Deranged (1974)

Dir: Jeff Gillen & Alan Ormsby

Starring: Roberts Blossom and a cast of actors that, any one of which, could act their balls/ovaries off far better than anyone in WRONG TURN 2: DEAD END (see review)

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: Pretty Sally Mae died a very unnatural death! ... But the worst hasn't happened to her yet! DERANGED ... confessions of a necrophile

Plot: A man living in rural Wisconsin takes care of his bed-ridden mother, who is very domineering and teaches him that all women are evil. After she dies he misses her, so a year later he digs her up and takes her home. He learns about taxidermy and begins robbing graves to get materials to patch her up, and inevitably begins looking for fresher sources of materials. Based closely on the true story of Ed Gein.






My Rating: 9/10

Would I watch it again? YES!!!

#207 on Drive-In Delirium Vol. 1 (Part of the Trailer Trash Project)

Damn I love movies. After searching futilely for some rat poison to mix in with my Crunch & Munch after just watching WRONG TURN 2: DEAD END I popped in this little curiosity. I had a hunch busting out something I'd never heard of from the 70's would destroy WT2:DE. And boy did it ever.



I think anyone who wants to make a movie with very little money, one that people will watch, should see this before getting the first shot. There is a kinda cheesy narrator that pops in and out but PLEASE don't think of it as being corny or silly. If you simply go along and accept the low budget-ness of the film and take it seriously you will come away from it far better. I did. With every film I watch I try to put myself into the time it was made, throwing out everything that may have come after it - basically clearing my mind and just being in the moment.

Assuming you read the plot you probably thought it sounded familiar. Well it is. The Ed Gein case has generated countless movies with similar themes, PSYCHO (1960) being probably the most well-known. Once you get past the dying mother's overlong speech where she repeats herself to the point of you wanting to call Dr. Kevorkian, the movie moves at a nice pace. We know Ezra (beautifully played by Roberts Blossom - you know, the old man at the end of Home Alone?) is nuts and everyone around him just thinks he's eccentric and feels sorry for him for the death of his mother. He's in his own little world and you know what he does? HE ACTS HIS BALLS OFF! There's a great bar scene where Ezra meets his next victim, a smokin' sexy waitress, Mary, and a hysterical old drunk who's nuts about her, too. She pays attention to him and that's what he needs but she's not fake about it. For example, she's flirtatious but without substance and when she gets Ezra to buy a drink (his first ever) he gives $5 for the .75 drink and tells her to keep it. She compassionately asks Ezra if he's sure he doesn't need it he says no and she, with a cute smile, accepts it and continues the playful game. It's moments like this that give these characters much more depth than films of today. Naturally he mistakes her "friendliness" for meaning more than what it really is and he starts plotting. Several minutes later she's tied to a chair at the dinner table surrounded by corpses of old ladies in dresses (sound familiar?). She's petrified but she realizes that she has to play it cool in order to survive. How she reacts to Ezra is real and believable. She's scared but does everything she can to keep her cool. Terrific performance.

Before I get to the last part of the film I have to say the acting from everyone in this movie is superb. It's people talking and doing things like regular folks. Nothing's forced. Words just happen. I found it very refreshing. It was almost distracting because I found myself marveled by the sheer naturalness of the actors. You don't see that often. It pulls you into the story.



Now then, the last act. Stunning. I had chills (and that's not easy). In fact, the last time I had chills I was naked and spilled a bowl of cereal in my lap and the dog was nowhere around to clean it up. Ezra seizes upon a moment of opportunity to take another victim. I cannot go any further because what happens in the last...say...10 minutes was astonishing. The shot of the two hunters (Ezra's friends) pulling up to his barn in their truck and discovering what's inside is a great moment and image mainly because it's filmed from about 70 feet away

The music by Carl Zittrer (BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974) & A CHRISTMAS STORY) is minimalistic and very atmospheric. There are times when it's just droning beneath the surface and it works very well. The re-occurring theme for Mother can be a little intrusive but overall it's effective. And ther is humor in the film but it's very subtle, dark and delicious.

Filmmakers of the late 60s through the late 70s took chances with their films and dared audiences to watch them. I'm grateful we have them because it really seems that few people in the last 20 years have dared their audiences, to show them something they haven't seen before or least in a different way. DERANGED does that with no-name actors and with a tiny (even for 1974) budget of $200,000. They did more with what they had than what the makers of the latest RESIDENT EVIL film ($45 million) and ALIEN VS PREDATOR ($45 million) can do with dozens of millions of dollars - and that's deliver the goods.