Dementia 13
Encyclopedia
Dementia 13 is a 1963 horror
thriller released by American International Pictures
, starring William Campbell
, Patrick Magee
, and Luana Anders
. The film was written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola
and produced by Roger Corman
. Although Coppola had been involved in at least two nudie films previously, Dementia 13 served as his first mainstream, "legitimate" directorial effort. The plot follows a scheming young woman who, after having inadvertently caused the heart attack
death of her husband, attempts to have herself written into her rich mother-in-law's will
. She pays a surprise visit to her late husband's family castle in Ireland
, but her plans become permanently interrupted by an axe-wielding lunatic who begins to stalk and murderously hack away at members of the family.
Corman offered Coppola the chance to direct a low-budget horror movie in Ireland with funds left over from Corman's recently completed The Young Racers
, on which Coppola had worked as a sound technician. The producer wanted a cheap Psycho-copy, complete with gothic
atmosphere and brutal killings, and Coppola quickly wrote a screenplay
in accordance with Corman's requirements. Although he was given total directorial freedom during production, Coppola found himself fighting with Corman after the film was completed. The producer declared the movie unreleasable and demanded several changes be made. Corman eventually brought in another director, Jack Hill
, to film additional sequences.
in the middle of a lake, John Haloran (Peter Read) and his young wife Louise (Luana Anders
) argue about his rich mother's will
. Louise is upset that everything is currently designated to go to charity in the name of "a mysterious Kathleen." John tells Louise that if he dies before his mother does, she will be entitled to none of the inheritance
. He then promptly drops dead from a massive heart attack
. Thinking quickly, the scheming Louise throws the fresh corpse over the side of the boat, where he comes to rest at the bottom of the lake. Her plan is to pretend that he is still alive, in order to ingratiate her way back into the will. She types up a letter to Lady Haloran (Eithne Dunne), inviting herself to the family's Irish castle while her husband is "away on business".
Upon arrival, she immediately notices that things are a little strange in the castle. She observes John's two brothers, Billy (Bart Patton
) and Richard (William Campbell
) taking part in a bizarre ceremony with their mother as part of a yearly ritualistic tribute to their youngest sister, Kathleen, who died many years before in a freak drowning accident. Lady Haloran still mourns for her, and during this year's ceremony, she faints dead away. As Louise helps her into the house, her mother-in-law tells her that she fainted because one of the flowers she had thrown had died as it touched Kathleen's grave.
Louise, realizing that Lady Haloran is emotionally overwrought and superstitious, devises a plan intended to convince the old woman that Kathleen is trying to communicate with her from beyond the grave. This plan involves stealing some of the dead girl's old toys and placing them at the bottom of the estate's pond where they will float to the surface in the middle of the day in an ostensibly ghost
ly way. At night, Louise swims into the pond and begins placing the toys as planned. However, she is shocked to see what appears to be Kathleen's perfectly preserved corpse at the bottom of the pond. Horrified, she swims to the surface... and is abruptly axed to death by an unknown assailant. The killer then drags Louise's bloody corpse away.
Concerned family doctor Justin Caleb (Patrick Magee) arrives and becomes determined to solve the mystery. He questions the family in an intense, almost insane manner. Meanwhile, the murderer strikes again, decapitating a man who is poaching on the estate. Caleb has the pond drained, revealing a stone shrine for Kathleen, with the words "Forgive Me, Kathleen" on the monument. The following night, Lady Haloran is attacked by a shadowy figure, but she survives.
