"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.

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.

While this viewer won't make this film out to be more than it is, it's still noteworthy as a solid and atmospheric shocker that showed signs of things to come for the young Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola, a recent UCLA graduate, had found employment with legendary independent filmmaker Roger Corman. Corman had brought in his own directorial effort, "The Young Racers", under budget, and decided to use the leftover cash to make a "Psycho" inspired thriller. Coppola brought him a script that he liked, and got the green light to make the film.Coppola succeeds quite well here at working with an obviously very low budget; this is professionally made (if understandably not as slick as his later efforts), and can boast fine visuals and a moody, creepy feel. The stark cinematography is by Charles Hannawalt, the excellent music by Ronald Stein.Set (and filmed) in Ireland, it tells of Louise (the under-rated Luana Anders), whose husband John (Peter Read) dies of a heart attack. Now, she's been told that if he should die before his mother, she gets nothing in the old lady's will. So she creates a cover story that he's gone to NYC on business, while hanging around his family and their castle, hoping that she can still come away with some sort of payday.The acting is generally good, with William Campbell and Bart Patton as Johns' brothers Richard and Billy, Mary Mitchel as Richards' fiancée Kane, Eithne Dunne as the family matriarch, Karl Schanzer as amiable poacher Simon, and the always amusing Patrick Magee as the inquisitive family doctor Justin Caleb.Coppolas' tale is reasonably absorbing from scene to scene, with especially effective scenes set on and in a pond (it gets off to a pretty good start); second unit scenes were written and directed by Jack Hill, who utilized Mitchel and Schanzer for his classic film "Spider Baby". Coppola includes such elements as titillation and (mild) gore to spice things up a bit."Dementia 13" has a wonderful "late show" sort of feel that makes it worth a viewing, for fans of the genre and/or people who want to check out Coppolas' humble beginnings.Seven out of 10.

A shoestring-budget horror flick from a very young Francis Ford Coppola, DEMENTIA 13 (1963) is actually a very effective chiller. The writing is lacking and the cast is largely unknown, but there's some eerie atmospheric stuff and some nice shocks. The mysterious axe murderer is handled well, playing up the suspense, and the black & white cinematography really suits the grisly shots. The plot (involving a troubled family, a dead sister, a will, a scheming wife, a pond...) is a bit difficult to follow, particularly when characters have similar "looks". It all dovetails into a psycho-killer whodunnit.DEMENTIA 13 is no film masterpiece, but it's unnerving on a dark and stormy night.