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Released by: Film Detective
Released on: July 26th, 2016.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast: William Campbell, Luana Anders, Bart Patton
Year: 1963
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The Movie:
Produced by Roger Corman and directed by Francis Ford Coppola based of a script he co-wrote with second unit director Jack Hill, 1963's Dementia 13 isn't a masterpiece of terror. It is, however, an interesting precursor for things to come and is widely and rightfully acknowledged as the film where Coppola started to find his style.
When the film begins in Ireland, a blonde named Louise (Luana Anders) is in a boat with her husband, John Haloran, when he has a heart attack. Rather than report this, she decides to toss his body into the lake and write a fake not with his forged signature on it to make it look like he's gone on a business trip. Why? Because if John is dead, Louise isn't going to get any of the inheritance her husband would have raked in when the aging Lady Haloran (Ethne Dunn) dies.
Louise, on her own, makes the trip to the Castle Haloran in order to get in good with the family and in turn insure that she gets her cut of the family fortune, but once she gets there strange things start happening. Seven years prior to all of this, John's younger sister, Kathleen, drowned in the pond on the estate, a fact that haunts Lady Haloran to this day and which is a source of great grief to the family and which is the reason John and Louise were to head there in the first place - for her annual memorial service. Louise daftly figures out how to exploit this but soon finds that there's more to Kathleen's death and to the Haloran family history than she first thought and soon John's older brother Richard (WIlliam Campbell) begins to get suspicious of his sister-in-law's actions.
Set to a great score from Ronald Stein that is, like so much of the film, a little reminiscent of work done previously on Hitchcock's seminal Psycho (this film was intended as a quick cash in on that picture's success), Dementia 13 is an interesting movie more so than a good movie. Made while Coppola was assisting Corman in Ireland on the set of The Young Racers, this film basically recycles the sets and cast used for that picture made the same year and, since Corman was impressed enough with the script, Coppola was essentially given free reign for the first time in his career. The results are a mixed bag - we get some absolutely awesome shots throughout the film, some taken from the sort of oddball angles that his later films would start to be known for, and some rather exciting moments of suspense, only to have much of this hampered by periodically confusing script quirks and what was obviously a microscopic budget.
The cast are all decent enough in their parts but it's the set pieces and camerawork that you'll remember here and not the performances. Eerie shots of children's toys and some bizarre underwater photography help the picture stand out while the last fifteen minutes or so really ratchet up the pace to deliver quite a satisfying and grisly finale.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Dementia 13 was released on Blu-ray a few years ago from Film Chest, but that transfer was marred by some pretty aggressive noise reduction (you can see some screen caps here). This reissue from Film Detective, presented on a 25GB BD-R, frames the film at 1.85.1 widescreen and presents it in AVC encoded 1080p high definition and things are considerably improved. It looks like the same source material was used, which is fine. The elements appear to be fairly soft but in very nice condition. Black levels are solid and contrast looks good. The noise reduction problem has been corrected, whites and skin tones show better detail and look a lot less waxy. While detail never looks outstanding and some shots look considerably better than others, there's some visible grain present this time around.
The English language DTS-HD Mono track sounds decent enough. This track won't blow you away but it sounds pretty decent. Dialogue is easy to understand and any hiss or distortion that pops into the mix is minimal. The score has a bit more depth to it than it has had in the past, which helps things a bit in terms of adding atmosphere to the film. Optional subtitles are provided in English only.
There are no extra on the disc, just a static menu offering chapter selection.
The Final Word:
Dementia 13 takes a while to get going but once it does it's got some fun twists that all lead up to a pretty solid finish. The Film Detective's Blu-ray release offers a modest but welcome upgrade in terms of the presentation and is offered at a fair price.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