Finally, Dr. Caleb utilizes an obscure nursery rhyme
("Little fishies in a brook, papa's hanged you on a hook") to help him discover Louise's corpse hidden in a meat freezer. Next to the body is a wax figure of Kathleen. Caleb places the figure in a public square to lure the killer. Taking the bait, a gibbering Billy attempts to kill Richard's fiancée
Kane (Mary Mitchel) with an axe; he has become insane with the guilt he has felt for years over having caused the death of his sister Kathleen. Dr. Caleb removes a gun from his coat pocket and shoots Billy to death.
on Corman's The Young Racers (1963), a racing film which starred Campbell and Magee. That movie was shot in several different countries, and after production was completed in Ireland, Corman still had $22,000 of the film's allocated $165,000 budget remaining. Corman originally thought of using the funds to direct a "quickie" film himself, but his schedule made this impractical. Instead, Corman suggested that Coppola remain in Ireland with a small crew and direct a low-budget horror film, to be produced by Corman." Coppola later recalled, "Roger wanted to make Dementia 13 cheaply. He wanted it to be homicidal
, sort of a copy of Psycho. You know, gothic
and psychological, with some kind of terrible knife killing scene thrown in. So I wrote the script to order."
Coppola wrote a brief draft story idea in one night. The next morning, he described to Corman the most vividly detailed sequence: a half naked woman ties several dolls to the bottom of a lake, then surfaces to find herself at the feet of an axe murderer -"Axed to death!" Coppola exclaimed." Corman was impressed enough to immediately provide Coppola with the $22,000 for the film. The young director was able to arrange an additional $20,000 in financing himself by pre-selling the European rights to a producer named Raymond Stross. Coppola did not inform Corman of the production's additional funding, and quickly moved the initial $22,000 into a bank account in case an angry Corman ever attempted to reclaim his original investment.
Coppola’s friend Al Locatelli served as the film’s art director
and helped Coppola write the final script in three days, uncredited. The speed in which the screenplay was completed resulted in unrealistic, “stilted” dialogue that Campbell recalled as being very difficult for the actors to speak.
The majority of the American actors in the cast were friends of Coppola’s from UCLA, and many of them paid their own way to Ireland for the opportunity to appear in a film. Most of the Irish cast members were from the Abbey Theatre
and were paid strictly minimum wage salaries. Eithne Dunne received approximately $600 for her performance. Cast and crew lived together in a farm house located outside of Dublin.
During the filming, Coppola kept Corman updated on the status of the production in letters that promised lots of sex and violence would be in the movie, "enough to make people sick". Coppola was left entirely on his own while directing the film, without interference of any kind from Corman. But after the completed film was shown to him, Corman stormed out of the screening room and demanded that several changes be made to the film that Coppola did not agree with. According to Coppola, Corman "insisted on dubbing
the picture the way he wanted it, adding voiceover
s to simplify some of the scenes. Worse, he wanted some extra violence added, another axe murder at least..." Jack Hill
was later hired by Corman to shoot some brief sequences featuring actor Karl Schanzer as a comical poacher who is beheaded by the murderer.
Corman also complained the film was too short, and insisted that it be padded
by at least five minutes. Gary Kurtz
, one of Corman's assistants at the time, recalled, "So we shot this stupid prologue
that had nothing to do with the rest of the movie. It was some guy who was supposed to be a psychiatrist, sitting in his office and giving the audience a test to see if they were mentally fit to see the picture. The movie was actually released with that prologue." The prologue was directed by Monte Hellman
. This cheap William Castle
-style gimmick also included a "D-13 Test" handout given to theatre patrons that was ostensibly devised by a "medical expert" to weed out psychologically unfit people from viewing the film. The test consisted of such questions as "The most effective way of settling a dispute is with one quick stroke of an axe to your adversary's head?" and "Have you ever been hospitalized in a locked mental ward, sanitarium, rest home or other facility for the treatment of mental illness?", with Yes or No as the only possible answers.
The rockabilly
song that is played at the opening of the movie is "He's Caught" by Buddy and The Fads, written by Arthur "Buddy" Fowler. The song was recorded in 1959 in Hollywood, CA. for Accent Records.
