Mente Diabólica

My review was written in May 1987 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.

The team of filmmaker Chuck Vincent and actress Veronica Hart (credited here under her real name, Jane Hamilton) scoe respective tour de force stints in "Deranged", an innovative thriller simply not suited to today's market. Duo achieved something of a breakthrough six years ago with the crossover porn film "Roommates", but "Deranged" is neither the expected exploitation film nor a pedigreed art picture and thus is unlikely to reach either extreme of the audience spectrum.

Taking the unpromising premise of a woman going crazy and suffering escalating hallucinations (most similar forerunner being Robert Altman's "Images"), Vincent draws upon his legit theatrical background in creating a claustrophobic atmosphere for his story. After brief opening scenes in which Hamilton's husband goes off to London and her resentments of her sister (Jennifer Delora) and patrician mother (Jill Cumer) become evident, virtually the rest of the film is played out in Hamilton's New York City apartment.

Accosted by a burglar clad head to toe in black, she kills the intruder in self-defense a la "Dial M for Murder" with a pair of scissors. This traumatic incident causes her hallucinations to multiply rapidly until the viewer is not sure what is real and what is merely a projection of the heroine's fears and memories.

Vincent audaciously uses lengthy takes (recalling Alfred Hitchcock's experiment with "Rope") and a dollying camera that prowls past walls into every room of the apartment, while characters constantly enter or disappear just out of camera range. Even elements of kabuki theater are integrated into the format, as the black-clad intruder reappears and skulks around the apartment, dodging Hamilton's real visitors yet visible to her and the audience. This elaborate technique provides several elegant transitions within a shot to move between various periods of the heroine's life as well as spatially, as in the recurring surprise appearances of her psychoanalyst interrogating her in the living room she imagines to be his office.

Though there are some weak segments, the film overall holds one's interest and builds suspensefully to a violent conclusion. Hamilton, on screen almost constantly, handles her lengthy monologs very well and really shines in the eventual transition from tormented heroine to unhinged avenger with a strange look in her eye. Rest of the cast, which includes porno vets Jerry Butler and Jamie Gillis as her husband and father (billed under different names), is okay in functional capacities.

A mentally unstable pregnant woman murders an intruder and goes berserk in her apartment. This movie plays out like a poor man's redux of "Repulsion" or "Images." It lacks both of those films' subtleties and expertise behind the camera. That isn't to say it is completely without merit. The set consists mostly of a small apartment and this creates an effective feeling of claustrophobia. Veronica Hart is rather fantastic. She gives a better performance than I ever would have expected and anchors this movie. The supporting cast is also very good. It's a highly entertaining and icky movie, and pretty impressive considering the lead cast and director primarily worked in porno.

Movie has a nice idea, but the lack of bigger budget is obvious. Veronica Hart is playing the main character and she is trying her best, but that doesn't mean anything when movie quickly becomes too boring to watch. User "Ithseldy1" has a nice review if you are interested in the plot, but the problem of the movie isn't the plot itself. It's the way it presented. There were some nice ideas, but the lack of budget really hurt the movie and it seems like you are watching scenes that were just slapped together. A lot of things could have been done better and more effectively and this would be a lot better movie. There is also a lot of overreacting. All in all, I have to give "Deranged" a 5.5/10. It has some interesting ideas, but never manages to pull them of in a right way. I was glad when the movie finished. I don't recommend it. Only thing redeeming in the movie is the scene which acts as a spoof of the wedding and you could make memes from this one.

A young pregnant woman is brutally attacked by a mask intruder in her apartment, though she kills him in self-defence, but during the attack she loses her baby. Instead of contacting for help, she acts if it didn't happen. From this moment it causes a downward spiral for her when suddenly she starts losing her mind, with her drifting into fantasy and reality with dire consequences. This emotional trauma brings back many past experiences that come back to haunt her and she starts seeing things that aren't possible.

Soooooooooo, what the heck was that all about it!? Totally screwed up, that's for sure! Yep, I know we're seeing a woman whose mind has snapped, with her hearing voices and seeing things that aren't really there, but gee I was hearing voices in my head too. "Why watch it", "Stop punishing yourself"… *hmm* I'm lucky my subconscious didn't crack while watching this lousy production. Anyhow, this cheaply made film that has shades of "Repulsion" to it, has to be one of the strangest things my eyes have seen, and one the most annoying things my ears had to go through. It's all about confusion and noise! Why's that? Well, it just didn't add up at all and there's some things in the senseless story, ah what story, which eventuate into pointless excuses to stage bizarre and ridiculously stupid scenarios. These crumby moments were more nightmarish and infuriating for the viewer, than our victim. Just like the woman is in the film, it's a painfully messed up production. We find out that she had some medical problem before she goes wacko, is she a schizophrenic? Who knows? Because we don't. And how something like this could really go unnoticed by family and close people for days after recent visits, goes beyond me. It's just pretty hard to believe. And what's deal with the ending? Is it implying something about what we've seen. Uh, don't try to understand it, because you won't. If you do, gee I must of totally missed the point.

Sure, it's pure schlock, but it's hardly enjoyable on any level. How can you enjoy a film when the irritating score just comes across as a whole lotta' noise and the same goes for the pitiful sound effects. The daggish cast of no-names were rather inept (with the exception of Veronica Hart in the traumatic lead role) and so was the dreadfully loopy dialogue. Because of it's small budget most of the film except for the intro and ending, takes place in only a couple of rooms in a apartment building. It's like a stage show. The small amount of nasty surprises of blood and a few haunting shock effects were done rather nicely. Decent make-up work was provided. While, everything else was basically off the rocker, the camera work was handled in a rather flat manner. I love my unusually twisted films, but boredom just kicked in way too early. Maybe it would've work out better as a short film?

I see through the other comments, I'm in a real small minority. Anyhow, this baffling and truly out-there mix was a real chore to sit through.

If your like me and are a fan of old 80's horror movies, then you will really appreciate watching this movie. When I usually watch movies of this time and genre my expectations are low, because I'm just looking for something to laugh at. But trust me, you won't be laughing at this movie. It's certainly frightening and completely, Deranged!