Demented (1980 film)

Demented is a 1980 American horror film in the rape and revenge subgenre, directed by Arthur Jeffreys and featuring Sallee Elyse and Harry Reems. The story centers on Linda Rodgers, who is violently gang-raped at her California ranch and subsequently institutionalized. After her release, she is placed in the care of her husband Matt, a physician, while her attackers are sentenced to prison. Linda struggles to readjust, haunted by visions of masked men breaking into her home and assaulting her. Meanwhile, Matt is having an affair with his mistress Carol and neglects Linda’s emotional needs, claiming he is working night shifts to cover his absences. When Linda experiences what she believes is a home invasion while alone, Matt calls the police, but they find no evidence. Her sister Annie visits despite Linda’s request to be left alone, but leaves after a dinner argument. During a house call, Linda’s psychiatrist Dr. Dillman mistakes a neighbor, Mark, for an intruder; Mark says he was just checking on Linda, and she believes him. Later, Linda is attacked in bed by a masked man, whom she kills with a meat cleaver, sending her into a psychotic state. Three other men—local youths playing a cruel prank—are downstairs. Linda, now in lingerie, confronts one, disarms him, and gives him spiked wine that knocks him out. Police making a nightly visit assume Linda is away and leave. She finds a third assailant in a bedroom, seduces him, then castrates him with piano wire and hacks him to death. She kills a fourth man peering through a kitchen window. The poisoned prankster regains consciousness, bound and gagged at the dining table. Linda rants at him, accusing him of being one of her rapists; he claims Mark put them up to it, but she kills him with a shotgun. Matt returns home, planning to confess his affair. In the bedroom, he uncovers a sheet to reveal a prankster’s bloody body, and Linda lunges at him with the cleaver.

In the U.S., Media Home Entertainment released *Demented* on VHS in 1982. In the U.K., Video Programme Distributors handled the VHS release, but the film was not included on the official list of 72 “video nasties” under Section 3. Scream Factory issued a Blu-ray on April 11, 2017. As of 2025, the film is not owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.