was released in the fall of 1963 as the bottom half of a double bill with Corman's X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes. Because of its rushed production and a somewhat incomprehensible screenplay, reviews of Dementia 13 have been mixed: The reviewer for The New York Times, "H. T.", dismissed the film, writing, "Under the stolid direction of Francis Coppola, who also wrote the script, the picture stresses gore rather than atmosphere and all but buries a fairly workable plot". Michael Weldon, in The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film, noted it had "[A] great trick ending, some truly shocking, gory axe murders, and lots of inventive photography". Tom Raynes, in the Time Out Film Guide, said "The location (an Irish castle) is used imaginatively; the Gothic atmosphere is suitably potent, and there's a wonderfully sharp cameo from Patrick Magee". Danny Peary, in his Guide for the Film Fanatic, stated that "despite the hopelessly confusing storyline ... the horror sequences are very exciting". Phil Hardy's The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror opined, "[O]ne senses the presence of a director right from the moody opening sequence ... A piece of high gothic melodrama ... The weakness of the film is in the script, which gives every indication of having been bundled together at the last minute"... John Charles, in Video Watchdog, wrote that the film was "a remarkably confident and proficient thriller. Several of its components hint at the creativity that was still to come from Coppola ... and the finished product is a testament to his ingenuity". Kim Newman opined, "Coppola ... works fast and creative in Dementia 13... making memorable, shocking little sequences out of the killings and the implied haunting, using his locations well and highlighting unexpected eeriness like a transistor radio burbling distorted pop music as it sinks into a lake, along with a just-murdered corpse". At the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Dementia 13 has a 68% favorable rating out of 28 reviewers surveyed. In popular culture The film's title appears on a theater marquee in the Coppola-produced film American Graffiti (1973), even though the film was set in 1962, before the theatrical release of Dementia 13. The 1976 song "American Girl" from the debut album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers opens with a lyrical reference to the line in the movie when Louise Haloran says, "…especially an American Girl. You can tell she's been raised