Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

soulexpress The directorial debut of Francis Ford Coppola (courtesy of producer Roger Corman), DEMENTIA 13 has been hailed as a forgotten masterpiece. Those who make that claim are only half right. It is a rushed production with a very low budget and a young director who had yet to find his voice. These elements don't have to mean a sub-par movie, but in this case they did.The plot: when John Halloran (William Campbell) dies of a heart attack, his wife Louise (Luana Anders) disposes of the body and lies that he was called away on urgent business so she can claim his inheritance. This leads to a bizarre family gathering in an Irish castle where an ax murderer picks them off one by one. Luana Anders is convincing enough as the scheming Louise. She also is quite attractive in a Dusty Springfield sort of way. The rest of the acting is what I expected: passable but nothing special. The characters are cursory and, though the Hallorans are of Irish descent, none have an accent. So why bother to set the film in Ireland? It never occurs to anyone to notify the police when their family and staff members go missing. The film does a poor job of hiding the killer's face during the ax murders. The violence is more implied than shown, a bad move on Coppola's part. The score is simultaneously uninspired and grating. And in several scenes, it's hard to hear what the characters are saying. DEMENTIA 13 is a desultory exercise that moves like molasses, offers no suspense, and at 74 minutes feels longer than Coppola's three-hour- long masterpieces, THE GODFATHER and APOCALYPSE NOW. On the other hand, I can see the genetic link between this film and the disastrous BRAM STOKER'S Dracula.Item: When Louise strips to her underwear and goes swimming in a nearby pond, her panties change color from white to black. Item: Though she is swimming at night, Louise has a clear view of everything under the water.Item: The family doctor tells an ailing Mother Halloran, "Think of your mind as a bird in the hand. When it's relaxed, you're fine. But when it's tense…." (How do I know what it means?)Item: The killer takes his ax to one of the servants, who is never mentioned again. Either no one noticed, or didn't care, that he was gone.Item: As the family doctor pursues the killer through the woods, there is a cigar in his mouth that vanishes and reappears with each cut.Item: The title is never explained.

Mark Turner The legend behind DEMENTIA 13 is well known among movie and horror film fans. Roger Corman tells Francis Ford Coppola, who was working for him at the time, that if he can make a movie in a week's time with funds left from his latest film and the location where another of his films was shooting (the week due to the contract with that location ending) he would give him a shot. Coppola jumps at the chance, makes this movie and the two have an argument of it being not quite what Corman wanted. Corman brings in Jack Hill for a few additional sequences and the end result is the movie, Coppola's first credited "legitimate" movie.The movie went on to play the drive-in circuit under several titles and later become a staple of horror host shows across the country, even more so when it became a public domain title. With their hold on most of their titles it's odd that AIP (American International Pictures) didn't hold on to this title as well. Because of this it has turned into another of those movies found in countless horror DVD packages using an almost always low quality print. That all changes with the release from The Film Detective of the movie on blu-ray. As with several titles I've now watched from the company they've done a great job of finding the optimal print and transferring it with loving care to offer perhaps the best edition of the film available.If you've never seen the film it begins with a gold digging wife named Louise whose husband John dies while rowing a boat near the family estate in Ireland. Rather than reveal his death and losing out on any chance of the family inheritance she dumps the body and rows ashore. She joins the family and tells them her husband had to go back to New York on business and thus begins a weekend that is unusual to say the least.Mother, Lady Haloran, is a patriarch who rules the roost. Each year she gathers together the other family members in a remembrance of the loss of her only daughter some years ago. Still grieving Kathleen her three sons all return and they repeat the funeral process always ending in her collapsing at graveside. This year things are a bit different though.To being with there is Louise, the wife with the intent of doing all she can to get in her mother-in-law's good graces and lay claim to her share of the inheritance to come. There is the youngest brother Billy, tormented by something that happened in the past that we aren't made privy to at first. Richard (William Campbell) is the oldest of the brothers, an artist with a fiery temper. And there is Kane, the young American fiancé of Richard who loves him with all her heart and is adapting to the ways of this less than normal family.As Louise sets about a plot to convince Lady Haloran that Kathleen is trying to contact her from the grave the rest of the family just tries to get through the weekend. When Lady Haloran collapses after thinking she's seen proof of Kathleen local doctor Justin Caleb (Patrick Magee) is called in to care for her. Justin has his suspicions that something is amiss but he's not quite sure what and stays the weekend as well. The film takes a Hitchcockian twist when our main protagonist is murdered by an axe wielding maniac, something Corman was going for when he handed Coppola the reigns on the picture. We're left to discover just who the killer is as another victim falls to the axe. Is it a brother, the fiancé, the doctor or the mother? For the budget being as low as it was this is a great horror flick with a ton of atmosphere. The use of black and white photography actually adds to the feeling here rather than damage it. The use of the pond where many of the strange occurrences take place is also well done with select images that will stick with you long after the film ends. I know some of these have remained with me from the time I was a child and saw the film one late night as shown by my local horror host of the time. While it may seem quaint to younger viewers today it was quite chilling at the time.As I stated earlier The Film Detective has done a great job with this release. Keeping in mind the vast number of prints of this film in circulation it is great to see a comprehensive edition made of the best quality prints possible and on blu-ray. Once more the company is less about extras and more about the actual film itself and for me that works fine. The best part is that we now have access to a decent edition of the film to be watched over and over again, preferably with the lights out.

