Demons of the Mind


Demons of the Mind is a 1972 British horror film, directed by Peter Sykes and produced Anglo-EMI, Frank Godwin Productions and Hammer Film Productions. It was written by Christopher Wicking, based on a story by Frank Godwin. It was released on 5 November 1972. The cast includes Gillian Hills, Robert Hardy, Patrick Magee, Michael Hordern and Shane Briant.

Plot

A widower locks up his two children, afraid that they will go mad, as did his wife. He then invites a doctor of dubious reputation to supervise the young people's mental health. Meanwhile, in the vicinity of the house, grisly murders are happening.

Cast

The film's working title was Blood Will Have Blood.
"Hammer thought there were too many bloods," said Wicking later. "I don't think anybody knew it was a quote from Shakespeare because they would have said no to that."
Principal photography took place from 16 August to September 1971.
Peter Sykes was hired after Hammer were impressed by his work on Venom. The movie was based on the life of Franz Mesmer.
Wicking says "there was a sort of snobbery about" the film "which I think is a bad thing." He says Sykes wanted Paul Scofield and then Dirk Bogarde and when neither of them wanted to do it Hammer felt they could not ask their usual leading men, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, and went to Robert Hardy, which Wicking thought was a mistake.

Critical reception

Time Out called the film "an exotic, Wildean horror story, visually as extravagant and tantalising as a decadent painting" that is "badly let down, though, by some grotesque overacting". The Hammer Story: The Authorised History of Hammer Films wrote of the film: "oblique, ambitious and suffused with an air of primal dread, Demons of the Mind deserved better."