Demons of the Mind (1972)
"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