Dementia 13

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.

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.

Dementia 13 is Francis Ford Coppola's first flick, his directorial debut. Yeah, that's right. The man that brought you Apocalypse Now and The Godfather worked first in horror. And worked well I might add. Under the producing eye of Roger Corman, this is one of the earlier additions to the slasher genre, and it's not bad. A few flaws keep this one from being a black and white masterpiece. My biggest peeve with the film is the fact that it's not real hard to see who the killer is. They should have done a better job of masking his face. There are a few priceless scenes though. The radio being tossed into the water, and the muffling of the music is quite cool. I love the part where the killer is dragging the girl's body by the wrist, it's rather wicked. It also has perhaps one of the earliest decapitations. Patrick Magee is fabulous as the aristocratic doctor. This hard to find gem is worth looking for, especially for old school horror fans.

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")

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.