Demented

Demented is a prime slice of the kind of low budget horror/exploitation stuff that doesn't get made anymore. Depending who you are, they might be a good thing or a bad thing.

Sallee Eyse plays Linda, a rape victim who starts to lose her mind and see every man as a potential threat. It doesn't help that her husband (porn star Harry Reems) leaves home every chance he can to sleep around. Left alone, Linda's mental health deteriorates until she becomes a cold-blooded murderess.

It's all very tacky and shot and acted without any real style, but there are a few moments where it comes to life.

"Demented" is the undisputed champion of bad movies! And I've seen plenty of them! At least all the bad movies I've seen have some sort of low-grade cheap entertainment value. "Demented" does not! The back of the video box makes it sound much better than it actually is, take it from me, this movie is painful!

The lead actress, Sallee Elysse, challenges only Chesty Morgan and Connie Mason when it comes to bad acting! Whose girlfriend was she? The producer? The screenwriter? No casting director in their right mind would cast her unless she was somebody's girlfriend. The one redeeming value of her performance: she improves a bit when she loses her mind, but that bit is about the size of a breadcrumb. Then, she does flash her chest a lot and that makes up a bit for her ineptitude. The only actor worth noting is Harry Reems (billed here as Bruce Gilchrist), who is good as usual. I had a feeling it was him because of his famous handlebars moustache and it seems weird seeing him involved in simulated sex with his mistress when he can be seen performing hardcore sex in earlier films!

"Demented" borrows liberally from "Last House on the Left", "I Spit On Your Grave", and "Mother's Day". Of course, it has none of the power or "finesse" of those films. The acting is horrible (save Harry Reems/Bruce Gilchrist), none of the plot is very believable and Elysse makes for an annoying rape victim. All she does in her character portrayal is whine about being raped, go crazy and bitch, and cry in a high-pitched whine that has no rival on the annoying scale! Do not even rent this out of curiosity, please just avoid it at all costs! "Demented" deserves to be burnt, blown up, ripped apart by a pack of dogs, I think I've made my point.

Well, at least this movie doesn't wast too much time on boring introductions or overlong mood-settings. The opening shows a woman caressing her favorite horse for only a brief moment, and the very next second she's assaulted by four sleazebags with stockings over their heads and gang-raped in the stable. This scene is rather short and unclear to watch, yet also rather unsettling because these guys just 'come & go' without even bothering to take their disguise off. A certain period of time later, Linda is released from the mental hospital but definitely not cured yet. Her unfaithful husband (Harry Reems – the porn king) is spending most of his time with his mistress and Linda slowly goes...well...demented! When a new gang of thugs attempts to rape her, she snaps for good. "Demented" is a typical rip off of Wes Craven's "Last House on the Left" but tries to add a (lame) psychological theme. Linda avenges herself and cuts up people with a meat clever, only – supposedly – she's in a totally different state of mind. Whatever. It's a really lame movie, with only a few suspenseful moments and a disappointingly low amount of gore and sleaze. There's the obligatory castration-sequence – thank you "I Spit on your Grave" – but you can hardly make out what's happening. Sallee Young and Kathryn Clayton are ravishing ladies, but not exactly great actresses. Give "Demented" a miss and aim for one of the thousand other underrated rape & revenge films out there, like "Last House on the Beach", "Night Train Murders", "House on the Edge of the Park" or "Fight for your Life".

DEMENTED is a preposterous, rather dull "thriller".

Linda Rodgers (Sallee Young) returns home after years in a mental institution, trying to recover from a gang rape. Readjusting to her marriage is difficult, due to her damaged emotions and flashbacks. Her husband (Harry Reems) is no help, since he's busy sneaking off to be with his mistress.

Poor Linda soon finds herself dealing with a whole new group of vicious perverts! She begins to mentally unravel. We know this because her whiny, warbling voice rises to ear-melting levels. Every time Linda gets worked up she sounds like a cross between a bratty 5 year old and a tornado siren! It goes right through your head like a drill!

Linda's attackers are -almost- as annoying as she is. Their deaths, though arriving too late to salvage this movie, do provide some relief.

Linda's final descent into madness is fairly believable, and is the best part of the movie. If only she'd been this good during the first two-thirds!

Special mention goes to Bryan Charles as Linda's gun-toting doctor. He's the only person who seems to care about her, and is also immune to her incessant shrieking that would turn lesser brains into guacamole!...

After surviving a rape, a woman becomes unglued and starts losing her mind in what's essentially a low budget reimagining of Repulsion without all the class and sophistication. The lead actress does nothing but whine for the entire film and it makes it really hard to root for her, especially when she goes psycho. With a better leading lady, but most of the movie is spent with this character, so if she's not cast right, the whole film is doomed.