Dementia 13 (1963)

A scheming widow hatches a daring plan to get her hands on her late husband's inheritance, unbeknownst to her that she is targeted by an axe-wielding murderer who lurks within the family's estate.

Director:

Francis Ford Coppola (as Francis Coppola)

Writers:

Francis Ford Coppola (as Francis Coppola), Jack Hill (second unit written by)

Stars:

William Campbell, Luana Anders, Bart Patton

Cast

Complete credited cast:
William Campbell	...	Richard Haloran
Luana Anders	...	Louise Haloran
Bart Patton	...	Billy Haloran
Mary Mitchel	...	Kane
Patrick Magee	...	Justin Caleb
Eithne Dunne	...	Lady Haloran (as Ethne Dunn)
Peter Read	...	John Haloran
Karl Schanzer	...	Simon
Ron Perry	...	Arthur
Derry O'Donavan	...	Lillian
Barbara Dowling	...	Kathleen Haloran

Storyline

Whilst out on a rowboat with his wife Louise, John Haloran has a heart attack and dies. She casts his body overboard and hides his death telling the family he left on an urgent business trip. Louise's main concern is that she can only hope to inherit part of his family fortune if he's still alive. The Halorans are a strange family. They are still grieving over the death of the youngest daughter, Kathleen, who drowned in a pond when she was a young child. The family hold an annual ceremony of remembrance, on the anniversary of her death. But this year someone is wielding an ax...intent on murder.

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Plot Keywords:

son | screaming under water | ceremony | heart attack | castle | 

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Taglines:

Pretense is not acceptable at Haloran Castle!

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Genres:

Horror | Thriller

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

USA Ireland

Language:

English

Release Date:

1964 (UK)

Also Known As:

Dementia

Filming Locations:

Ardmore Studios, Herbert Road, Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland

Box Office

Budget:

$40,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Roger Corman Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

75 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White Color (colorized)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Francis Ford Coppola was assisting Roger Corman on the set of The Young Racers (1963) in Ireland. Corman allowed Coppola to use the same set, crew and actors Luana Anders, William Campbell and Patrick Magee for this film if he could shoot around the shooting schedule of Corman's film.

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Goofs

As Kane and Richard leave the wedding reception, she has her veil on. In the next scene as she approaches the barn, the veil has gone.

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Quotes

Richard Haloran: You're an intelligent woman, Louise. You notice things, size people up. You know when they're happy and know when something's bothering them. I want you to do me a little favour.
Louise Haloran: Of course.
Richard Haloran: Keep that microscope you've got built into your eye off of me!

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Connections

Featured in The Schlocky Horror Picture Show: Dementia 13 (1963) (2007)

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Soundtracks

Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms
(uncredited)
Lyrics by Thomas Moore
Music: traditional Irish air

User Reviews

Ludicrous script, but some good scenes make this reasonably tense

Francis Ford Coppola's debut horror flick is sometimes hailed as a kind of forgotten masterpiece, which is downright preposterous. Bored with his work as an assistant director on THE YOUNG RACERS he wrote a screenplay, and asked Corman for $22,000 to let him film it on the same sets used for THE YOUNG RACERS. He shot the film in two weeks and the shooting of the two films at the same sets simultaneously only worsened the quality of the film. I must admit, made with this 99 cent budget, it's a comparatively well crafted horror mystery with some good scenes but overall pretty dull with a story that makes little sense.

The members of the Haloran family gather at their ancestral Irish castle to attend the annual commemoration of the death of Kathleen, the daughter of the family who drowned in the lake on their estate six years earlier. One of the sons in the family, John Haloran, dies of a heart-attack while listening to Elvis on the radio. His gold-digging wife Louise then dumps the body in the pond and pretends he has returned to New York, because she only gets part of the family inheritance when her husband is alive. When staying at the castle she begins an elaborate ruse to convince Lady Haloran that her drowned daughter Kathleen is still alive, but soon, she is killed by an axe-murderer, who proceeds to kill of the rest of the family one by one. What follows is: who's the psycho? Much inspired by Hitchcock's PSYCHO, it bears little relation plotwise, let alone in suspense. Coppola puts more emphasis on graphic violence than suspense and the story doesn't make much sense. With some good scenes it kept me watching till the end, but that's about it.

Not a complete waste of time though, as Coppola met his future wife Eleonor Neil on the set.

Camera Obscura --- 6/10