FilmRSlasher Folk Horror Splatter & Gore

Deranged1974

Name: Deranged
Genre: Slasher, Folk Horror, Splatter & Gore, Psychological
Released: 1974-02-02
Rating: 6.2

“Pretty Sally Mae died a very unnatural death...But the worst hasn't happened to her yet!”

Directed by Jeff Gillen, Alan Ormsby

6.2

Crypt Score

Blended from 3 sources

IMDb 6.4Rotten Tomatoes 50%TMDB 5.9

✍ Review

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Year

1974

Runtime

83 min

Box Office

Budget

$200,000

The premise

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, and a year later 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 loosely on the true story of Ed Gein.

Horror Vault's take

Set against the bleak flatlands of rural Wisconsin, this 1974 shocker follows a deeply disturbed farmer whose suffocating bond with his overbearing mother refuses to end — even after her death. Inspired loosely by the real-life crimes of Ed Gein, the film chronicles his slow, grotesque descent as grief curdles into something far darker and more dangerous. It carries an almost documentary-style matter-of-factness that makes its horrors feel uncomfortably grounded. For fans of true-crime-adjacent horror, it remains one of the era's most unflinching portraits of a killer's unraveling mind.

Content: Graphic Violence, Gore, Necrophilia Themes, Cannibalism, Disturbing Depictions Of Corpse Desecration, Misogynistic Ideology Portrayed On Screen