with Corman's X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes
. Because of its rushed production and a somewhat incomprehensible screenplay, reviews of Dementia 13 have been mixed. The New York Times
dismissed the film: "Under the stolid direction of Francis Coppola, who also wrote the script, the picture stresses gore rather than atmosphere, and all but buries a fairly workable plot." Michael Weldon, in The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film
, noted it had "[A] great trick ending, some truly shocking gory axe murders, and lots of inventive photography." Tom Raynes, in the Time Out Film Guide, said "The location (an Irish castle) is used imaginatively, the Gothic atmosphere is suitably potent, and there's a wonderfully sharp cameo from Patrick Magee..." Danny Peary
, in his Guide for the Film Fanatic, stated that despite the "hopelessly confusing" storyline, "...the horror sequences are very exciting." Phil Hardy
's The Aurum Film Encyclopedia
: Horror opined, "[O]ne senses the presence of a director right from the moody opening sequence...a piece of high gothic melodrama...The weakness of the film is in the script, which gives every indication of having been bundled together at the last minute..." John Charles, in Video Watchdog
, wrote that the film was "a remarkably confident and proficient thriller. Several of its components hint at the creativity that was still to come from Coppola, and the finished product is a testament to his ingenuity..." Kim Newman
has opined "Coppola...works fast and creative in Dementia 13, making memorable, shocking little sequences out of the killings and the implied haunting, using his locations well and highlighting unexpected eeriness like a transistor radio burbling distorted pop music as it sinks into a lake along with a just-murdered corpse." Dementia 13 has a 63% favorable rating on the "Tomatoemeter" at Rotten Tomatoes
, out of nineteen reviewers surveyed.
When the Roan Group released a laserdisc
and DVD
of the film, it included an amusing and informative audio commentary
by Campbell. The DVD also featured the written version of the "D-13 Test" in digital form as an extra. However, the filmed five-minute prologue featuring the test has not been included on any of the numerous available home video
versions of the title.
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
thriller released by American International Pictures
American International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...
, starring William Campbell
William Campbell (film actor)
William Campbell was an American actor who appeared in supporting roles in major film productions and also starred in several low-budget B-movies, including two cult horror films.-Career:...
, Patrick Magee
Patrick Magee (actor)
Patrick Magee was a Northern Irish actor best known for his collaborations with Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter, as well as his appearances in horror films and in Stanley Kubrick's films A Clockwork Orange and Barry Lyndon.-Early life:He was born Patrick McGee in Armagh, County Armagh, Northern...
, and Luana Anders
Luana Anders
Luana Anders was an American film and television actress.-Career:Anders, born Luana Margo Anderson, began her career appearing in several supporting roles in low budget B-movies for American International Pictures, quite a few of them directed by Roger Corman. She was part of a group of well known...
. The film was written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
and produced by Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
. Although Coppola had been involved in at least two nudie films previously, Dementia 13 served as his first mainstream, "legitimate" directorial effort. The plot follows a scheming young woman who, after having inadvertently caused the heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
death of her husband, attempts to have herself written into her rich mother-in-law's will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
. She pays a surprise visit to her late husband's family castle in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, but her plans become permanently interrupted by an axe-wielding lunatic who begins to stalk and murderously hack away at members of the family.
Corman offered Coppola the chance to direct a low-budget horror movie in Ireland with funds left over from Corman's recently completed The Young Racers
The Young Racers
-DVD:The Young Racers was released in a Region 1 DVD on Sep 11 2007, as part of the box set The Roger Corman Collection....
, on which Coppola had worked as a sound technician. The producer wanted a cheap Psycho-copy, complete with gothic
Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story"...
atmosphere and brutal killings, and Coppola quickly wrote a screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
in accordance with Corman's requirements. Although he was given total directorial freedom during production, Coppola found himself fighting with Corman after the film was completed. The producer declared the movie unreleasable and demanded several changes be made. Corman eventually brought in another director, Jack Hill
Jack Hill
Jack Hill is an U.S. film director, noted for his work in the exploitation film genre. Despite this, several of Hill's later films have been characterized as feminist works.Hill was born in Los Angeles...
, to film additional sequences.
Plot
One night, while out row boatingWatercraft rowing
Watercraft rowing is the act of propelling a boat using the motion of oars in the water. The difference between paddling and rowing is that with rowing the oars have a mechanical connection with the boat whereas with paddling the paddles are hand-held with no mechanical connection.This article...
in the middle of a lake, John Haloran (Peter Read) and his young wife Louise (Luana Anders
Luana Anders
Luana Anders was an American film and television actress.-Career:Anders, born Luana Margo Anderson, began her career appearing in several supporting roles in low budget B-movies for American International Pictures, quite a few of them directed by Roger Corman. She was part of a group of well known...
