Dementia 13 (2 Stars)

This was one of the first DVD's I bought, but for some reason I never watched it until today. It's been sitting gathering dust in my bookshelf since 2002. Was it worth the wait? Not really. The film has cult status as Francis Ford Coppola's first "major" film. Unfortunately it's confusing, with a non-linear plot. The film is a mixture of subterfuge, supernatural occurrences, axe murders and is topped off by a Sherlock Holmes style whodunnit. The problem is that the viewer doesn't know which character to follow and identify with. For the first half hour we see the story of Louise, a woman who hides the fact that her husband has died in order to get his mother's inheritance. We see her plots and schemes to get what she wants, and then she's suddenly murdered, throwing the viewer off balance.

After Louise tries to confuse her mother-in-law by faking the return of her husband's sister Kathleen from the dead, Kathleen really does reveal herself. And the killing continues, one person after another being struck down with an axe. A strange story.