Demencia

A woman's husband dies of a heart attack shortly before they are to visit his family. She dumps his body into a lake and tells the family that he was called away on business, while she schemes to ensure she collects his inheritance. Her scheming is cut short, however, by the appearance of an ax-wielding killer out for blood.

Of note today as being Francis Ford Coppola's feature film debut, or at least his first credited one. Because it's from a director as accomplished as Coppola, there seems to be more thought put into analyzing Dementia 13 than is necessary. It is exactly what it appears to be: an early slasher film made on a shoestring budget and produced by the master of the cheapie, Roger Corman. It's not a bad movie. It's a little slow at times and the script doesn't always make sense, but it's a perfectly serviceable movie of its type. It has some style that one could point to as a sign of Coppola's yet-to-emerge talent. It also provided the line about "an American girl raised on promises" that was cribbed by Tom Petty for his song "American Girl," which I thought was a neat bit of trivia.

Most of the reviews here center on this being good solely because it was a beginning of sorts for Francis Ford Coppola, well maybe I exaggerate slightly, but the film really should be seen as an entity un to itself. It really is quite good. The story centers on a disfunctional family in a large Irish castle that had tragedy befall them six years ago when the youngest daughter died by drowning, Since then the father has died and the mother has become obsessed with the death of her only daughter Kathleen, and she has her sons and herself attend a mock funeral every year as a kind of memorial. Thrown into the picture are a fortune-hunting daughter-in-law and a strange, cryptic doctor(wonderfully played by the very underrated Patrick Magee). The film has some great scenes and is very high on atmosphere. Despite being made on a shoestring budget(although actually filmed in Ireland and around a real Irish castle), the film transcends its limited resources and becomes a series of atmospheric shocks. The death scenes are well-directed, particularly the two involving Luana Anders. The score by Corman regular Ronald Stein is also first-rate. A great film to watch late at night.

1st watched 5/31/2003 - 6 out of 10(Dir-Francis Coppola): Good whodunit/horror flick with twists around every corner and old-style scary movie feel. This is the first effort from Francis "Ford" Coppola with probably a shoestring budget with producer Roger Corman also involved. What is done well in this movie is the storytelling and the use of sound/music to keep you on the edge-of-your-seat. For 1963, this movie probably was rather shocking because of it's realisticly violent scenes but the core of the movie is the good story. Coppola shows here that his career in film will be promising and it has been. Good for collectors and for just people who like good horror/mystery movies.

When Alfred Hitchcock's Marion Crane (of "Psycho") stepped into the shower and met her fate, it kicked off a slew of stark, grisly chillers about nutcases, often wielding butcher knives or axes. This entry has the distinction of being one of Coppola's earliest directorial efforts and it is clearly influenced by Hitchcock, though without his budget or seasoned mastery. Anders plays a rather nagging wife who is visiting her husband's ancestral castle with him just in time to "celebrate" the anniversary of his kid sister's funeral. He, his two brothers and his mother gather annually to pay tribute to the little girl who was drowned on the premises years before. One brother (Campbell) is an angry sculptor with an American fiancee (Mitchel.) The other (Patton) is a gentle, sort of shy type. The mother (Dunne) can't get past the death of her daughter and faints on cue each year at the ceremony. Not long into the film, one death sets off a chain of events that unleashes a couple of other ones to where no one at the castle is safe and the audience is often not certain who the mad killer is (though veteran fans of horror/suspense shouldn't have that much trouble figuring it out.) The film is far from perfect, but given the unbelievable budgetary and filming restraints, it does manage to conjure up some creeps and story interest. The only part that really drags is the section involving an overly inquisitive doctor (Magee.) Otherwise, there is creativity in the filming of the deaths and a nice sense of atmosphere throughout (even if almost none of these Irish characters has anything resembling an accent!) There are slicker fright films out there, but this one wins points for accomplishing pretty much with precious little to work with.

There are many plot points throughout this film that would make great horror or suspense movies in themselves. The gold-digging wife who plans to change the will of her mother-in-law. The guilt a family feels about the death of their daughter. A haunted Irish castle. An axe murderer loose at a family gathering where a will is being discussed. The trusted family doctor who is, in fact, a puppetmaster, making the family hold onto a tragic past. Unfortunately, none of these intriguing plot points are milked to their fullest advantage. Literally, Coppola has five movies in one...but none of them are finished. When John dies and Louise covers up the death, that's the last we hear about it. This could have been used later. Etc. etc. Instead, we get a mish mash of plot points with bad acting and bad dialogue that are important but never revisited and used to weave a cohesive plot.