) argue about his rich mother's will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
. Louise is upset that everything is currently designated to go to charity in the name of "a mysterious Kathleen." John tells Louise that if he dies before his mother does, she will be entitled to none of the inheritance
Inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of passing on property, titles, debts, rights and obligations upon the death of an individual. It has long played an important role in human societies...
. He then promptly drops dead from a massive heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
. Thinking quickly, the scheming Louise throws the fresh corpse over the side of the boat, where he comes to rest at the bottom of the lake. Her plan is to pretend that he is still alive, in order to ingratiate her way back into the will. She types up a letter to Lady Haloran (Eithne Dunne), inviting herself to the family's Irish castle while her husband is "away on business".
Upon arrival, she immediately notices that things are a little strange in the castle. She observes John's two brothers, Billy (Bart Patton
Bart Patton
Bart Patton born Phillip Bardwell in Culver City, California on 11 July 1939 is an American actor, producer, and director.-Biography:Bart's first acting job was as Scampy the Clown in Super Circus where he was credited as "Bardy Patton". He continued making acting appearances in souch television...
) and Richard (William Campbell
William Campbell (film actor)
William Campbell was an American actor who appeared in supporting roles in major film productions and also starred in several low-budget B-movies, including two cult horror films.-Career:...
) taking part in a bizarre ceremony with their mother as part of a yearly ritualistic tribute to their youngest sister, Kathleen, who died many years before in a freak drowning accident. Lady Haloran still mourns for her, and during this year's ceremony, she faints dead away. As Louise helps her into the house, her mother-in-law tells her that she fainted because one of the flowers she had thrown had died as it touched Kathleen's grave.
Louise, realizing that Lady Haloran is emotionally overwrought and superstitious, devises a plan intended to convince the old woman that Kathleen is trying to communicate with her from beyond the grave. This plan involves stealing some of the dead girl's old toys and placing them at the bottom of the estate's pond where they will float to the surface in the middle of the day in an ostensibly ghost
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
ly way. At night, Louise swims into the pond and begins placing the toys as planned. However, she is shocked to see what appears to be Kathleen's perfectly preserved corpse at the bottom of the pond. Horrified, she swims to the surface... and is abruptly axed to death by an unknown assailant. The killer then drags Louise's bloody corpse away.
Finally, Dr. Caleb utilizes an obscure nursery rhyme
Nursery rhyme
The term nursery rhyme is used for "traditional" poems for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the 19th century and in North America the older ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’ is still often used.-Lullabies:...
("Little fishies in a brook, papa's hanged you on a hook") to help him discover Louise's corpse hidden in a meat freezer. Next to the body is a wax figure of Kathleen. Caleb places the figure in a public square to lure the killer. Taking the bait, a gibbering Billy attempts to kill Richard's fiancée
Engagement
An engagement or betrothal is a promise to marry, and also the period of time between proposal and marriage which may be lengthy or trivial. During this period, a couple is said to be betrothed, affianced, engaged to be married, or simply engaged...
Kane (Mary Mitchel) with an axe; he has become insane with the guilt he has felt for years over having caused the death of his sister Kathleen. Dr. Caleb removes a gun from his coat pocket and shoots Billy to death.
Cast
- William CampbellWilliam Campbell (film actor)William Campbell was an American actor who appeared in supporting roles in major film productions and also starred in several low-budget B-movies, including two cult horror films.-Career:...
