Amazon.com reviews for
Dementia 13 (1963) More at IMDbPro »

Fright Night Horror Classics (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: This package contains three films, one a bona fide classic, one an interesting first film by someone who would go on to greatness, and, um, one other one. This set would be quite a bargain if the transfer to DVD weren't so crappy. It appears that these films were transferred from tape. Since the whole idea of DVD is higher definition, that pretty much defeats the purpose of owning these discs, unless you can't find these titles in a higher-quality version. Luckily, the best of these three, the George A. Romero classic about flesh-eating zombies, Night of the Living Dead, is available in an exquisite pressing with THX sound and lots of extras. It is also available in this version for the cost-conscious consumer: Night of the Living Dead. It's nice to have a copy of Francis Ford Coppola's feature debut, Dementia 13--at least it would have been, if the transfer to DVD hadn't been so botched that you could see the frames rolling out of control and the tape bunching up in the last 15 minutes of the film. So on the level of the films themselves two out of three ain't bad. Which is to say that Revolt of the Zombies is so dull, it'll have even zombies checking their watches. --Jim Gay

Dementia 13 (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: Francis Ford Coppola was working as an assistant to Roger Corman when he made this, his feature debut. The story goes that Corman let Coppola make the film so long as he could work around the shooting schedule of the film they were working on together, and the results are impressive given the budget constraints. Or maybe because of the budget constraints. The story concerns the family at Castle Haloran, the secrets surrounding the death of young Kathleen, and an axe murderer who seems to be picking away at all present. Coppola's deft direction keeps this from being a routine ghost story, using light and dark in his compositions to create tension and suspense. The film has an interesting way of spanning the traditional ghost story and the more modern gore-fests that we're used to. I have one bone to pick with the manufacturer of this disc: the transfer to DVD was made from tape. This is evident from the way the frames roll repeatedly during the last 15 minutes of the film, and the tape bunches a few times leaving video artifacts. DVD consumers want all the benefits of this medium, and not to have the degraded quality of tape preserved on it. If this is the only way you can get this film, at least the price is reasonable. It's also packaged as a Fright Night Horror Classic along with Night of the Living Dead and Revolt of the Zombies. --Jim Gay