Dementia 13 (BLU-RAY + DVD)

Are you afraid of death by drowning?...Have you ever attempted suicide?...Have you ever thought of committing murder?... Future film-making legend Francis Ford Coppola makes his big-screen directorial debut with this cult horror classic, available for the first time in spectacular High-Definition Blu-ray. Following the abrupt death of her husband from a heart attack, the scheming Louise Haloran (Luanda Anders) travels to her in-laws' estate in Ireland, only to find herself trapped in a creepy, decrepit castle with her ex-husband's demented family. Upon arrival, she is introduced to a pair of maladjusted brothers (William Campbell, Bart Patton) and a distraught mother-in-law (Eithne Dunn), still grieving for the daughter she lost in a drowning accident many years earlier. When a mysterious axe-wielding psychopath enters the fray, leaving blood-spattered corpses in his wake, the family's doctor (Patrick Magee) takes it upon himself to try to get to the bottom of things - before it's too late! The making of Dementia 13, meanwhile, is a tale unto itself. An aspiring filmmaker fresh out of UCLA, Coppola found work under the tutelage of B-movie legend Roger Corman. After finishing a film called The Young Racers under budget, Corman opted to use the leftover funds to finance a low-budget thriller to cash in on the success of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Coppola quickly delivered a script to Corman's liking, promising plenty of nudity and gore. Corman gave him the green light. Despite the meager budget, Coppola made the most of his resources, while employing the sort of creative lighting, camera angles, and storytelling that reveals an early glimpse at the great filmmaking that would follow.