DEMENTIA 13

Kind of hilarious this movie has a kill with an axe and zero stab wounds.

This movie suffers from a lot of the same issues that all movies from this time period have. The dialogue feels ancient and alienating, The violence is very toned down, and the acting style always feels more like theatre acting than how real people talk.

This movie feels the most human of all the 60s horror movies I have seen. Its not afraid to show you a woman in her underwear, and that level of intimacy makes her character feel a lot more human, vulnerable, and exposed. To it's credit, most of the main cast feel like real people. Even if the hairdos are a little (a lot) wacky. Call it the Alfred Hitchcock effect if you like.

The best way I could describe this is knives out, except the murder happened about 20 years ago. A large family gathers in a large castle for a Father's Day creep show style yearly celebration and get picked off one by one by a mystery killer who gets revealed at the end. Pretty basic and it's set up, but the execution here is surprisingly amazing. All of the families have a unique enough character that they stand out, and it never feels really obvious who the killer is.

Have I mentioned yet the whole movie takes place in a castle in Ireland? Perhaps this is my Canadian ignorance but I love the Irish accent.

So Yes it's slow, and alot of the time I had no idea what was happening, but overall this is a fun watch for Halloween night background noise.

7/10