Misunderstood Masterpieces: Dementia 13
Posted by Will Helm on 10.03.2006
… A Legendary – and Very Young – Director Kicks off Old School Horror Movie Mania 2006!
As long as horror movies have been around, one name has been connected with a good portion of those films. This individual, now regarded as an icon of the genre – and the film business, touched on nearly all behind-the-scene aspects of cinema throughout his career. In addition, this regarded filmmaker has given starts to many neophyte artistes in his films both in front of and behind the camera. Finally, this particular master of the medium has brought forth many well-remembered works in the horror genre, in particular such films as House of Usher, X, and Chopping Mall. This man, unsurprisingly, is Roger Corman.
As explored earlier – both in the preceding paragraph and here – Roger Corman is quite famous for giving young filmmakers – many who would go on to bigger and better things – a chance in Hollywood by working behind-the-scenes on his films. One of these lauded filmmakers to apprentice under Roger Corman is multiple Oscar-winner Francis Ford Coppola. After a few years under Corman in various positions on various films, Coppola finally earned the chance to direct – and write – his first feature, the moody 1963 horror flick Dementia 13. Even though Coppola would later direct two of the greatest films ever made, it is imperative to study whether or not the seeds of greatness lie in his early works or if Dementia 13 is just a Misunderstood Masterpiece. Let's find out!
At some pier in the middle of a black lake – seriously, the film has awful contrast issues – someone listens to rockabilly music and then a couple goes for a cruise on a dinghy. Hmm . . . here I thought that was usually reserved for the back seats of cars. While the guy (Peter Read) rows along merrily, his wife Louise (Luana Anders) smokes and complains about the guy's mother's will. Supposedly, the mother-in-law is giving all of her riches to charity and Louise wants a slice of the pie before the old woman bites it. While Louise sits there and whines and complains about the will and the husband's rowing, the husband has an inopportune heart attack, which greatly hinders Louise's chances for an inheritance. Louise yells at her now-dead husband for a bit and then she beats up the corpse and throws it overboard . . . and the radio. At least he'll have something to listen to in the afterlife.
After some lopsided opening credits, Louise runs to her car – or her husband's car, which she now inherited – and, once there, she has an internal monologue. Once at her shabby apartment, she writes a letter in the husband's name to her mother-in-law, confessing that he's in New York on business. After another internal monologue revealing that the mother-in-law is half-crazy and the guy's brothers are dangerous, Louise dumps the guy's clothes and typewriter in the lake as well. I suppose that's so he'll have a change of clothes and something to do while he's down there.
Sometime later, Louise plans on seeing the guy's family and some other guy explains that there's a ghost residing in the family estate in Ireland . . . and it just happens to be the guy's dead sister! Apparently, years ago, the dead sister – who wasn't dead at the time – drowned and the mother-in-law has been kind of crazy since then. Because finding out there's a creepy spirit isn't enough to keep her away from inheritance, Louise heads over to visit the family proper in Ireland. Once there, her husband's younger brother Billy (Bart Patton) picks her up at the airport and, during the drive, he provides some helpful exposition as he tells Louise about the haunted family castle.
Meanwhile, in a workshop in the haunted castle, the guy's older brother Richard (William Campbell, a.k.a. "The Squire of Gothos") welds something. Happy with his manly work, Richard then makes out with some HOT CHICK – who happens to be his fiancée Kane (Mary Mitchel). Elsewhere at the castle, Louise has a little chat with the mother-in-law (Eithne Dunne) who says that Louise is very welcome at the castle . . . except at a mysterious little ceremony that's going on the next day. Something tells me there's going to be Satanists involved. Later, Richard argues with his mother about getting married in the castle because, for some reason, the mother is recalcitrant because the dead sister died while wearing a wedding dress for no particular reason. Yes . . . that plot point does go unexplained. Richard, knowing of this bizarre connection the dead sister has to weddings, demeans her memory so the mother ends up acquiescing to his request. Whatever, movie. If I wanted family drama I'd watch Jerry Springer.
Outside, Kane rides a horse while Louise chats with Richard about nothing in particular, which raises Richard's suspicions. Louise, bored with Richard, then has a talk with the castle's kindly caretaker and she asks about the fate of the dead sister – even though it's plainly obvious. The caretaker, on hand to help out with the exposition and other sundry duties, reveals to Louise that, due to the dead sister's death, there's something bad about weddings on the property.
Billy, meanwhile, has a flashback wherein he fights the still-living dead sister . . . and then Kane interrupts the interlude. Billy, since he now has an audience, recounts the facts of the case of his sister's demise and he has yet another flashback. He's just so Goth. It's too bad this is 1963; he can't cut himself and then post about it on MySpace for another forty years. Perhaps to ratchet up the Goth quotient, Billy reveals that there's going to be a mock funeral that night. I have an awful feeling that there will be a lot of Hot Topic fashions and a soundtrack by The Smiths.
