Dementia 13 (1963) Movie Review
Summary
Dementia 13 begins with Louise Haloran (Luana Anders) throwing her husband's body overboard after his heart attack while on a lake in a rowboat. She lies about the incident in order to claim her will. Louise types a letter to Lady Haloran (Eithne Dunne) stating that her husband is away on a business trip. Louise arrives shortly after at the family's Irish Gothic castle. She plans to take advantage of the sickly Lady Haloran and hopes that she will die soon so that she can inherit the fortune.
When she arrives, she begins to notice strange things like the two brothers Billy (Bart Patton) and Richard (William Campbell) having an annual ceremony for their late young sister Kathleen. Their sister died years ago in a mysterious drowning accident.
While the greedy Louise is there, she convinces Lady Haloran and her two sons Billy and Richard that her late husband has gone on a business trip. Speaking to Billy, she discovers that the castle is supposed to be haunted by Kathleen.
She's also looking for a way to convince distraught and superstitious Lady Haloran that her daughter Kathleen is still alive. The plan involved placing Kathleen's toy dolls on the bottom of the lake, then suddenly they float to the surface right in front of Lady Haloran. Louise's elaborate plot would end up being a fatal undertaking for her. It doesn't take long before the mysterious ax-wielding murderer begins to accumulate more bodies to make sure no one finds out the horrible secret.
Dementia Exam 13
Dementia 13 is a surprisingly efficient basement production that incorporates elements of slasher and mystery. Along with Psycho (1960), Dementia 13 is one of the first slasher horror films. Much like Psycho, Dementia 13 is similar in style and content. The elements of mystery and suspense are used heavily in Dementia 13 as they were in Psycho. Both are black and white and have similar cinematography. The murder scenes in this movie have great anticipation leading up to the person's death.
Dementia 13 has a lot of scenes shot at night and there isn't a lot of detail. The camera angles used for Dementia 13 are similar to Psycho. Dementia 13 avoids being campy, which is great because it fits the serious nature of the film as a brave slasher flick. This was done at a time when few movies were extreme. It's a very dark image that adds a scary vibe making it effective for murder scenes. The plot is simple, although not very believable. The best parts of Dementia 13 are the mystery, the suspense, and the psychological aspects. The addition of the Kathleen dolls was also good for the spooky atmosphere.
The movie does a great job of masking who the ax murderer is. By looking at the various characters in Dementia 13 such as Billy, Richard, and family doctor Justin Caleb (Patrick Magee), you can switch to who you think is the killer. This style of hiding who the killer is would later be used in the big horror slasher, the first Friday the 13th (1980) Several of the characters have a suspicious character to them that would make you feel like they could be responsible for the murders. . The murders are also done in the dark, so that the face of the ax bearers is completely darkened.
The acting in Dementia 13 is decent. An underrated actor, Patrick Magee does a good job as always with his distinctive voice, playing a character that borders on insanity. You can recognize him from Clockwork Orange as the wheelchair writer who he and his wife were attacked by Alex and his “Droogs”. He is younger with dementia 13 and his hair is not gray. Patrick Magee also played John Steed in the Avengers TV series.
Luana Anders, who plays Louise does a good job playing a sleazy, greedy woman you won't like. She's not bad either and strips down to her bra and panties in a scene for the underwater swimming sequence. This underwater scene is shot perfectly, as are the swimming scenes in The Creature From the Black Lagoon.
The blood / gore in Dementia 13 is really tame compared to today's slasher horror movies. There is very little to see in the details of the blood. The most graphic murder scene shows one of the characters having his head cut off. You can see the really fake head rolling around in the lake. Another great thing about Dementia 13 is the ominous music. The musical score is almost as good as the thematic songs from Psycho and Cape Fear. It creates an atmosphere and complements the tension-filled murder scenes well.
At the start of the film, while Louise and her husband John Haloran (Peter Read) are in a rowboat, a really cool rockabilly song can be heard playing. The singer of the song looks like Elvis. From what I've read, it's not Elvis singing. The person responsible for the singing does a hell of a job imitating his voice. At 75 minutes long, Dementia 13 is an interesting and engaging debut film for Francis Ford Coppola.
It's a good low-budget Roger Corman production where mystery and suspense are its main strengths. The pace is regular and not too slow. The movie could have used more murder scenes. To see the roots of the Slasher Horror movie genre, Dementia 13 is a good movie to check out. I just reviewed Dementia 13, the public domain version that appears on my classic 50 Horrors box set from Mill Creek Entertainment. A Blu-ray of the film is now available.