Demons of the Mind is a serviceable but mostly forgettable Hammer production - I guess it would technically be a psychological thriller, although more in the respect that it deals with madness rather than anything that is psychologically thrilling to the audience. The scary bits are about one of two things: (1) Someone is killing blonde women or (2) A crazy family that is crazy. It doesn't actively mess with *your* mind, like I kind of expect from a psychological thriller. The film is just kind of there - other than an exuberant lead performance from Robert Hardy as the Baron, there just isn't that much to get worked up about.
It's about a Baron (Hardy) who is obviously a bit mentally off - he constantly overreacts to innocent things and is prone to fits of rage. There is a history of mental instability and inbreeding in his family bloodline, and because of this the Baron is not only concerned with his own well being, but also that of his children. He keeps his grownup son and daughter under lock and key - at first I assumed it was because of their icky incestuous tendencies, although ultimately he's worried about how the family madness will manifest in them. The village he's, uh... baroning is experiencing a rash of murders - the victims always young women with long blonde hair. The villagers have long held the belief that some sort of demon has been committing murders in and around the village for generations, but no one has ever captured or even seen the beast. Of course, since this is a movie, the Baron's family madness and the village folk are on a crash course to... well, some kind of conflict.
My main issue is that Demons of the Mind tries to be too many different things, and is ultimately unfocused. This could be a fun mystery if told from the villager's perspective, but the focus on the family removes much of the intrigue. There are a couple of slasher-esque/first-person killing scenes and stylish imagery (the killer likes to leave rose petals on the victims), but not enough to make pure horror the focus. But by spending some time with the killings, and some time with the village, there isn't enough time spent with the family to make that part of it really work. The son and daughter characters in particular are really underwritten. You know they want to escape, and they're kind of incesty, but that's about it. The Baron is the only one gets a real backstory, and it feels like he's the only real character in the film.
There are a handful of supporting characters that flirt with being intriguing (the Baron's Telly Savalas-looking manservant and his lady friend being two good examples), but there just isn't enough screen time to go around. It would have helped to trim a few characters, or at least pick a main perspective and flesh it out, rather than bouncing around from the Baron to the village to the killer and back. Demons of the Mind has a meandering style to it anyways, so even if it focused on just one plot, it would probably get a little muddy. But with so many things to focus on, there's just no way to get into it.
There is one thing I definitely wouldn't lose though, and that is therapy session with the Baron and his psychologist. It's the most memorable part of the film, and has some really moody and cool visuals. The Baron is hypnotized by this weird spinning candle thing, and the doctor is somehow using a platter full of (blacklit?) vials of blue and purple fluid to draw the madness out of him. It's really kind of trippy, and I was hoping for more scenes like it. Here we also get to see visions of the Baron's deceased wife and her rather gruesome suicide - it's actually a little bit startling, because otherwise Demons of the Mind is a pretty low key film as far as the violence/gore goes.
The other big positive in this film is the performance of Robert Hardy as the Baron. He seems to enjoy chewing the scenery here, and livens up just about every scene he's in with his energy. I haven't seen a lot of Hammer horror from this era, but my general idea of them is that they were able to toe the line between being really cool and being really cheesy to great effect. I mean that as a complement. Hardy lives up to that reputation in Demons of the Mind. Plus, I love his facial hair.
Overall, I wish I would have liked it more than I did. It was just a bit too scattershot for my tastes. There was never anything bad - but one cool sequence and a solid lead performance just couldn't make up for the meandering, unfocused vibe.
I would not recommend this film.
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