Dementia 13 (1963)

A young Franccis Coppola was given the job of directing this moody low-budget chiller after begging producer Roger Corman for the opportunity to reuse the sets for another film which Corman was shooting in Ireland. The story centers on the dysfunctional Haloran family, who live in a state of perpetual sorrow in a spooky Irish castle. Still mourning the death of her young daughter Kathleen — who drowned in the lake seven years ago — Lady Haloran (Ethne Dunn) tortures herself regularly by visiting the girl’s grave (when she’s not shrieking and collapsing in anguish every five minutes). When daughter-in-law Louise Haloran (Luana Anders) loses her husband to a heart attack, she manages to conceal the body for fear of being cut out of Lady Haloran’s will. To further complicate matters, a mysterious interloper begins prowling the grounds with an axe to grind… a very big axe. This enjoyable, quirky psycho-thriller is enlivened by Coppola’s inventive camera setups, atmospheric locations and Patrick Magee’s over-the-top performance as the leering family doctor. Despite some ragged editing (probably not Coppola’s doing), this has relatively high production values for a spare-change Corman project.

1963, B&W, 76 minutes