One of the best ways you can start off a film (for me at least), is with an opening credit sequence comprised of a nude fashion photo montage of the immensely beautiful and very…umm…should I say, healthy, Serena Grandi. Well, that is exactly the opening gift given to me in the 1987 Giallo, Delirium: Photo of Gioia (aka Le Foto di Gioia).Directed by Lamberto Bava, Delirium goes from nude opening to nude photo shoot in a backyard pool for fashion and soft-core porn magazine, "Pussycat" which is published by one time nude model herself, Gloria (Gioia) played by the before mentioned Euro-sexpot, Serena Grandi. We are introduced to a bulk of the supporting characters and/or victims, and/or red herrings. You have Gloria's brother, Tony (Vanni Corbellini), the stereotypically (?) same sex fashion photog, Roberto (David Brandon), and Gloria's assistant, Evelyn (Daria Nicolodi). Most notable of the introductory characters is Gloria's paralyzed from the dong down, wheelchair rollin' neighbor, Mark (Karl Zinny). It is made immediately clear that Mark, in all his four wheel glory, is completely obsessed with Gloria (I don't blame him either) as he continuously calls her and makes reference to pulling his lifeless pud. Barf.
After the photo shoot and later into the evening at Gloria's (where the shoot took place), we are subject to our first death scene. Starting normally enough with a Giallo/Slasher styled POV shot leading to the first fashion model/murder victim, who is dispensed of in a semi-satisfying "fashion" (we'll come back to this later). In a scene that is very reminiscent of Rear Window, Gloria's crippled neighbor Mark happens to witness the murder and calls Gloria to warn her of what is going on in her own backyard. Gloria is not too happy with Mark when she checks out the scene and there is nothing to be found due to our antagonist having already taken the freshly brewed female corpse away, so he/she can pose and then photograph the victim in front of a huge wall-sized picture of Gloria.
Gloria and company, who still don't know about the dead model, receive a manila envelope at the Pussycat Magazine headquarters containing the pictures that were taken of the female "fashion victim" from the other evening. As it turns out, the model just so happens to be this months Pussycat cover girl, therefore making it the best selling issue thus far as it flies off the stands due to its recently deceased cover model. This gives us a solid and very possible motivation for Gloria to be behind the murder, as one would expect she would do anything to make the magazine that she is so invested in, be a huge success. But does "anything" mean murder?
Over the course of Delirium, you are subject to a few more deaths of a similar nature to the first victim and get to meet a few new characters here and there that could make for possible murder suspects. Most notably would have to be rival magazine publisher, Flora (Capucine), who is trying to get Gloria to sell Pussycat Magazine to her and just so happens to have a "thing" for Gloria (and I don't blame her either), who has no interest whatsoever. Another important character isn't necessarily an important character so much, as he is more of an important sorta cameo if you will. That would of course have to be, Mr. Iron Master himself…George Eastman. Eastman brings a certain sense of swamp-ass to every role he plays and when he first appears on screen, he is fittingly wearing a sort of barbarian/warrior outfit…and I would have it no other way! Unfortunately, Eastman is just a throw away character brought in to be a possible suspect and as a "friend with bonefits," he's mainly there to toss a high hard one in Gloria from time to time.
Now, with all of these characters, it is of course difficult to figure out whom the killer could be, but that doesn't mean Delirium is a brilliant, well thought out whodunit or anything. I'm sure if I went back and watched it again, I wouldn't see any real clues pointing to who the killer turns out to be in the end. All of the characters seem like they could be behind it with the silly "ohh…look at me, I'm shady like a tree!" faces they make and others suspects are heavily forced upon the viewer, like Flora and the maybe not so crippled Mark for example. Therefore, by the end of Delirium, it could easily be anybody behind the model murders….its whom they decide to reveal in the end, that is the surprise.
