Demons of the Mind (1972) Collector's Edition 4K UHD Review

3 stars, an excellent restoration of a strange Hammer offering.

Demons of the Mind is a 1972 British folk horror/thriller from the Hammer stable. It is directed by Peter Sykes (The Committee, To the Devil a Daughter) with a screenplay from Christopher Wicking (Dream Demon, Murders in the Rue Morgue). Produced by Frank Godwin (Sky Pirates, Breakout), it benefitted from a lot more on location filming than other Hammer films of the time. Unfortunately, they also experimented with a more psychological threat rather than relying on a monster, a decision which almost paid off.

It has enjoyed a 4K restoration and is available to own in the UK on Collector’s Edition 4K UHD from 6th April 2026, courtesy of STUDIOCANAL.

“How I wish I could give you light instead of darkness. Even more, how I wish you could give it to me.”

Baron Zorn (Robert Hardy – Frankenstein, Sense and Sensibility) is mourning the loss of his beloved wife. To make matters worse, he believes that his two children Elizabeth (Gillian Hills – A Clockwork Orange, Blow-Up) and Emil (Shane Briant – Lady Chatterley’s Lover) have inherited the mental illness which has plagued their family.

They do seem to be unnaturally attracted to one another and need to be constantly kept apart (imprisoned basically), by their Aunt Hilda (Yvonne Mitchell – Crucible of Horror) and the enigmatic Klaus (Kenneth J. Warren – Beyond Atlantis, The Creeping Flesh).

To treat this illness, Baron has engaged the services of Doctor Falkenberg (Patrick Magee – Zulu, Chariots of Fire), a disgraced psychiatrist of dubious merit, who travels to the estate with his young assistant Carl (Paul Jones – Privilege), with whom Elizabeth is rather taken.

Meanwhile there are a spate of gruesome murders on the estate and a travelling priest (Michael Hordern – Theatre of Blood, Cleopatra) has arrived to stir up the pitchfork waving locals. What is really going on here?

“You should never have gone away from us. We know that. But now you’re home, everything will be as it used to be, won’t it?”

Demons of the Mind is an entertaining watch, but it does have issues. If you’re expecting your traditional Hammer horror fayre, this is not that. It relies instead on building a sense of mystery, but is ultimately rather predictable. Couple that with the rampant overacting by all the British male leads and it’s a little frustrating in places.

With it’s buckets of blood and copious boobs, as well as incest and gratuitous violence, it’s easy to see how this would have caused a great deal of shock in the seventies, but these days we tend to want more in the way of storyline.

That being said, this is an excellent restoration, the film looks and sounds great and for anyone wanting a complete Hammer collection, this is well worth adding to it.

“Demons of the mind. Mankind is on the brink of understanding itself at last. Pure knowledge, with myself leading the hunt.”