Demons of the Mind 2002 Horror Movie Review

“This place reeks of madness and decay!” Well, yes, we’re in a Hammer horror mansion, so it would. This time the setting is early 19th-century Bavaria, where a baron (hammy Robert Hardy) is desperately trying to cure his grown children of the hereditary affliction that bedevils them. Although it’s obsessed with blood, this movie is rather anemic, notwithstanding the sexiness of early-‘70s Hammer pictures. It does boast a striking cast: young hero Paul Jones was the lead singer of Manfred Mann, ethereal blonde Gillian Hills is a memorable waif (a role envisioned for Marianne Faithfull), Michael Hordern is a rabble-rousing priest, and Patrick Magee does his usual boiling-teakettle sputtering as a mad mesmerist. There’s promise in Magee’s weird ideas about a psychological cure for the incest-minded household, but like so much about this film, it’s not as much fun as it sounds. —Robert Horton