Following the death of her spouse, an American woman (Luana Anders) conceals the event and attempts to gain favor with the family matriarch at their Irish manor so she can extract a portion of the inheritance. However, a somber atmosphere hangs over the family due to an accidental drowning that occurred seven years prior, along with the presence of a man wielding an axe! William Campbell portrays the unusual brother, and Mary Mitchel is his fiancée. “Dementia 13” (1963), also known as “The Haunted and the Hunted,” marked writer/director Francis Ford Coppola’s theatrical debut. Producer Roger Corman gave him the opportunity to create a low-budget imitation of “Psycho” (1960) in Ireland, utilizing leftover funds from “The Young Racers,” on which Coppola had worked as a sound technician. It's worth noting that this wasn’t technically his first film; he spent eleven days shooting scenes for Corman’s superior film, “The Terror,” in Big Sur, California. Although the story and setting differ significantly from “Psycho” and its contemporary English counterpart, “Horror Hotel” (aka “The City of the Dead”), which wasn't released in America until two years later, “Dementia 13” shares a common B&W horror foundation and an infamous plot twist that originated with those two films. Like "Psycho," there’s a deranged killer, although he favors an axe over a butcher knife. Unfortunately, “Dementia 13” doesn't reach the heights of “Psycho” or the strength of “Horror Hotel,” primarily because the narrative is somewhat confusing (like the two bodies of water that aren’t clearly distinguished), though most things are clarified at the end. There's a decent gothic feel, but the convoluted storytelling hinders its progress. And Luana Anders, while acceptable, isn’t as impressive as Venetia Stevenson in “Horror Hotel” or Janet Leigh in “Psycho.” Corman was dissatisfied with what Coppola brought back to California. He correctly felt that certain scenes needed simplification and more violence, leading to the hiring of Jack Hill to film additional scenes involving a poacher. A superfluous prologue was also added to extend the running time, which wasn’t included in the version I saw. Those familiar with Coppola's later works, such as “Youth Without Youth” (2007) and “Twixt” (2011), know that he has a tendency to complicate scripts. That’s the core issue with “Dementia 13.” Nevertheless, it certainly escalated the slasher trend and influenced that particular horror genre. The film is 1 hour and 15 minutes long and was filmed in Ireland (Howth Castle, Howth, and Ardmore Studios in Bray). It has been remade and enhanced in color in 2017. GRADE: C

Source on TMDB