Dementia 13 (1963)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Blistering performances.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This film is famous for being the directorial debut of Francis Ford Coppola, but it's more than that. No, really!The film starts when a greedy widow covers up her husband's death in order to get his share of his rich mother's inheritance. During the course of her scheme she visits her husband's relatives in the family's castle. There she learns of their dark past, and finds more than she bargains for!It sounds like a mystery, and, well, it is... but it's also a proto- slasher horror film, with gore that won't impress today's fans, but the gore isn't the point: The film owes much of its terror from its setting, its imagery, and surreal circumstances that have a tint of something otherworldly. From the sinister castle, with dark hallways, to the dead autumn plant life, daylight scenes that look like sunsets, and night scenes that are competently dark (a rarity at that time), the creepy music and some of the downright ghoulish scenes later on in the film, and you have a movie that looks scary without any unnecessary fog or smoke. The eerie music, crackling sound and even the contrasting tone on the grain of the film make it seem even more supernatural and horrifying at times. As a low-budget black and white film from this era, there are mistakes, to be sure (and a few are quite painfully obvious). But the expert camera work, scene layouts, creepy sets, more than make up for it.Now, I'm going to make some complaints, and they might sound harsh, but really, but really they're just minor nitpicks in what is a truly enjoyable film. First, you're going to see the murderer's identity from a million miles away. If it's not obvious to you in the first half hour, I would be surprised. Second, for a film that purports to take place in Ireland, there is a distinct dearth of Irish accents (and the ones that are there are not believable). Third, there are some technical flaws in the film, but outside of one painfully obvious errant boom mic they can be overlooked for the most part. Some of the actors are terrific (of particular note is Luana Anders as Louise, and Patrick Magee doing his usual sinister shtick as Dr. Caleb), but some of them are well... terrible (Mary Mitchell takes the role of the whiny, shrieking Kane, who is this film's innocent lamb, but still very unlikable). In some films these flaws would undo everything, but in this film they're just 'flavor.'In conclusion, if you like movies that can terrify you with what you don't see, as well as what you do, be sure to watch it!

Not sure why the lead main female characters looked almost exactly alike with hair and facial features. Gratuitous flesh and gore and the most annoying score to further make me finely tuned to the time left remaining on the screen. Was very excited to see such a famous directors first efforts like I experienced with Scorcese's "Who's That Knocking...", whose glorious effort had many themes and not trying to outdo a home movie effect.This trash was just some compendium of shlock and how he graduated to Godfather status is beyond me. I even hate to think he was responsible for the drivel dialogue and confusing cuts.High recommend for Coppola at 22 and who cares what the budget was, remember "Blair Witch Project"? Beyond amateur boogey man.

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.

Unfortunately, this is the type of bag that you find in the flap in front of you on an airplane, and the result as as smelly.It seems that for this Roger Corman low-budget horror film directed by a future legend, Francis Ford Coppola (billed without the Ford here), the rule was "anything goes" for this supposed ghost story of a drowned child, a vengeful wife, the possessive mother who insists on repeating the funeral every year (where she always dramatically faints), an obnoxious doctor who insists that somebody in the family is as crazy as a loon, and an underwater shrine to the dead child. The initial storyline has the obvious gold-digging Luana Anders on a boat with her portly husband who informs her that he's not putting her in his will then promptly drops dead of a heart attack. What happens then is basically forgotten for the remainder of the film (with barely a mention of this missing son) and her re-arrival at the castle of his mama where the annual funeral of the child is about to commence. An unseen killer, bearing an ax, begins menacing the residents, and even mama is attacked while visiting her dead daughter's playhouse. A poacher is decapitated and the daughter-in-law mysteriously disappears. Acting is amateurish, photography is dreadful and plot developments come and go at great abandon without ever being resolved. Even the long-awaited conclusion is as obvious as the fact that life-sized doll of the dead girl is plaster and that ending doesn't come too soon.