A BUCKET OF BLOOD (1959) +
DEMENTIA 13 (1963)
Special Edition Blu-ray
Film Masters continue their exploration of the films of producer-director Roger Corman with this cult-classic double-feature paring macabre comedy A Bucket of Blood (1959) and the Francis Ford Coppola Gothic shocker Dementia 13 (1963), both presented in newly restored in HD sourced from original 35mm archival elements with a wealth of new and archival extras!
A BUCKET OF BLOOD (1950)
Label: Film Masters
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 65 Minutes 22 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Roger Corman
Cast: Dick Miller, Bery Convey, Barboura Morris, Antony Carbone, Ed Nelson
In A Bucket of Blood (1959), directed by Roger Corman, we follow Walter Paisley (Dick Miller, Gremlins) a busboy at the Yellow Door Café, where hep-cat beatnik art-snobs gather to fellate themselves over their beat poetry and artistic endeavors. Walter dreams of being a great artist himself one day, but his lack of actual talent makes him a bit of a joke among the in-crowd. However, one night while trying to free a cat from inside his apartment wall Walter accidentally stabs the feline with a steak-knife, and while he's a bit slow he knows a good opportunity when he sees one. He takes the cats corpse and covers it modeling clay - with the knife still in it - presenting it to the espresso-slurping beatniks at the coffee house who immediately hail his macabre creation as a true work of artistic genius!
Finally accepted by the art-crowd and craving further accolades by his new found art-world peers Walter struggles to find a new subject, resorting to murdering people and encasing them in clay, which seems to work just fine. The beatniks love his macabre sculptures, even the girl of his dreams, coffee house hostess Carla (Barboura Morris, The Trip), but things begin to fall apart for the gruesome sculptor when the truth of his morbid sculptures is eventually revealed.
Roger Corman's film, written by Charles B, Griffith (Death Race 2000), is a fun time, a horror-comedy lampooning of the beatnik culture of the day, wittily written and played deliciously straight, this is a satire that still works even today, it really tapped into something with legs. Character actor Dick Miller (The Howling) didn't get many starring roles during his career, though he had tons of memorable smaller parts, and this rare lead was the meatiest lead role of his career. The lamentedly late Miller is wonderful playing the sympathetic yet ultimately villainous dimwitted hanger-on who wants so bad to be part of the in-crowd, and when he accidentally falls into it's good graces he's willing to do just about anything to stay in favor. A Bucket of Blood (1959) is a fun lampooning of beatnik culture, starring the beloved character actor Dick Miller in his only starring role, which immediately makes this a must-watch for me, Miller is terrific in it.
DEMENTIA 13 (1963)
Label: Film Masters
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 74 Minutes 46 Seconds
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English SDH Subtitles
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast: William Campbell, Luanda Anders, Eithne Dunn, Patrick Mcgee
Written and directed by a 24-year-old Francis Ford Coppola, Dementia 13 centers on the dysfunctional Haloran family, who have converged at Haloran Castle to enact a morbid ritual in remembrance of Lady Haloran's (Ethne Dunn, Shake Hands with the Devil) deceased daughter, Kathleen (Barbara Dowling). Secrets shroud Kathleen's demise, and soon there is a mysterious interloper prowling the grounds with a literal axe to grind. Genuinely engaging and well-photographed, Dementia 13 is a bone-chilling slice of Gothic horror sure to thrill horror enthusiasts and Coppola fans alike.
As the story goes Roger Corman found himself with an excess $22,000 following the completion of the film The Young Racers (1963) and wanted to invest that movie into a profitable HItchcockian Psycho cash grab. A young sound technician on the set of the The Young Racers was chosen to direct the film based on his screenplay treatment, that man was Francis Ford Coppola who would go onto direct the Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now just to name a few.
The movie opens with John Holoran (Peter Read, The Brain) on a late-night boat excursion with his scheming young wife Louise (Luanda Anders, Night Tide) when he suffers a massive coronary, just after conveniently telling his wife that without him she will never see a penny of the family fortune. Despite her best efforts to save her husband he dies, as his final words echo through her mind she dumps his body overboard into the murky depths. Cue some creepy Ronald Stein film score and an equally eerie opening credits sequence and the movie proper gets underway. Louise forges a letter from her deceased husband saying he's gone to NYC on business and then she hops an airplane bound for Ireland to her husband's family estate, you know, to be sure she's included in Lady Holoran's will should the old bird suddenly expire. There she meets John's demented family whom annually gather at the family estate to mourn the death of their sister Kathleen who drown in a lake on the property years earlier. The whole family seems to be under the thrall of their mother's grief for the long deceased girl. Louise plots to take advantage of the distraught mother's state of mind and sets about to convince her that Kathleen is communicating with her from beyond the grave. The plan involves placing small trinkets from the dead girl's room and placing them at the bottom of the lake where they will be discovered when they float to the surface. However, that evening when Louis strips down to her undies and swims down to the bottom of the lake she is shocked to discover the perfectly preserved body of Kathleen! Spooked by this discovery she frantically swims to the surface only to be killed by an axe-wielding maniac.
