Customer Reviews

Dementia 13

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is for the elusive Roan (Troma) DVD of "Dementia 13" (1963) issued in 2001. The movie itself has fallen into public domain years ago and was said by the producer Roger Corman, that the original elements have been lost. This is not the case but there was bad blood between Corman and Francis Ford Coppola (director) producing this movie that he may have simply swept it under the rug leaving us with a generally shared master that over the years has been well worn. There are tell-tale signs that one original print master was used and others made from it hinted by damages in the same exact spots.

The Roan version is said to be "The Best" out there but it is far from perfect. The compression level is better than all others with blacks being solid. The audio level is low and there is a lot of "screen door" veil over the lighter solid areas. This is the Holy Grail of Roan DVDs and fetches high prices. It has the odd and rare movie trailer along with a couple of lame extras and a so-so commentary. Supposed to be widescreen, you hardly notice due to the odd ratio (supposed to be 1:66 but closer to 1:50). Another version put out by the now defunct Diamond Entertainment is identical but shows some compression yet acceptable unless you view it on a 1080p HD set. Even the Treeline version that comes in the 50-Movie packs (now Mill Creek) has a very good transfer considering but again minor compression artifacting (even viewed in HD). These two can be great alternate choices over the hard to find Roan and a LOT cheaper. Only hardcore buffs should invest in the Roan version.

By chance an eBay seller had one at a descent non-gouging price so I landed on it quickly to add to my collection. It will be my #1 copy right now until an official release (if ever) comes from MGM and you can throw away all the others not mentioned above. I have compared at least 8 different versions and the above three are the best out of the bunch!

Too bad that Roan has gotten out of the 'B' horror movie business restoring the lesser known and nearly forgotten public domain titles from decades past. Many were top notch but again, Roan's "Dementia 13" does fall a bit short which may be one reason it was short lived and now scarce?

Eric S. Huffstutler
Richmond, VA

This is not the best horror movies I've ever seen, but one of the best films in terms of *atmosphere*. The frightening parts about it are less in the film itself than what the film suggests--the really psychotic point to which codependency can build, obsession, and a host of other disturbances, none of which involve the supernatural but suggest it. Along with the Vincent Price films he did, this is the best film you'll see that Roger Corman was involved in.

Luana Anders is, ironically, the strongest presence in this film. Thing is, she doesn't last very long, and the viewer isn't all that devastated when she does disappear. A scheming, money hungry witch, she preys on the co-morbidity of an elderly woman to the point of sadism. A young girl dies tragically at a young age. An Irish family living in Nowheresville idealizes her mysterious death to the point of madness. Someone is responsible, and we eventutally find out who. There are a few 'jump out of your seat scenes', one of them being the untimely (and grisly) death of Anders. It's been awhile since I've seen this film, but much of the imagery (dolls, truly 'demented' childhood memories, and the last exclamation by the ultimate culprit: "DON'T TOUCH THAT!") have remained with me. This is an odd blend, Corman and Coppola. A worthwhile old cinematic antique of misery.

Francis Ford Coppola's first film of note, graduating from the tutelage of schlock-meister Roger Corman. It was made hot on the heels of Hitchcock's more famous Psycho, and is very similar in content and style.

Con-woman Luana Anders' husband-married-only-for-the-family-money dies before she can be included in the will, causing her to seek out a new scam. Deceased hubby's wealthy Irish family is more than usually superstitious, yearly celebrating with a morbid ceremony the date that their matriarch's youngest daughter, Kathleen, drowned in the lake out back. Anders poses as a medium and stages a few tricks to make herself look good to the rich matriarch, who buys her act. Eldest son William Campbell knows she's a phony, and kid brother Bart Patton has been generally kind of creepy ever since the day Kathleen died - which makes it kind of a toss-up as to who follows Anders out to the haunted lake one night, and cuts her up with an axe...

