DEMENTIA 13 (1963)
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Film Chest/Virgil Films and Entertainment/Cultra

Shot in Ireland for a reported $40,000 (or somewhere in that neighborhood), this Roger Corman-produced quickie was director Coppola's last exploitation excursion before gliding into a mainstream Hollywood of mostly ignored comedies and musicals that would make way for that memorable mob masterpiece. Obviously influenced by the success of PSYCHO, Coppola's initial foray into horror (often noted as his first feature – it's not) is a flawed but effective black & white chiller from that great early 1960s era that also gave us CARNIVAL OF SOULS, HOMICIDAL and NIGHT TIDE. DEMENTIA 13 now makes its High Definition debut on Blu-ray (along with an accompanying DVD mastered from the same elements), from the company who has recently done the same with Corman’s THE TERROR.

After her tubby husband (Peter Read) has a heart attack on a rowboat, Louise Haloran (Luana Anders, PIT AND THE PENDULUM) intentionally dumps the body and proceeds to an Irish castle to visit her husband's family. Unfortunately for her, she has not yet been accepted into the Haloran family, yet she wants to ensure herself a piece of her husband's fortune. Forging a letter, Louise gets the clan to believe that her husband is still alive and has gone away on a business trip. Once at the Haloran castle, Louise learns of her husband's sister, Kathleen, a little girl who drowned years earlier.

The surviving family consists of mother Lady Haloran (Ethne Dunn), her two sons Billy (Bart Patton, GIDGET GOES HAWAIIAN) and Richard (William Campbell, BLOOD BATH), and Richard's fiancée Kane (Mary Mitchel, SPIDER BABY). To get on the mother's good side, the scheming Louise dupes her into believing that she can contact the ghost of the late daughter, whose dead image seems to pop up virtually everywhere. A number of bloody murders ensue, and it's more than likely up to a pub-frequenting family doctor (Patrick Magee, AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS) to resolve them.

Aided by authentic Irish locales, savory black & white cinematography, an eerie score by AIP regular Ronald Stein and hearty acting by Campbell, Magee and especially Anders (who died of cancer in 1996), DEMENTIA 13 rises above its minuscule budget and boasts some very gory (for the time) murders, including a graphic ax hacking and a decapitation that was filmed by Jack Hill after Corman decided that some tampering was required to better market the film. The title was also changed after it was discovered that a film called DEMENTIA (aka DAUGHTER OF HORROR) already existed.

On the down side, we get some less than professional acting by the locals (Campbell later proclaimed that he was the only actor who actually got paid!), a number of puzzling plot holes, drawn-out dialog and some technical flubs (a boom mike's ample shadow is painfully visible in one shot). But these are just the things that make low budget films interesting, and its good points out-weigh the bad, and I could think of a lot worse ways to spend 75 minutes.

DEMENTIA 13 (much like NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, THE TERROR and a number of other familiar horror titles) is a public domain film that has been issued on video and DVD many times over from various companies. Film Chest and Virgil Films are now presenting the film in High Definition on Blu-ray disc in a 1080p widescreen (1.78:1) presentation. The transfer has been created from 35mm film elements, which have been impeccably cleaned, so all film dirt and speckling has been removed, but it would seem a bit of grain in the picture here would have been a good thing. While detail is pretty good and blacks are definitely deep, the contrasts tend to soften white levels, at times affecting facial features in close-ups as well as in the foreground. Most likely as a result of the work done through the telecine, scenes with a lot of movement in them cause a jerky, spiral “ghosting” effect which can be annoying. Two English audio tracks are offered, one in 5.1 and the other 2.0, both having clear dialog and sound effects, while showcasing Ronald Stein’s terrific score to its full mono potential. Spanish subtitles are also offered. An anamorphic widescreen DVD of the same transfer (along with the same features) is also included in this combo pack.

Extras include a restoration demo, a demo trailer which mixes newly-generated titles and scenes from the restored transfer (with narration taken from the original AIP theatrical trailer) as well as a postcard depicting the original poster art. The Roan Group’s non-anamorphic DVD released included a good audio commentary with actor William Campbel originally conducted for their 1996 laserdisc, as well as the extended theatrical trailer which commenced with Dr. William Joseph Brian, Jr. (blatantly reading from an idiot card) informing the audience about his "D-13" test, a quiz that was devised to determine an individual's ability to withstand shock. So if you have that disc, you might want keep it for extras, but in terms of visual quality, even with some flaws, this Blu-ray/DVD combo is still miles above the rest. (George R. Reis)

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