After one of the brothers – I honestly forget which – flushes a loony fox hunter out of the castle's bushes, the mock funeral begins in the castle's conveniently placed graveyard. While Louise watches from the battlements in amazement, the mother passes out in a fit of apoplexy. Louise, who must be an expert on apoplexy, runs in to "care" for the mother – there will probably be a slow program of arsenic poisoning involved; in the mother's chambers, Louise explains to the near-catatonic mother that she's heard creepy music in the halls of the castle at night. The mother, stupefied to the point of gullibility, listens intently to what Louise has to say, so Louise states that the dead sister has been communicating with her! Oh, the dramatic irony!
That night, Louise stalks the halls of the castle and, in a secluded passage, she finds her quarry: a long forgotten room belonging to the dead sister! Louise crawls inside the room and, once there, she carefully rummages – if it is possible to rummage carefully – through the dead sister's toys and she steals a few choice items. They're probably worth a fortune on eBay . . . it's really too bad this is 1963. Perhaps either to shock the audience or to foreshadow that Louise will meet her doom at the hands of a circus, a windup clown attacks Louise! After she calms the windup clown, Louise is then freaked out by a cymbal-playing monkey; too bad there's not an angry psychic around to yell at her to get rid of the monkey.
As Louise leaves the room and makes her way back down the hallway, someone follows along silently behind her . . . and then Richard shows up to spook Louise and scold her for wandering. Richard's warning is so powerful, apparently, that Louise leaves the castle altogether and, once outside, she ties up the toys together and then she strips. No, really. Then, for no particular reason, Louise jumps in the murky lake – in which the dead sister drowned – and she strategically places the tied toys near the bottom of the water. After her deed is done, Louise searches around a bit and she spies . . . the dead sister lying at a shrine under the water! Dum-dum-DUM! Louise, unsurprisingly, panics and swims quickly to the surface where, unfortunately for her, some shadowy figure with an axe is waiting to chop her to pieces. Oops.
The next morning, some psychologist guy (Patrick Magee) shows up at the castle and, in Louise's stead – mainly because she's recently deceased, he's treating the mother. The mother, unsurprisingly, is still hysterical and, like a bad patient, she argues with the psychologist and requests for him to find Louise. Maybe Louise has her hopped up on morphine and she needs her fix. Just because it seems that everyone has gone missing, Kane searches for Richard but, once she finds him, he tells her that she should be silent and trusting and never question him when he goes to the strip club. Nothing ever happens there; he swears.
That afternoon, the family – and Kane and the psychologist – has lunch together and, while they eat heartily, the toys Louise placed at the bottom of the lake float up to the surface! The mother, surprisingly, goes even more batty at the sight of the dead sister's toys while the psychologist – as per his particular scientific idiom – remains skeptical as to the goings on around the household. The psychologist, probably believing it will actually help the situation, yells at Richard for no particular reason. While everyone splits up and the scene settles down, the psychologist then tells Billy to burn the toys, probably because they stink of murky lake. Billy, after the psychologist takes his leave, has another flashback . . . which signifies nothing in particular since it's the same one as before.
Back in the house, the family drama continues as Kane argues with Richard because he's a workaholic and ignoring her advances. Richard, always with a clever response to Kane's badgering, blames his mother's guilt and then he gives a dramatic monologue. So dramatic is said monologue that Kane pulls up a chair to listen as Richard emotes. Later that night, the hilarious hunter from earlier in the picture shoots at something on the family's property and then he hides in the bushes. Something tells me there's murder afoot and that's why he's hiding. While the crazy hunter lies in wait – or sits in wait, as the case may be – he hears mysterious sounds emanating from the murky lake so he – unwisely – wanders down to the water's edge to investigate. He first searches an empty log where, from the darkness, an owl attacks him! The owl was just a red herring – which is odd, because herrings are fish – as the hunter then spies the dead sister lying in a hole! Before he can tell anyone of his gruesome discovery, the guy with the axe shows up to lop off the hunter's head. Dum-dum-DUM!
The next day, the psychologist questions the caretaker about the goings on about the house and he orders the caretaker to drain the lake! Meanwhile, inside the house, the mother looks at the dead sister's tiara – which she could've pawned a long time ago – and then she takes it to the dead sister's old abandoned playhouse. Once there, the mother is unmercifully attacked by . . . a runaway baby carriage! OK . . . I think I get the pattern: freaky inanimate object/animal, dead sister, death by axe. Following the modus operandi so far, after the mother fends off the psychotic baby carriage, she enters the playhouse where she finds the dead sister sitting calmly in a corner. The mother gives her the tiara but, somehow, the dead sister rejects it and then the guy with the axe shows up and attempts to hack the playhouse to pieces. Miraculously, the mother escapes the wrath of the axe-wielding maniac but she passes out on the lawn in another fit of apoplexy anyway.
