It’s pretty clear Dementia 13 was made with the intent to capitalize on the massive success of Psycho from three years prior. Not only was it a hit upon release, but it’s also, in my opinion, much better than Psycho. And it was made on a shoestring Roger Corman budget.
Nine years before Francis Ford Coppola would release The Godfather, he displays his directing chops, showing he can do suspense as well as Hitchcock, with an artistic flair often absent from that genre. For a film made in the early 60s, Dementia 13 is both sexier and more brutal than I expected, with multiple scenes of young ladies in revealing nighttime attire and surprisingly graphic axe killer shots.
I’m not saying Dementia 13 is a gore flick—it’s certainly not—but, going back to Psycho, it goes much further than showing a knife in the air and blood going down the drain. We see one guy get his head chopped off, and it’s pretty damn convincing.
Here is the plot from IMDB: “Shocked by the death of her spouse, a scheming widow hatches a bold plan to get her hands on the inheritance, unaware that she is targeted by an axe-wielding murderer who lurks in the family's estate. What mystery shrouds the noble house?”
Much like Psycho, the scheming young lady meets an early demise at about the midway point of the movie. But while in that earlier film, the death of the woman is the pinnacle—even more so than the revelation that Norman Bates’ mother is long since dead—the tension and brutality in Dementia 13 only gets more intense following that initial murder.
Another thing that separates Dementia 13 from Psycho is that almost until the end, you suspect you might be watching something with a supernatural angle. There very well may be a ghostly young girl who is responsible, in some mysterious way, for everything. Only in the final shot do we fully understand. And that final shot is damn good!
PC3’s Horror and Exploitation Movie Scale of Awesomeness!
Gore - 3
Special Effects - 6
Nudity/Sexuality - 5
Wow Factor - 5
Acting - 6
Fear Factor - 3
Story/Plot/Originality - 4
Cinematography/Atmosphere - 8
Sound/Music - 6
Fun Factor - 6
Dementia 13 received a total PHEMSA score of 52. When doing these ratings, I take into account the year in which they were made, to an extent. This is why the Special Effects and Nudity/Sexuality categories receive good numbers, despite them being not particularly impressive by today’s standards. If you want to check out this excellent early Coppola film, you can find it on Amazon Prime for free.