Some of the more stand out aspects of Delirium are the stalk and slash murder sequences. When the killer sees their victims, he/she sees a sort of acid induced kaleidoscope of colors, followed by the victims having very odd deformities involving their heads and faces. One girl had an appearance much like a bee's head and another was a Cyclops (!) with a giant eyeball smack dab in the middle of her face and veins all running down the sides of her neck and head. It is fucking weird to be honest, but I liked the effort to try and do something original and creative. It also gives you a chance to use your noggin a little and internally debate, or guess why the killer may see things this way. Is it possible that the psycho is sick in the head and just sees people this way, therefore feeling the need to kill, or stop the monsters he/she sees in place of the beautiful women? On the other hand, by projecting these horrid visages upon the helpless victims is a possible way of turning them into a monster, thus a way for the antagonist to disconnect them self from the humanity of the victims he/she is going to murder? A sort of defense mechanism for the conscience if you will.
These theories are fun and all and I appreciate Delirium inspiring some thought, but that doesn't change the fact that the movie has almost no blood and even worse, a scarce amount of murders! I mean, when I go into a Giallo, I expect to see a wealth of blood and some creative, stylish death scenes. One of the kills was pretty dope when the "Bee head" chick gets a swarm of Wu Tang Killa bees unleashed on her, and I do think it's pretty cool how the girls are posed post death for some seriously voyeuristic photographs. BUT I WANT MORE DAMN IT!! And I expect more…and I'm not wrong for it either.
Delirium does however deliver on the ladies and in spades! One of the better things about Delirium for me has to be Serena Grandi as Gloria. She completely "fills" the screen with a presence and beauty that very few can mirror and she is enough to keep me captivated for a good majority of the film. Grandi is a "big" reason for me enjoying Delirium as much as I did and it's not just her very often shown breasts that got me either…though Grandi is a very fitting name, as her "Partons" are more than large enough to provide at least two kinds of milk. Not that I noticed or anything...
Being that Lamberto Bava is the son of master filmmaker and break-dance enthusiast, Mario Bava, and also an apprentice of both his father and one Dario Argento, a lot of people give him a hard time for not being an overly original director, but one that's films are very similar to papa Bava and Dario. I wouldn't disagree that his style and ideas are similar to those "master" filmmakers, but Lamberto did learn from them both and who better to emulate than directors like Mario Bava and early Argento (who was once attached to direct Delirium)? With that said, Delirium is at times visually very nice looking and even better at a few key moments here and there throughout the film, with a lot of awesome overhead/crane shots, and one towards the end that really caught my eye was a top down shot that follows a walking character for a long moment. Another was a cool shot through the bottom of a glass table, that is focused on a character playing solitaire or something along those lines. There is also a cool looking steady cam shot foot-chase sequence at the end of Delirium that was done with some pizazz.
Now, to add to the negative category for Delirium, the Simon Boswell score is some of his lesser work with overall traditional Giallo styled music, that unfortunately is not always well done and a tad annoying sometimes. Towards the end of the film there's a few musical moments that I kinda enjoyed (or maybe I got used to it), but overall the score was weak and a smidge intrusive…maybe a second viewing would change that though.
Delirium for the most part feels like a typical Giallo in many ways with its setting, whodunit, and the beautiful women and abundance of breasts. However, Delirium has some creativity with the killer's mental projection of what the victims look like to him/her, and the deaths along with the photo ops are interesting enough. Too bad they didn't toss in a few more though; I am very disappointed in the one handful body count and the nonexistence of blood throughout the film. Surprisingly, that did not make me hate this movie at all, and that could very easily have happened with a lesser film. Delirium is by no means a classic of the genre, but it is definitely a very solid second tier Giallo that any mid-level horror/genre fan should check out for sure. I actually bought this film for a nice price, and I am glad I own it, as I plan to watch it again in the far future.
Wrapping things up, Delirium has taken a beating from some of the films stars (namely Daria Nicolodi and Eastman respectively) and in a very strange Delirium DVD extra, I found something interesting that kinda sums the entire film up in one sentence. The (always a favorite) "written" behind the scenes extra opens with saying that "Delirium is not a classic, but it is a darn good Giallo which for some reason has a worse reputation than it deserves." I commend the honesty and find that statement to be very true about the film as Delirium is a worthwhile watch and a movie I can recommend to any fan of big knockers.
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