MovieChat Forums > Dementia 13 (1963) Discussion > Reasons why it stinked, stunk, and stank...

Reasons why it stinked, stunk, and stank (spoilers)


1. Drowning a character in one body of water that is in close proximity to another body of water which is central to the plot. Too unclear and many were just waiting for the body to appear when the pond was drained. I've seen all the threads. She is staying at the castle when she returns to gather up his things and write the letter. She slips the letter under mommy-in-law's door so this much is obvious. That they were at a different body of water is not readily obvious.

2. Setting up a protagonist and then killing her off 1/3 in. Interesting idea, but kind of throws everything off.

3. Introducing a major character 1/3 in. I figured the doctor would be a throwaway character, but he slowly becomes the protagonist. Would have been better to throw him in earlier.

4. All of the dubbing.

Billy was only "thirteen" two months after it happened. Who would even SAY it like that?!

Who was it that tried to throw you in the pond? "Richard." Are you serious? So Billy's a ventriloquist now because his mouth didn't even come close to moving the proper way.

There was at least one more instance earlier in the film, but I can't remember it.

5. Too many cheap "scare" shots of things flying at the camera. Toy, owl, stroller. Very cheesy.

6. Showing too much info about the killer. Zero suspense. He was 13 two months later (Dementia 13), showing him with the ax, briefly showing the killer's face, flashbacks to the drowning, etc... It was just too obvious.

Now on the plus side:
1. The girls were pretty hot. Well, that's about it.

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Your point 2 is also true of Psycho.

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None of the OP's points are legitimate.

If the movie stunk, it's because it was made for 35 cents.

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LBJ's mistress tells all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPdviZbk-XI&;


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1. One is an obviously large body of water, with piers and rowboats on it, while the other is more like a puddle in the backyard - really that easy to confuse? And the US is hardly in `that` close a proximity to Ireland.



"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

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I think the points 2 and 3 actually ADDS to the movie because then it becomes one of those that you cant just guess everything that happens outright, as in you can still get surprised, and thats rare in movies for people who have seen as amany as i have. for this alone i think its worth 1 extra star.

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Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.

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I honestly can't believe several people came on to defend this mediocre movie (according to imdb, film critics, etc...). Someone even posted just to agree the movie stinks but say my entire post is invalid. Okay. Well, the movie is still pretty bad and I stand by that.

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Several of us didn't defend it. But your reasoning was still stupid.

It's mediocre for sure, but your explanations for it don't work.

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Non-sequiturs are delicious.

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Thanks (again) for the same, tired, useless response. Back in your hole please.

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Thanks (again) for the same, tired, useless comments. Back in your hole please.

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Non-sequiturs are delicious.

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It's actually quite a good Horror Film. If you find you are the kind of person who picks apart plots like this, I really don't think Horror should be your genre of choice - especially older Horror Films! I do agree I was bummed about Luana Anders character being killed off so early - she was fantastic and I was involved with her. This was obviously something they stole from Psycho - and I didn't care for it much then, either - yeah, you've shocked the audience by killing off the main character, but now what are you going to do with the rest of the film's running time? If anything about this movie stinks, it's Patrick Magee's dime-store Boris Karloff impersonation - which he made a career out of.

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Because of the era and its shuddery style, there are several scenes in DEMENTIA 13 which almost work. But, no, as a whole, the picture isn't what we'd like it to be.

But then, it had no budget whatsoever.

--
LBJ's mistress on JFK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcXeutDmuRA


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joshbrando, I agree--I liked it. I was bummed she died as well, and soon was pretty sure I recognized who did it (and was right), but I loved that they tried shooting in the water like that (even though it was way too dark to have allowed her to swim around under water--it would have been totally black--it is even in daytime in water like that.) I loved the lighting. And the area where it was filmed.... It was an early film of Francis Ford Coppola's and you could see Coppola had a lot of talent!

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Totally agreed with the OP.

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The movie's pretty weak, but the OP's reasons aren't why.


--
LBJ's mistress on JFK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcXeutDmuRA


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1. Drowning a character in one body of water that is in close proximity to another body of water which is central to the plot. It was too unclear and many viewers were just waiting for the body to appear when the pond was drained. She is staying at the castle when she returns to gather up his things and write the letter. She slips the letter under mommy-in-law's door so this much is obvious. That they were at a different body of water is not readily obvious.


It's nice to know that I wasn't the only one confused on this point. It was a huge script flaw. Writer Coppola needed to make it clearer that it was an altogether different body of water.

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