CANCELED: Dementia 13

All film screenings and public programs at BAMPFA have been cancelled through March 29. Learn more

  • Introduction

    James Mockoski is a film archivist and postproduction supervisor at American Zoetrope, where he has supervised the restoration of classic films including Dementia 13, Apocalypse Now, and The Rain People.

featuring

Luana Anders, William Campbell, Bart Patton, Patrick Magee,

This atmospheric tale of terror, Francis Ford Coppola’s second venture, was considered so shocking that a test was devised to determine viewers’ fitness for watching it. The “D-13 Test” (screened before this feature) plumbs one’s predisposition for traumatic breakdown. “IF YOU FAIL THE TEST . . . you will be asked to leave the theatre!” Dementia 13 is no ordinary shockfest. The first stunning scene—with a body slowly sinking to a lake bottom, followed by a transistor radio still playing garbled music—propels you into the murky world of a family cursed by its own suffocating memories. Luana Anders plays the unwelcome visitor at the castle Halloran, a glum enclave of brooding siblings, their morbid mother, and a dark, dank secret. Lurking in the abundant shadows is an unnamed loony, wielding his woeful ax. Dementia 13 is a chopping spree in chiaroscuro.

Steve Seid
FILM DETAILS 
Screenwriter
  • Francis Ford Coppola
Cinematographer
  • Charles Hannawalt
Print Info
  • B&W
  • DCP
  • 72 mins
Source
  • American Zoetrope