Gripping story with well-crafted characters

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

This is an impressive black and white film in the classic late '50s gimmicky tradition. The poster for this film proclaimed "Are you afraid of death by drowning? Have you ever attempted suicide? Have you ever thought of committing murder? These are some of the questions you will be asked in the unprecedented "D-13 Test" to prepare you for the horrifying experience of DEMENTIA 13. If you fail the test... you will be asked to leave the theatre!" This obvious copying of the "shock" gimmicks used in William Castle's films has nothing to really do with the film, which is an atmospheric thriller sparing little time for laughs (except those of the macabre variety).Director Francis Ford Coppola creates a very powerful and frightening film by using crisp black and white photography and including strangely surreal images prevalent throughout, such as the moving toys, or the drowning itself. The film is also produced by Roger Corman, which lends it a dubious distinction. The plot is complex and frequently twists, but basically keeps to the murder mystery genre (unknown killer, all the cast come under suspicion). The latter half of the film, which follows the usual (and occasionally tiresome) build up which introduces the characters, contains a string of axe murders which were extremely graphic for their time. So much so that this could be classed as an early 'slasher' film, coming decades before later classics like BLACK Christmas. The music is very memorable and spine chilling, almost like that of HALLOWEEN.The film also has some horrific images, such as the girl hanging on a hook (shades of THE Texas CHAIN SAW MASSACRE here). There's a gory decapitation, where the victim's head rolls into a pond. The acting is fairly good all round, from Luana Anders as a woman obsessed by greed, to the suspicious brothers. However, the best actor of the lot is Patrick Magee, who shines as the hard, initially unlikable doctor. He puts in a brilliant performance in what is an overlooked film in the genre, rarely seen or talked about, but certainly something of a minor classic. Seek it out if you're interested in seeing an early atmospheric chiller with some true moments of screen horror.

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.

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.

DEMENTIA 13, the first film from Francis Ford Coppola and a low-budget job he did for producer Roger Corman.It's one of those early-'60s nursery-rhyme-and-child-trauma-drowning things you just can't look from, shuddery and bottomlessly macabre... Although also kind of bad and mostly stupid.And why, if they all live in an Irish castle, does the matriarch appear to be Italian (the actress, Ethne Dunne, actually is Irish, but comes off more like Mama Pasta) and everybody else sound American? Only the grounds-keeper, the doctor, and the swampy poacher seem to actually be Irish. But not the family who lives in the castle.It's a long way to Tipperary. Or, in this case, to THE GODFATHER.But it's worth a peek.