DERANGED directed by Jeff Gillen and Alan Ormsby

Joel Shepard | Aug 26, 2010 | Comments 0 |

I have no idea how this gore oddity based on the story of Ed Gein ended up in the YF review bin. Deranged, a mid-70s pre-disco era drive-in favorite, was thought lost for many years, but has been resurrected on home video. Though it has way too much dialogue which creates a static tedium, Deranged has a gritty rural bite and an overall no-budget sense of imminent collapse; I’d give it a severed thumb up. The gore is mostly comedic, and includes scenes like Granny barfing blood while being spoon fed, Ed yanking out corpses’ eyes and sawing skulls open, plus a bondage-tinged nude suspended woman. All of this is played a little too straight for its own good, with a greasy narrator interrupting the action at regular intervals to remind us it’s based on “real facts.” The climax is a classic, with victim in bra and panties battling corpses at an all-ghoul dinner party. Deranged is suitably deranged.