This movie succeeds on its acting and its atmosphere, which are terrific. Anders was good in everything she did, and this was probably her best role. Campbell never disappoints, and Patton is wonderfully intense and unsettling. The always creepy - and always good - Patrick Magee is on hand as the family doctor, who seems to know a great deal more about the recent mysterious disappearances (Anders isn't the only one who goes missing) than he's letting on. The music score isn't quite as frightening as Bernard Hermann's for Psycho, but it's damned close - the opening theme and credit sequence are terrific, even for American International Pictures, which was usually good in that department. Anders' murder scene will haunt your nightmares about as bad as Janet Leigh's in Hitchcock's film.

Well worth the time and trouble, especially for fans of film noir.

Louise Haloran (Luana Anders) accompanies her husband John (Peter Read) on a moonlight rowboat ride around the lake. Well, John's heart gives out and he drops dead in the middle of the lake! Devoted wife Louise dumps his carcass overboard and begins scheming immediately how she can worm her way into her mother-in-law's will. Louise pretends that John has gone away on a trip, and shows up at the family castle in Ireland to put her plot into operation. Upon arrival, Louise finds a family in the throes of insanity, as the matriarch, Lady Haloran (Ethne Dunn) has never fully recovered from the drowning death of her young daughter Kathleen. Every year since, the family gathers at Kathleen's grave, and tosses flowers by the tombstone until Lady Haloran collapses to the ground. Louise arrives just in time for the seventh annual observance of this macabre ritual! She realizes that mum is extremely vulnerable, and sets out to gain her confidence. She convinces her that she has heard Kathleen's voice in the castle. Louise places some of Kathleen's dolls at the bottom of the pond (where the drowning occured), weighted down by a wrench. She sees a most terrifying sight down there and re-surfaces, only to be hacked to death by a shadowy figure with an axe! The dolls pop up the next afternoon, sending mother completely over the edge. Her doctor, Dr. Caleb (Patrick Magee) tries to solve the mystery of the dolls, as well as Louise's sudden disappearance. A trespassing rabbit hunter is also dispatched by the axe maniac in grizzly, head-rolling fashion. William Campbell plays Richard Haloran. Bart Patton is his younger brother, Billy. Mary Mitchell is Kane, Richard's bride-to-be, who is the only ray of sunshine in this otherwise dark, gloomy place. Coppola offers some fine direction, and his story is full of nice creepy touches. This film was made for about the cost of the catering service in most modern day productions! It shows again, like in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, CARNIVAL OF SOULS, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, ETC., that money isn't everything in movie-making! Highly recommended...

While this Blu-ray edition of Dementia 13 looks way better than any previously available version I've seen, it doesn't look any better than a well-made standard DVD release. The picture is quite soft looking, for the most part, with some pretty bad ghosting in many of the night-time scenes. It's hard to tell whether this is the result of a bad print or a substandard high-definition transfer, as the crispness of the image varies, sometimes within the same scene.

For a while now, I'd been hoping that the negatives to this were safely tucked away in the Metro Goldwyn Mayer film vault, waiting to be released in it's full pristine glory. However, with this release, MGM will most likely be scared off (yet again) by it's competition, as was the case with the American International cuts of Mario Bava's Black Sunday and Black Sabbath (a real disappointment) and a handful of other public-domain Roger Corman productions.

This is certainly an achievement for a $20,000 budget, even in
1963. And the direction is often striking, showing much promise
for Coppola's future but in no way anticipating the "Godfather"
epics. However, the original story by the director is pretty
derivative and doesn't really go anywhere, and most of the
acting is mediocre at best. I'd advise any horror fan to buy a
budget dvd of this as it is a cult item, as well as any fan of
Francis Ford Coppola. Just don't expect a whole lot and you will
be entertained for about 78 minutes.
The print on the dvd is flat out lousy; audio dropouts and
often such poor visual quality as to annoy the viewer. But the
price is low and the film is worth adding to your collection.