as Richard Haloran. Dementia 13 was one of several Roger Corman productions the veteran B-movieB-movieA B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
character actorCharacter actorA character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
appeared in, but it was the first that was completed on such a small budget. Coppola had convinced Campbell, and his The Young Racers co-star Patrick Magee, to appear in the film. The actor originally felt it would turn out to be a strictly "amateur endeavor", but he soon became impressed by Coppola’s leadership abilities, talent, and energy on the set. Campbell recalled years later, "There were all kinds of promises as to what he [Coppola] would do for me later. It was one of those 'I-owe-you-one' things, but he never did anything! I tried to get to him when he was doing The GodfatherThe GodfatherThe Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
, thinking that a cop or gangster part might be good for about 17 weeks, but after Dementia 13 I was never able to get through to him again!" - Luana AndersLuana AndersLuana Anders was an American film and television actress.-Career:Anders, born Luana Margo Anderson, began her career appearing in several supporting roles in low budget B-movies for American International Pictures, quite a few of them directed by Roger Corman. She was part of a group of well known...
as Louise Haloran. Anders's role as the scheming wife of a rich, but prematurely dead, heir to a fortune is one of the actress's most notable screen roles. Dementia 13 was one of several appearances she made in AIP productions. Most of these films had been directed by Roger Corman, including a major role co-starring with Vincent PriceVincent PriceVincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
in The Pit and the PendulumThe Pit and the Pendulum (1961 film)The Pit and the Pendulum is a 1961 horror film directed by Roger Corman, starring Vincent Price, Barbara Steele, John Kerr, and Luana Anders. The screenplay by Richard Matheson was based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story of the same name. Set in 16th century Spain, the story is about a young...
(1961). Like Campbell and Patrick Magee, Anders had been borrowed by Coppola from the cast of Corman's just completed The Young Racers. After Dementia 13, Anders never had such a sizeable role again, appearing in numerous small parts in both television and film until her death from breast cancerBreast cancerBreast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
in 1996. - Patrick MageePatrick Magee (actor)Patrick Magee was a Northern Irish actor best known for his collaborations with Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter, as well as his appearances in horror films and in Stanley Kubrick's films A Clockwork Orange and Barry Lyndon.-Early life:He was born Patrick McGee in Armagh, County Armagh, Northern...
as Dr. Justin Caleb. Magee's role as the family doctor who manages to solve the mystery in Dementia 13 was one of many horror film parts the Tony AwardTony AwardThe Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
-winning actor accepted during the course of his distinguished career. He had just finished shooting Corman's The Young Racers when Coppola convinced him, along with his Racers co-stars Campbell and Anders, to appear in Coppola's debut feature. Years later, Campbell warmly remembered Magee as being a brilliant performer although a little prone to overactingOveractingOveracting is the exaggeration of gestures and speech when acting. It may be unintentional, particularly in the case of a bad actor, or be required for the role. For the latter, it is commonly used in comical situations or to stress the evil characteristics of a villain...
. - Other cast: Bart PattonBart PattonBart Patton born Phillip Bardwell in Culver City, California on 11 July 1939 is an American actor, producer, and director.-Biography:Bart's first acting job was as Scampy the Clown in Super Circus where he was credited as "Bardy Patton". He continued making acting appearances in souch television...
as Billy Haloran, Mary Mitchell as Kane, Eithne Dunne as Lady Haloran, Peter Read as John Haloran, Karl Schanzer as Simon, the poacher, Ron Perry as Arthur, Derry O'Donavan as Lillian, the maid, Barbara Dowling as Kathleen Haloran.
Production
Coppola worked as a sound manAudio engineering
An audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
on Corman's The Young Racers (1963), a racing film which starred Campbell and Magee. That movie was shot in several different countries, and after production was completed in Ireland, Corman still had $22,000 of the film's allocated $165,000 budget remaining. Corman originally thought of using the funds to direct a "quickie" film himself, but his schedule made this impractical. Instead, Corman suggested that Coppola remain in Ireland with a small crew and direct a low-budget horror film, to be produced by Corman." Coppola later recalled, "Roger wanted to make Dementia 13 cheaply. He wanted it to be homicidal
Homicidal
Homicidal is a 1961 thriller film produced and directed by the self-proclaimed "King of Showmanship", William Castle. Written by Robb White, the film stars Glenn Corbett, Patricia Breslin, Eugenie Leontovich, Alan Bunce, Richard Rust, and Joan Marshall...
, sort of a copy of Psycho. You know, gothic
Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story"...
and psychological, with some kind of terrible knife killing scene thrown in. So I wrote the script to order."
