This week I'm coming back to Roger Corman's contributions to the horror genre. Actually, this is not one of his active efforts; he may have produced it but the brains behind the whole endeavor was none other than Francis Ford Coppola. The movie in question is Dementia 13 and yes, it is the directorial debut of Mr. Coppola. So let's see how this 60s axe murdering bonanza fared.

The story is pretty bland by normal standards. In all honesty, the concept was probably a novel idea back in the day but this 'killer with an axe on the loose' notion has been done to death these days. Having said that, let me note that this movie fared much better than some of the recent slasher movies we have been subject to. Back to the summary. So there you have an enterprising gold-digger called Louise. She is eager to inherit moolah from her husband's side – for your information, his family owns a castle in Ireland, how fancy-pants is that? - and she is rubbing her hands gleefully as she waited for her share. The money sharing incident in question is her hubby's mother's will-reading event, that telling moment when everyone found out who ended up with Uncle Jim's boots in the moat instead of a share in the castle's hoard. As luck would have it, her husband rows a boat in the middle of nowhere, clutches his chest in pain and then topples over into the water. This means she won't get any of the loot since will distribution terms had a 'blood relatives only' clause. Furthermore, Louise had a hand in disposing of the body. Can't exactly say 'He dumped me', can she now?

 Her reaction would have impressed all wannabe money-grabbers. She cleaned up the house, packed her bags and scooted over to Ireland. Oh and in the interim she also managed to writer a fake letter to her mother-in-law in hubby dearest's name. According to this letter, her hubby was off on some urgent work somewhere or the other. Well, she had to explain why she was popping up, for the first time no less, in the castle without her husband. Incidentally, the lady proved to be excellent at forging her husband's signature. I suppose her backup career was making fraudulent checks, especially if nabbing the rich husband plan fell through.

 Now Louise finds out why her husband might have been so quiet about the family. Or at least, not let her visit the old kooks. The sophisticated looking mother-in-law is snooty and cold with just a hint of crazy-old-bag-lady syndrome. The two brothers are just as weird; Richard is obsessed with his art work whilst he asks the doormat of a younger brother, Billy, to watch over his fiancée.

In the midst of this crowd, the scheming little material girl had to find a way to get some of the family fortune. Lucky for Louise, she finds out a weakness of her mother-in-law - anything related to her late daughter, Kathleen. Apparently, the snobby woman had been adversely affected by the untimely death of the little one years ago. Thus, she indulged in tales of haunted rooms and whatnot to deal with her loss.

 Turns out, Louise had the conniving mind of a scamming psychic. She set the stage for a message from beyond, first by doing some cold-calling and then by secretly gathering a few of Kathleen's items. The sneaky woman was preparing an even more elaborate ghostly message moment – one that involved dolls, rope and near-naked swimming – when she hit upon a snag. She came across something frightening at the bottom of the lake and before she could run off to warn anyone, she was handed a dose of axe-wielding justice by an unknown assailant. This mysterious attacker continues to roam the castle grounds, taking occasions swings at unsuspecting folk before the family doctor manages to confront this crazy lunatic.

 I have to admit, this movie was throughly enjoyable. The writer built a creepy atmosphere around that castle and this was enhanced by the slow unveiling of the plot-line. While all of the actors weren't too bad in their respective roles, I must say Louise did steal the show. Luana Anders, the actress playing her part, did an excellent job depicting the tight-lipped, scheming daughter-in-law. My only complaint, if it can be attributed to the movie at all, is the Billy flashback sequence. Billy, the twitchy doormat sibling, was prone to scary flashbacks that made him a bit catatonic and neurotic every once in a while. This is meant to add to the suspense of the movie but unfortunately I was constantly reminded of another emotionally scarred twitchy man – Mr Adler. Remember the hilarious woodshop teacher from South Park? The one with the bad flashbacks? If you can remember that, then you won't be able to watch the Billy sequences with a straight face.