In 1963, the movie audience had already experienced the new kind of psychological horror movie born with the great PSYCHO. Francis Ford Coppola's attempt at matching that horror is greatly inferior, of course, but as an exercise in mental terror, it works on its own subliminal level. The wonderful Luana Anders starts out the film virtually murdering her rich husband, and then tosses his body in a pond, telling the family he's off on a business trip. She wants his Mama to change the will to include the in-laws. As in PSYCHO, Anders is dispatched early in the film in a very surprising way, and although it can't touch Janet Leigh's demise in PSYCHO or Angie Dickinson's in DRESSED TO KILL, it packs a wallop. From there on in, it's time to figure out who the nasty killer is. It's fairly easy to pick the killer out, but there are some wildly frenetic scenes before getting there. Bart Patton and Patrick Magee provide excellent support and one can detect the future genious of Coppola in this atmospheric thriller.

Francis Ford Coppola and Roger Corman are two names I would never have thought of putting together, but linked they are in the production of the highly enjoyable thriller Dementia 13. I was quite amazed to discover that Coppola got his start as an assistant to Corman, and this film, Coppola's directorial debut (the first he acknowledges, anyway), was actually filmed on the same set of the contemporary Corman production of The Terror. This really is Coppola's twenty thousand dollar baby, as he wrote as well as directed the film. I for one found it quite good. Although the killer is not that hard to identify, there were enough suspicions cast upon one or two other characters to keep me from putting all of my accusatory eggs in one basket before the climactic ending. There are also some twists and turns along the way that I didn't really see coming, and I was forced to change my whole outlook midway through the drama. Dementia 13 is not really scary or gruesome, but it does succeed in producing something akin to chills on one or two occasions. The murder weapon of choice is an axe, but the wielder of that axe is in no way very proficient; he can only succeed by hacking away maniacally until such time as he actually makes contact with the victim's body. He does have a natural talent for lifting a dead body by the hair and dragging it along behind him, though, which is always a plus on a mad killer's resume.

At the heart of this story is the tragic death of a little girl named Kathleen. Each year on the anniversary of her death, the grieving mother and her sons reenact the funeral service, which culminates in the mother's collapse. This particular year, two unwelcome guests reside in the family's ancient Irish castle, the greedy wife of the eldest son (who is unable to be there for reasons made quite obvious at the beginning of the movie) and the fiancé of another son. As individuals begin to mysteriously disappear from the castle grounds, almost everyone in the family becomes a potential suspect. The family doctor is yet another person to keep your eye on, as his behavior is questionable and suspicious at times. The deceased child Kathleen does haunt the family in a sense, and her appearance to an individual marks that person for certain axe-related death. I found this movie more and more compelling at it went along, and I quite enjoyed trying to figure out exactly who the killer actually was. The pace of the story was aided greatly by very effective background music, and Coppola definitely displayed the type of talent that would blossom into directorial greatness in his later career. If you enjoy a good who-dunnit movie, you will almost certainly get a big kick out of Dementia 13.

A disturbing horror film which has joined the ranks of 'cult classics'. This movie seems to get better with each viewing, probably due to the fine performances turned in by mostly Irish actors who worked for mere peanuts to be involved with this Coppola/Corman production.

Luana Anders is nothing short of superb. William Cambell is also excellent, and as 'DVD special features' commentary goes, his is far more entertaining and informative than most.

This would rate as a 5-star if it weren't for the less than spectacular image transfer, and perhaps for the fact that the story itself falls slightly short. But don't let that dissuade you - this movie deserves a place in any film buffs collection for a myriad of other reasons. For example, the underwater shots are sharp and creative - then in the commentary section we learn that due to budget constraints Coppola designed his own underwater camera housed in wood and tar!

Finally, this is still one of the scariest pictures I've ever seen. That alone is reason enough for horror fans to pick this one up. Not for the faint of heart, however.

I caught this movie on late night TV as a kid and was creeped out by the underwater grave and the unexpected shocking axe murder. It's a pretty spooky little movie with some low rent Hitchcock touches.

I have never found a watchable transfer of this particular film on DVD, and although the print they used to make this bluray is soft and lacks highlight detail, it's the best transfer I've seen. Yes, the processing has been dialed up to smooth over all the grain. But it is totally watchable and enjoyable. I suspect this would look about the same on bluray as DVD, but the price is certainly right.

Good fodder for a late night spook show with your friends and family.