Leofwine_draca This is an impressive black and white film in the classic late '50s gimmicky tradition. The poster for this film proclaimed "Are you afraid of death by drowning? Have you ever attempted suicide? Have you ever thought of committing murder? These are some of the questions you will be asked in the unprecedented "D-13 Test" to prepare you for the horrifying experience of DEMENTIA 13. If you fail the test... you will be asked to leave the theatre!" This obvious copying of the "shock" gimmicks used in William Castle's films has nothing to really do with the film, which is an atmospheric thriller sparing little time for laughs (except those of the macabre variety).Director Francis Ford Coppola creates a very powerful and frightening film by using crisp black and white photography and including strangely surreal images prevalent throughout, such as the moving toys, or the drowning itself. The film is also produced by Roger Corman, which lends it a dubious distinction. The plot is complex and frequently twists, but basically keeps to the murder mystery genre (unknown killer, all the cast come under suspicion). The latter half of the film, which follows the usual (and occasionally tiresome) build up which introduces the characters, contains a string of axe murders which were extremely graphic for their time. So much so that this could be classed as an early 'slasher' film, coming decades before later classics like BLACK Christmas. The music is very memorable and spine chilling, almost like that of HALLOWEEN.The film also has some horrific images, such as the girl hanging on a hook (shades of THE Texas CHAIN SAW MASSACRE here). There's a gory decapitation, where the victim's head rolls into a pond. The acting is fairly good all round, from Luana Anders as a woman obsessed by greed, to the suspicious brothers. However, the best actor of the lot is Patrick Magee, who shines as the hard, initially unlikable doctor. He puts in a brilliant performance in what is an overlooked film in the genre, rarely seen or talked about, but certainly something of a minor classic. Seek it out if you're interested in seeing an early atmospheric chiller with some true moments of screen horror.

bobvend Certainly noteworthy for being the first directorial credit for Mr. Coppola, Dementia 13 stands on its own as a pretty decent horror chiller who's famously low budget actually comes through as an asset. There are some obvious references to Psycho, but hey, if you're gonna take a cue from a landmark horror film, Hitchcock's touchstone is a good one to be influenced by.A dreary castle in the Irish countryside is inhabited by three brothers, their somewhat unhinged mother, and a lady in the lake, so to speak. Two of the three sons seem to have a penchant for taking American-born women for their wives, none of which Mother approves of. There are familial tensions, not the least of which involves the mother's will, and someone in the bunch likes to wield an ax with fatal results.A brilliant film? Certainly not. But it has many good points considering the genre and the era in which it emerged. Acting is both good and bad. The overall chilling atmosphere, aided by some impressive lighting and handsome b&w photography, is a major strong point. Dementia 13 deserves its position as a minor horror classic.