Deliria | Movie Review

deliriaA group of actors, while busy preparing for an important play, is isolated for a few days inside a large Theater.
Meanwhile, from a nearby psychiatric clinic, a dangerous inmate escapes and reaches, on a stormy night, the very Theater, infiltrating and blocking the only escape route.
The actors' play involves bringing to the stage a story based on a serial killer, who acts wearing a huge mask modeled on the shape of a barn owl...
The real killer, after eliminating the actor deputed to play the killer, wears his mask, initiating a series of heinous murders that, from the theatrical performance, soon moves inside the building near which, paradoxically, a police patrol stops...
Stunning directorial debut of an assistant director, and often performer, who has worked with the most significant names in Italian horror cinema (Fulci, Bava, Argento, Deodato, D'Amato)...Deliria, produced by Joe D'Amato (Aristide Massaccesi) and scripted by Luigi Montefiori (aka George Eastman, the famous monster of Anthropophagus and Blood Red), is blatantly a revised (and more gore) version of Halloween.
Although based on a simple plot, Soavi's film is redeemed by solid direction, a good dose of thriller, many splatter sequences (the version distributed in Italy was sweetened on the gore level) and, above all, by a sick atmosphere that, from the very first sequences of the film, predominates throughout the film.
The concluding part is excellent, with the multi-murderer's pursuit of the only survivor (Barbara Cupisti) locked inside the building as she hides now in the bathrooms, now in the lofts and finally peers, in terror, at the setting imposed by the killer, surrounded by the helpless corpses of the victims....
Brief appearance by the director, as a policeman, boasting his resemblance to James Dean as he lurks near the Theater, on the trail of the killer...
Note of merit for the beautiful music, perfectly in theme with the narrative development of the film...
The film deservedly won first prize at the Avoriaz Fantafestival in 1987.
Very nice is the working title (Aquarius), which stands for the state of the characters, seen metaphorically as fish inside an aquarium (the Theater is depicted as "submerged" in heavy rain throughout the film) ...
The only, negligible, flaw: the deliberately hyperbolic ending, with the killer reviving despite having been shot in the head, typical of productions of the time where the film's conclusion, by necessity, had to be "unexpected" and conceptually overturn the entire (rational) story of the film...

Review by Undying1

also read

Deathgasm among new horror films from Netflix Italy

Among the new horror films from Netflix Italy is already...

XXX Dark Web | Movie Review

Two years after Deep Web XXX,...

XXX Dark Web: trailer for new extreme film banned for minors

TetroVideo has just released the official trailer for XXX...
Barbara Torretti
Barbara Torretti
Editor and moderator of the DarkVeins community. Passionate about horror cinema, I also do reviews and interviews pertaining to the film, music and art circuit.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here
Captcha verification failed!
CAPTCHA user score failed. Please contact us!

en_USEnglish