Although Dementia 13 is famously known as the debut feature for Francis Ford Coppola, it’s not as widely seen as his bigger, later movies. Now released in a director-approved cut in HD, it’s time to get acquainted with this overlooked gem.
In the film’s atmospheric opening scene, John Haloran (Peter Read) is out on a lake at night with his wife Louise (Luana Anders). He’s goading her that if he were to die before his mother, she’d inherit nothing when he has a heart attack. Although Louise attempts to help him (the silly old fool had brought his pills but the pack was empty), once he expires, she throws him overboard and concocts a story that he’s left for a business meeting. Hereon in, she masquerades as the loving wife around his family. The family gathering is to remember John’s younger sister, Kathleen, who drowned years earlier. Louise sees an opportunity to drive the mother (Eithne Dunne) to the grave too and so inherit John’s share of the family fortune before his bloated corpse is discovered. Unfortunately, a series of axe murders get in the way. The family physician (played by acting legend Patrick Magee)
Filmed with some cast and crew from Roger Corman’s The Young Racers, on which Coppola was working, Dementia 13 is a gloriously lurid entrance into filmmaking for the man who would treat the world to The Godfather just ten years later. While it isn’t a masterpiece ripe for rediscovery such as Carnival of Souls, it’s a solid thriller that deserves a wider audience. It’s been available for years as a public domain title, but seeing the restored Blu-ray is a revelation. Not only has the additional material helmed by Jack Hill been removed, but the image is nice and clear, allowing us to enjoy Coppola’s early vision as it should be. He takes a leaf out of Hitchcock’s Psycho playbook (which we won’t spoil), which gives the story a jolt and makes it all the more intriguing. Patrick Magee is fabulous, chewing the scenery in his own inimitable fashion, and giving the production some gravitas.
The Blu-ray release, as part of the Vestron Collector’s Series, is well worth a purchase for fans, as it boasts a commentary from Coppola himself, as well as the original ‘test’ that screened before the film to see if you would be psychologically scarred by the movie! The presentation of Dementia 13 is superb, and the picture itself is much more than a curio.
