Dementia 13

******SPOILERS****** Early 1960's collaboration of director Francis Ford Coppala and film producer Roger Corman of a horror story set in and around Ireland's Haloran Castle. The movie has really two stories that intersect each other halfway into the movie which sets off a series of brutal ax murders which for the time, the early 1960's, are as graphic as anything seen in films back in those days.

John Haloran, Peter Reed, dies of a sudden heart attack, which seemed self-induced, rowing a boat with his wife Louise, Luana Anders, on board one night. Getting nothing from John's estate if he dies before she does which was stated in John's will Louise frantically tries to hide John's body by throwing him overboard into the lake. Louise ties an anchor to his waist to keep John from floating to the surface and being discovered.

Back home Louise writes a letter attributing it to John stating that he's gone on an urgent business trip to New York and may not be back for some time. Louise then plans to talk John's emotionally unstable mother Lady Haloran, Eithne Dunne, into re-writing the will and include her in it with or without the survival of her husband. The next day John's older brother Richard, William Campball, is set to see his fiancée Kane, Mary Mitchel, who's arriving from the USA to meet Richard's family in Ireland. When Kane is picked up by Richard's younger brother William, Brent Patton, at the airport William tells Kane that tomorrow is the seventh anniversary of their 13 year-old sister Kathleen's, Barbara Downing, tragic death and the family is having it's annual ceremony to commemorate it.

Louise knowing how much Lady Haloran misses her beloved daughter Kathleen tries to manipulate her by trying to prove to her that she's somehow in touch with the dead Kathleen through communications with her from the "other side". This is to get her to like Louise, who Lady Haloran despises, and get her to change the will that she wrote up that left Louise out in the cold if her husband dies in terms of his inheritance. Trying to convince Lady Haloran that she's really in communication with her daughter Louise tries to stage an event by taking some toys from Kathleen's room and planting them at the bottom of the pound where she drowned seven years ago.Louise plans at the right moment to have the toys rise to the surface in Lady Haloran presence to prove, to Lady Haloran, that she's telling her the truth.

What Louise doesn't know, by reviving suppressed memories of Kathleen's death, is that she set off and put into motion the person who was responsible for it to commit a number of bloody ax murders with Louise being his first victim.

Despite a shoe string budget and a unknown cast "Dementia 13" is a pretty effective Horror/Mystery movie.The murderer is more or less reviled almost at the beginning of the film but in such a way to make you not realize it. In a good attempt of misdirection by Francis Ford Coppala the audience is made to look somewhere or at someone else in the movie which keeps you guessing who the killer is until the very end. Coppala's use of striking black and white photography as well as the effective use of sounds and shadows greatly adds to the suspense as well as creepiness of the movie.

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.

In Ireland, the greedy American Louise (Luana Anders) is disappointed with the will of her mother-in-law Lady Haloran (Ethne Dunne) on the eve of Kathleen's seventh memorial ceremony. While rowing a small boat during the night in the pond of the Haloran Castle with Louise, John Haloran (Peter Read) has a fatal heart attack. Louise is aware that she will not receive the share of the inheritance if the death of John is discovered, so she dumps his body in the pond. Then she forges a farewell letter from John to his mother telling that he needs to go back to New York, and she separates some clothes in John's suitcase to simulate his travel. Louise succeeds to convince Lady Haloran and her sons Richard (William Campbell) and Billy (Bart Patton) about John's urgent business trip. Later she talks to Billy about the spooky old castle and Billy tells that the place is haunted by his sister Kathleen, who drowned in the pond many years ago driving his mother to the edge. On the next morning, Richard's American fiancée Kane (Mary Mitchel) arrives for the family's reunion and the Machiavellian Louise approaches to Lady Haloran showing sympathy for her feelings for Kathleen. During the night, Louise goes to Kathleen's bedroom and gets some toys; then she dives in the pond to prepare a prank to lure Lady Haloran. When she returns, she is attacked by a man with a machete and dies; when she is not found in the castle, the family believes she has traveled without saying goodbye. Later, Lady Haloran's doctor Justin Caleb (Patrick Magee) decides to investigate the small lake and the mystery about the Haloran Castle, disclosing a hidden secret in the dysfunctional family.

It is curious to see "Dementia 13" in 2009, and the greatest attraction is the name of the director and writer Francis Coppola (without the Ford) in one of his earliest works. Produced by Roger Corman, the King of the B-Movies (especially in the 60's), this black-and-white feature has an abrupt beginning without any previous development of characters or situation. Then the flawed and predictable story of dementia and family curse visibly follows the style of Alfred Hitchcock. I found in IMDb that the original title would be "Dementia"; however, it was added a "13" since there is a 1955 movie with the same title. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Demência 13" ("Dementia 13")

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.