Coppola wrote a brief draft story idea in one night. The next morning, he described to Corman the most vividly detailed sequence: a half naked woman ties several dolls to the bottom of a lake, then surfaces to find herself at the feet of an axe murderer -"Axed to death!" Coppola exclaimed." Corman was impressed enough to immediately provide Coppola with the $22,000 for the film. The young director was able to arrange an additional $20,000 in financing himself by pre-selling the European rights to a producer named Raymond Stross. Coppola did not inform Corman of the production's additional funding, and quickly moved the initial $22,000 into a bank account in case an angry Corman ever attempted to reclaim his original investment.
Coppola’s friend Al Locatelli served as the film’s art director
Art director
The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
and helped Coppola write the final script in three days, uncredited. The speed in which the screenplay was completed resulted in unrealistic, “stilted” dialogue that Campbell recalled as being very difficult for the actors to speak.
The majority of the American actors in the cast were friends of Coppola’s from UCLA, and many of them paid their own way to Ireland for the opportunity to appear in a film. Most of the Irish cast members were from the Abbey Theatre
Abbey Theatre
The Abbey Theatre , also known as the National Theatre of Ireland , is a theatre located in Dublin, Ireland. The Abbey first opened its doors to the public on 27 December 1904. Despite losing its original building to a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the present day...
and were paid strictly minimum wage salaries. Eithne Dunne received approximately $600 for her performance. Cast and crew lived together in a farm house located outside of Dublin.
During the filming, Coppola kept Corman updated on the status of the production in letters that promised lots of sex and violence would be in the movie, "enough to make people sick". Coppola was left entirely on his own while directing the film, without interference of any kind from Corman. But after the completed film was shown to him, Corman stormed out of the screening room and demanded that several changes be made to the film that Coppola did not agree with. According to Coppola, Corman "insisted on dubbing
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
the picture the way he wanted it, adding voiceover
VoiceOver
VoiceOver is a screen reader built into Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X, iOS and iPod operating systems. By using VoiceOver, the user can access their Macintosh or iOS device based on spoken descriptions and, in the case of the Mac, the keyboard. The feature is designed to increase accessibility for blind...
s to simplify some of the scenes. Worse, he wanted some extra violence added, another axe murder at least..." Jack Hill
Jack Hill
Jack Hill is an U.S. film director, noted for his work in the exploitation film genre. Despite this, several of Hill's later films have been characterized as feminist works.Hill was born in Los Angeles...
was later hired by Corman to shoot some brief sequences featuring actor Karl Schanzer as a comical poacher who is beheaded by the murderer.
Corman also complained the film was too short, and insisted that it be padded
Filler (media)
In media, filler is material that is combined with material of greater relevance or quality to "fill out" a certain volume.-Early television:...
by at least five minutes. Gary Kurtz
Gary Kurtz
Gary Kurtz is an American film producer whose list of credits include American Graffiti, Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. He later produced The Dark Crystal and Return to Oz after departing from the Star Wars series...
, one of Corman's assistants at the time, recalled, "So we shot this stupid prologue
Prologue
A prologue is an opening to a story that establishes the setting and gives background details, often some earlier story that ties into the main one, and other miscellaneous information. The Greek prologos included the modern meaning of prologue, but was of wider significance...
that had nothing to do with the rest of the movie. It was some guy who was supposed to be a psychiatrist, sitting in his office and giving the audience a test to see if they were mentally fit to see the picture. The movie was actually released with that prologue." The prologue was directed by Monte Hellman
Monte Hellman
Monte Hellman is an American film director, producer, and film editor.Hellman is among a group of directing talent mentored by Roger Corman, who produced several of the director's early films...
. This cheap William Castle
William Castle
William Castle was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. Castle was known for directing films with many gimmicks which were ambitiously promoted, despite being reasonably low budget B-movies....
