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Wonderful Movie

Such a frustrating disappointment

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

I can say this is scary and suspenseful in its own slow moving way. But too many points in the plot just don't make any sense. Louise pretends her husband didn't die and was thrown to the bottom of the pond just to claim an inheritance from her mother in law, but she is very much alive and not planning to check out soon. Louise also swims and dives in the pond at night with some dolls to leave where Kathleen drowned, but why? The family doctor gets suspicious and drains the pond to see if Kathleen really drowned there. But only the shrine is discovered. Kathleen's body isn't there, but why didn't they find Louise's husband John? It's too bad we don't have message boards to get answers about parts of weird movies like these that don't make sense. The real killer is given away with hints, but finding out is a surprise. I would have thought revealing Louise's husband as the murderer would be more scary and surprising. Maybe he didn't really die or his ghost came back. But that might have been one of the ideas people could be bluffed into thinking to watch the whole movie until the end.

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.

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.

Dementia 13 (AKA: The Haunted/The Hunted) is written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. It stars William Campbell, Luana Anders, Patrick Magee and Bart Patton. Music is by Ronald Stein and cinematography by Charles Hannawalt.A Roger Corman produced cheapie, made to give Coppola a leg up the ladder while utilising sets and cast members just used for Corman's The Young Racers, Dementia 13 has somehow gained a reputation as a cult classic. It isn't.Coppola shows some nice touches at times, throwing in some eerie images (children's toys/underwater shenanigans) to a Gothic castle backdrop, and he is assured when it comes to a violent scene, but the script is laughable, the screenplay ludicrous and away from Magee the acting is weak. Add to that that the mystery element - the who is the mad axe murderer? - is hardly mysterious at all, and it's a pretty turgid movie. And this even after Corman had changes implemented once he viewed Coppola's finished cut, proclaiming it as near unreleasable and hiring Jack Hill to touch it up.It was always Corman's hope that the film would be a cheap Psycho knock off, and it is, and not a good one at that. Are there signs of great to come from the director? Yes, definitely. But that shouldn't be mistaken as worthy cinema. From blinking corpses to poorly lighted sequences, to kiddie gore effects and the uneven mess of a plot that unfolds once a key character exits the mid-point, the film shows itself as undeserving of the praise heaped on it by some. 5/10