Dementia 13 (1963)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Fresh and Exciting

Best movie ever!

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

"Dementia 13" is a nice little story a black and white gem of revenge and payback. This tale also involves themes of lust, greed, and nightmares for a 1960's film it's themes were full on the plate. Anyway after a woman's husband has a heart attack she still makes a trip to his family's Irish castle. And soon she learns from the family that this castle carries a deadly secret. As an axe killer runs amuck thru the castle killing one by one and this will come to light as being connected to the death of the family's youngest daughter! Also this was directed by the legendary Francis Ford Coppola one of his early and perhaps first works.

The movie is better than what some of the critics have to say about it. The film is definitely dark, creepy and demented. The morbidity is vivid in this overall dreary setting and story.Which one is the killer? This is the question on the film's poster. It's fun to play a guessing game when watching this movie. Hint: everyone is a bit off their rocker in this movie but there is only one killer. The flick is worth watching to find out the answer if you like mystery-horror stories.This is good "dark and stormy night" type of movie! You will not want to miss anything in this film so have everything ready before you start the film.8.5/10

Considering that this is a low-budget film, with a draft idea written overnight with Psycho as the model in mind, and a final script made in a few days, - the result is surprisingly good. Dialogue is a bit stilted, and the plot is simple, the "big reveal" is not surprising, but Francis Coppola has managed to use everything to his advantage. Castle Haloran is a perfect setting for the Gothic ambiance of the film, shots were done in such a way that maximized the creepiness of the surroundings/props, and for a movie that's from the 60's it has a good dose of violence and blood and shows its lead actress in her undergarments.The story is simple yet eerie and dark, the characters are interesting to watch, and the horror scenes are chilling and effective without being campy. What surprised me a bit is the lack of red herring in the plot, I guessed who the killer was really early on and I kept thinking that it's too easy, that I will be proved wrong. But there was no surprise twist. The result of a rushed script.But underneath the seeming simplicity of the plot and the stilted dialogue, lies a chilling story of a family plagued with an unspeakable horror and tragedy mingled with, as the title suggested, dementia. I really like the camera angles, the play on shadows/darkness, the dark looming facade of the castle, the perfectly placed "scares", the right amount of violence which I'm sure made the audience from that era cringe, and the tension-building musical score. The Verdict: This film is by no means along the level of Psycho, but it is relevant in its own way as this marks the debut of Coppola, and it's refreshing to see his take on a low-budget horror film and observe his techniques early in his career. He took the Gothic, risqué, and psychological elements of Psycho and put in his own flavor - the result is a cult classic horror movie that is still worth watching today especially if you are a fan of the horror genre or of Coppola.

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