-style gimmick also included a "D-13 Test" handout given to theatre patrons that was ostensibly devised by a "medical expert" to weed out psychologically unfit people from viewing the film. The test consisted of such questions as "The most effective way of settling a dispute is with one quick stroke of an axe to your adversary's head?" and "Have you ever been hospitalized in a locked mental ward, sanitarium, rest home or other facility for the treatment of mental illness?", with Yes or No as the only possible answers.
The rockabilly
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
song that is played at the opening of the movie is "He's Caught" by Buddy and The Fads, written by Arthur "Buddy" Fowler. The song was recorded in 1959 in Hollywood, CA. for Accent Records.
Response
The film was released in the fall of 1963 as the supporting feature of a double billDouble feature
The double feature, also known as a double bill, was a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatre managers would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown.The double feature, also known as...
with Corman's X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes
X (1963 film)
X is a 1963 science fiction/horror motion picture.Directed by Roger Corman from a script by Ray Russell and Robert Dillon, X stars Ray Milland as Dr. James Xavier. A world renowned scientist, Dr. Xavier experiments with X-ray vision and things go horribly wrong...
. Because of its rushed production and a somewhat incomprehensible screenplay, reviews of Dementia 13 have been mixed. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
dismissed the film: "Under the stolid direction of Francis Coppola, who also wrote the script, the picture stresses gore rather than atmosphere, and all but buries a fairly workable plot." Michael Weldon, in The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film
Psychotronic Video
Psychotronic Video was a film magazine originally started by publisher/editor Michael J. Weldon in 1980 in New York City as a hand-written and photocopied weekly fanzine entitled Psychotronic TV. It was then relaunched by Weldon under its more commonly known name as an offset quarterly in 1989...
, noted it had "[A] great trick ending, some truly shocking gory axe murders, and lots of inventive photography." Tom Raynes, in the Time Out Film Guide, said "The location (an Irish castle) is used imaginatively, the Gothic atmosphere is suitably potent, and there's a wonderfully sharp cameo from Patrick Magee..." Danny Peary
Danny Peary
Danny Peary is an American film critic and sports writer. He has written many books on cinema and sports-related topics.-Biography:...
, in his Guide for the Film Fanatic, stated that despite the "hopelessly confusing" storyline, "...the horror sequences are very exciting." Phil Hardy
Phil Hardy (journalist)
Phil Hardy is an English film and music industry journalist. He was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire in 1945 and studied at the University of Sussex, 1964-1969, during which time he was a visiting student at the Berkeley campus of the University of California . At Sussex he started The Brighton Film...
's The Aurum Film Encyclopedia
The Aurum Film Encyclopedia
The Aurum Film Encyclopedia is a multi-volume reference work on cinema, published in the UK by Aurum Press and edited by Phil Hardy. The first volume, devoted to western films, appeared in 1983, with eight subsequent volumes announced at that time as "forthcoming". However, as of 2007, only...
: Horror opined, "[O]ne senses the presence of a director right from the moody opening sequence...a piece of high gothic melodrama...The weakness of the film is in the script, which gives every indication of having been bundled together at the last minute..." John Charles, in Video Watchdog
Video Watchdog
Video Watchdog is a bimonthly, digest size film magazine started in 1990 by publisher/editor Tim Lucas and his wife, art director and co-publisher Donna Lucas....
, wrote that the film was "a remarkably confident and proficient thriller. Several of its components hint at the creativity that was still to come from Coppola, and the finished product is a testament to his ingenuity..." Kim Newman
Kim Newman
Kim Newman is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven—and alternate fictional versions of history...
has opined "Coppola...works fast and creative in Dementia 13, making memorable, shocking little sequences out of the killings and the implied haunting, using his locations well and highlighting unexpected eeriness like a transistor radio burbling distorted pop music as it sinks into a lake along with a just-murdered corpse." Dementia 13 has a 63% favorable rating on the "Tomatoemeter" at Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, out of nineteen reviewers surveyed.
When the Roan Group released a laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
of the film, it included an amusing and informative audio commentary
Audio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
by Campbell. The DVD also featured the written version of the "D-13 Test" in digital form as an extra. However, the filmed five-minute prologue featuring the test has not been included on any of the numerous available home video
Home video
Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...
versions of the title.