Sometime later, Billy intensely drips wax onto a piece of paper while rambling on about stereotypically Goth things while Kane listens halfheartedly. Billy, unsurprisingly, confesses to her that he has night terrors and, once again because he has a captive audience, he describes them to Kane; he probably just wants some pity and maybe a bit of sex from her. The only problem with that is that, after that, he just won't be Goth anymore. Anyway, it seems that the subject of Billy's nightmares is his mother being crazy and laughing at him. He probably wet the bed a lot as a child. Or he still does. Billy finishes up the uplifting scene by revealing that these dreams always end in a drowning. Kane, shockingly, quickly desires to take her leave, especially after Billy reveals that Richard was also in his dreams and – of course – just as crazy as his mother.
The next morning, after the caretaker drains the lake, he goes to the psychologist with his findings and a hint of exposition. The psychologist follows the caretaker out to the lakebed while Richard, curious to the subterfuge, trails them closely. Once at the lakebed, the psychologist is shocked to find a carefully carved stone shrine to the dead sister uncovered – which Louise saw earlier in the film, much to her doom. The psychologist, possibly overstepping his professional bounds by taking up the mantle of detective, accuses Richard of sculpting the shrine; Richard, faced with incontrovertible circumstantial evidence, blames Louise for the shrine being there, since he always believed – rightly, ironically – that she was only on hand to play mind games with the family. The psychologist humors Richard by not debunking his theory and then, after nearly everyone takes their leave, the psychologist recruits Billy to help him search the town for Louise.
That night, Richard and Kane, separately, stalk the catacombs under the castle. Richard finds a mysterious marble workshop – which can only hold evidence of the shrine's maker – and then Kane – wearing a very sheer nightgown – creeps in behind. Richard, utilizing his finely attuned senses, finds his fiancée hiding in the shadows and he tells her that he's investigating the strange goings on around the house on his own . . . and then he and Kane insinuate that they're up to no good! Meanwhile, the dead sister lies peacefully nearby, unaware of the duplicity around her. So far, she's the most likable and normal character in the film.
In town, the psychologist and Billy go drinking together. Why do I get the feeling this will end up turning into a Dateline NBC segment? Before the seduction of Billy can commence, he and the psychologist inquire about Louise's whereabouts. Most of the locals are unhelpful but one drunk pipes up with some incomprehensible information, which is good enough for the psychologist and Billy, who then sit down to share a drink. While both nurse their pints, the psychologist fittingly psychoanalyzes Billy and admits that he's responsible for Billy's rampant Gothiness. Billy, either reaching an epiphany or having a complete mental breakdown, starts singing a freaky nursery rhyme. Yeah . . . there has to be molestation involved.
Some time hence, Richard and Kane FINALLY get married. From the way the dialogue made it sound, it seemed as they were betrothed for a decade. While Richard hides out somewhere in the house, Kane searches the crowded rooms for him but all she finds is the psychologist, who turns very creepy once he has a few drinks in him. He also lives up to the adage in vinum veritas as he demeans the family in a drunken stupor and he insinuates that he knows things about Louise and the dead brother! Kane, wanting only to celebrate her nuptials and get out of there before she meets a bloody end, doesn't believe him and, perhaps to increase the level of honesty, Kane tells the psychologist that he's being a bit creepy. The psychologist, sensitive due to the alcohol content of his blood, gets upset and tells Kane – reiterating his previous assertion – that he knows things about the family. Ah, there's nothing like good old fashioned blackmail.
Later, Richard shows up out of the blue – he was probably busy hacking up carcasses in the shed or something – and he and Kane run off to the nearby barn to make out in the hay. That can't be good; they're only going to end up with lice in very uncomfortable places doing that. Meanwhile, the psychologist, probably upset that he's not getting any nookie, has a revelation after singing Billy's nursery rhyme to himself. In another nearby barn, the psychologist finds an eviscerated Louise and the dead sister as well! The psychologist, calmly – as if he was the one responsible for all the depravity in the movie – carries the dead sister to the estate's fountain where Kane finds her and freaks out. Then, out of the blue – and really stretching all logic – Billy arrives on the scene armed with an axe! The psychologist, practicing a bit of tough love, shoots Billy and then states that Billy was responsible for everything – even though the psychologist could've been hypnotically controlling him the whole time . . . but that would be a little too complicated for this movie – and then he smashes the dead sister's face with the axe . . . because she was made of wax! Dum-dum-DUM?
For what it's worth, Dementia 13 shows the makings of a great director. It certainly has the ambience and the mood that make a good horror film and those qualities show up well on camera. There's only one problem: the movie makes no sense. Even though the background of Dementia 13 sets up a very frightening scene, the film itself trips over its own red herrings – and there are a lot – in an attempt to keep from showing its hand until the very end. Unfortunately, that hand is nothing but a pair of threes as the final reveal is nothing but rushed and woefully anticlimactic: the crazy brother ends up being the murderer. Seemingly, Dementia 13 tries so hard to hide the obvious that it becomes convoluted to the point of dullness, like a cinematic black hole of plot twists. Of course, whenever a film drowns – no pun intended – under the weight of its own plot, that can only mean it's a Misunderstood Masterpiece.
Join me next week as I take Horror Movie Mania 2006 to the world's freakiest circus . . . and, don't forget, I've already done Killer Klowns from Outer Space. See you then!