Well, can you get more Psycho than a scheming blond protagonist shockingly killed off quick and a family with some serious mommy issues. Coppola pooled his limited resources and used them to chilling effects with Dementia 13, this Gothic black and white tale of an axe-wielding maniac is captivating stuff. Acting legend Patrick McGee who was so menacing in everything from Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange to Lucio Fulci's The Black Cat, makes a memorably intense appearance as the intrusive family physician Dr. Caleb who takes it upon himself to solve the string of grisly axe-murders.
Coppola manages quite a bit considering the notoriously short Roger Corman purse strings, with some great use of light and shadow, an eerie Ronald stein score, and some stylish lensing. He was obviously quite a talent even then and only nine years later would direct The Godfather, 'nuff said. Be that as it may, after Coppola screened the film for Roger Corman the legendary producer was not pleased with what he saw and brought in director Jack Hill (Spiderbaby, Foxy Brown) to shoot some additional exploitation elements to spice the movie up, the results is a chilling and atmospheric slice of 60s horror that holds up really well. Dementia 13 is an atmospheric and chilling Psycho cash-grab from a talented then unknown first-time director named Francis Ford Coppola, who went on to direct just a few movies of note.
Audio/Video: Both film gets separate region-free Blu-ray discs from Film Masters. A Bucket of Blood (1959) is advertised as being a new restoration from a 2K scan of 35mm archival elements, while Dementia 13, presented in the original theatrical cut is newly restored in HD from original 35mm archival elements, both framed in 1.85:1 widescreen. They looked pretty terrific to my eyes, grain is present throughout, perhaps a bit chunkier in some sequences, but pretty solid with deep black, crisp whites and pleasing grayscale. I did not compare directly but from memory I would put these against the Vestron and Olive Films Blu-ray releases without pause. Audio on both come by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles. The tracks are clean and aren't lousy with hiss or distortion, dialogue is always discernible and crisp and the effects and scores fare nicely in the mixes.
Onto the extras, for A Bucket of Blood we get an excellent Audio Commentary for A Bucket of Blood by Tom Weaver featuring interview snippets with Roger Corman and others, plus an Alternative 1.33:1 aspect ratio 16mm raw scan of A Bucket of Blood. The 16mm version is pretty scratchy and beat-up, sourced from Something Weird Video and AGFA.
Also includes is the 2-min episode of Trailers from Hell: A Bucket of Blood with Allan Arkush, and a 2-min Re-imagined 2026 theatrical trailer for A Bucket of Blood using restored elements.. The last of the extras is the Digitized rare 45-RPM 7-inch single novelty track promoting A Bucket of Blood by Bill Anson, provided by Gary L. Prange Archives.
Extras for Dementia 13 start off with an Audio Commentary for Dementia 13 by Heath Holland, Film Historian and Host of Cereal at Midnight. It's a solid listen, het gets into the various versions of the film, including the version with a Monte Hellman directed prologue, the cast and crew, and some conspiratorial "alleged" hypnosis stuff that I found fascinating. Also on this set is the 10-min New documentary from Ballyhoo Motion Pictures, Jack Hill on FilmGroup in which he talks about working with Corman's company through his affiliation with Coppola, it's always a treat to hear Hill talk about the Corman years, and this brief interview is pretty great. We also get a 3-min Trailers from Hell episode, Dementia 13 with Mick Garris, a 2-min Re-imagined theatrical trailer for Dementia 13 using restored elements.
The 2-disc Blu-ray arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork, tucked away inside 16-page Illustrated booklet with new essays by Tom Weaver on both films.
Special Features:
Disc 1
- Audio Commentary for A Bucket of Blood by Tom Weaver.
- Alternative 1.33:1 aspect ratio, raw scan from 16mm, of film A Bucket of Blood (64:47)
- Trailers from Hell: A Bucket of Blood with Allan Arkush (1:53)
- Re-imagine theatrical trailer for A Bucket of Blood using restored elements. (1:41)
- Digitized rare 45-RPM 7-inch single novelty track promoting A Bucket of Blood by Bill Anson, provided by Gary L. Prange Archives (2:19)
Disc 2:
- Audio Commentary for Dementia 13 by Heath Holland, Film Historian and Host of Cereal at Midnight.
- New documentary from Ballyhoo Motion Pictures, Jack Hill on FilmGroup (10:13)
- Trailers from Hell episode, Dementia 13 with Mich Garris (3:04)
- Re-imagine theatrical trailer for Dementia 13 using restored elements (2:02)
- 16-page Illustrated booklet with new essays by Tom Weaver
Screenshots from the Film Masters Blu-rays:
A BUCKET OF BLOOD
Extras:
DEMENTIA 13
Buy it!
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