released in 1972, Hammer productions were in a downward spiral that led to the end of their involvement in the production of films. And the problems with their product shows in this film. While outwardly handsome, it suffers from a half-developed script and some terrible performances, both by the seasoned professionals and the non-actors in this film. It is quite a disappointment as there was the germ of an interesting idea in there that was strangled at birth. Set sometime in the early nineteenth century in the standard European Gothic milieu of the Dracula and Frankenstein films, the story concerns two siblings, Elizabeth (Gillian Hills) and Emil (Shane Briant), who are locked up by their father Baron Zorn (Robert Hardy), because he believes that the insanity of his dead wife has been passed down to them. He brings in the mesmerist Falkenberg (Patrick Magee) to remove the demons from their minds. It turns out fairly quickly though that the real insanity lies not in the young people nor in the deceased wife, but in the Baron himself. Local women are being murdered in the woods (the same woods that appear in most Hammer films of this period) and the local peasants blame demons. A wandering and quite loopy priest (Michael Hordern) appears on the scene, but (quite rightly in my opinion) everyone ignores him. Cue much violence, gore and unnecessary nudity.

    It is hard to know where to begin to critique this film. The direction is not bad and the production values are okay. The location settings help enormously. The script though has little depth or sense to it, and this seems to have encouraged the actors to ham it up badly. Robert Hardy gives a woeful performance as the deranged Zorn, and Michael Hordern must have thought he was appearing in a comedy rather than a horror film. The youthful leads are no better, with Gillian Hills and Paul Jones wooden and Shane Briant looking out of his depth. Australian actor Kenneth J. Warren, who plays the bald-pated Karl, seems to have trouble with his lines. The only saving grace is Patrick Magee, who presents one of his usual nasty turns as the duplicitous Falkenberg.

    Overall this film is a disappointment to say the least. It is presented on a single disc with Fright, another feature film which is reviewed separately.

Video

    The film is presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    Despite the poor quality of the film itself, the video is excellent. This is a very sharp and clear transfer with plenty of detail and lots of clarity. Contrast is just about right and shadow detail is very good.

    Colours are rich and vibrant, with no hint of bleeding. Flesh tones are accurately portrayed. I noticed some sequences where blacks had a whitish sheen to them, but for the most part blacks are solid and clean.

    The only significant film to video artefact is a slight blockiness that occurs when the camera quickly pans through the forest when the village wenches are attacked. There are also some comet trails from the Baron's white shirt showing on his dark suit in the indoor sequences.

    Film artefacts were very rare, with some dirt visible and infrequent white spots.

    No subtitles are provided.

    This is a dual-layered disc, with this feature entirely contained on one layer and the second feature on another, so there is no layer change during the film.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The sole audio track is English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono.

    Like other recent releases in this series, this is a good audio transfer. Dialogue is clear and I did not notice any hiss or distortion. Naturally it is not a high fidelity recording, but it is as good as you could expect for this film.

    The music score by Harry Robinson is idiomatic and suits the material, though there is not much to distinguish it from other Hammer scores that he wrote.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    No extras, apart from the presence of another feature film on the same disc.

    If you are a fan of this film, then you would probably prefer to acquire the Region 1 DVD which comes from Anchor Bay, who have released a large proportion of Hammer films in digital format. This release includes an audio commentary with director Peter Sykes, screenwriter Christopher Wicking and actress Virginia Wetherell, plus a theatrical trailer and talent biographies. It does not have the film Fright which is included as the second feature on this disc, so if you want both at a bargain price, the Region 4 might be preferable.

    A poor effort from Hammer.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is very good.

    No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall