Sentences de mort

PSYCHO PUPPET is certainly trying to be something though just what that is remains unclear. Today the film is best known for something other than any of its attributes -- It was infamously included on the list of "Video Nasty" films banned in the UK in the early 1980s. Looking at it now one wonders what all the fuss was about, or if the people who issued the verdict against it even watched the damn movie.

The premise is not without interest: Vietnam vets pre-programmed to kill are recruited as part of a Star Chamber like urban vigilante squad passing judgment on the criminals slipping through the cracks of the criminal justice system. The murdered criminals are passed off as suicides with nobody any the wiser, until one of the vets flips out and goes on a general killing spree.

Its here that the Brits found their problem as the Psycho Puppet of question takes off after exclusively buxom blond bombshells who obediently strip right down for the camera. The film is sleazy, voyeuristic, tacky, cheaply made, with dialog that makes a Sears catalog sound smooth. The sexualized nature of the killing scenes is completely out of proportion to anything else in the film, and exist only to provide a lurid thrill. There is nothing to be learned from the story and no profound thought is advanced by its telling.

And yet there is something compelling about this inept, nasty little movie. Mostly offbeat locations & some bizarre casting choices, showing us an underside of St. Louis that is highly unflattering. The film exists in an uneasy juxtaposition between a tacky disco culture and a run down dilapidated post-industrial urban ruin that has no aspiration to glamor or sophistication. Its late 1970s polyesterized look makes the film look unhealthy, like it needs to get some sunlight & start eating more fresh vegetables. It looks scuzzy.

Standout role is the weird bald guy, a twisted Vietnam vet with a mad hatter's view of American justice. He's a great villain while the film allows him to be one but sadly everything falls apart in the last fifteen minutes leading to a protracted gunfight that undoes any originality that came before it. The film I kept thinking about while watching it was the first Dirty Harry sequel MAGNUM FORCE, which also featured a post-industrial urban wasteland in its climax with nihilistic violence mixed with lurid exploitation.

The main difference being that PSYCHO PUPPET wasn't made with any artfulness or sense of craft and exists only as a bleak reminder of how stupid people can be when they get into positions of power. Whoever banned this movie from Britain obviously never saw it since there's very little to get worked up about in it. Those seeking it out for a joyride of vicarious thrills will be disappointed and anyone looking for a message will come up empty. It's a curious, cold, cruel little movie, existing as a footnote. Which may sound pretty dismal, but its a pretty dismal movie and at least it'll remembered for something.

5/10

This is one of the strangest and definitely one of the most atypical titles to be found in the whole list of infamous Video Nasties. Judging by the stills on the back of the VHS-cover and based on the narrative during the first half of the film, I would unhesitatingly describe "Delirium" as a crude and misogynistic slasher reminiscent of "Maniac" and "Don't Go in the House". You know; the type of sick film that doesn't bother keeping the identity of the killer secret but depicts the violence against female victims extra vile and repellent. There's a maniac at large who slaughters his women relentlessly and grotesque. One of the poor girls even has a pitchfork stuck in her throat! Whilst the roommate of his first victim teams up with the incompetent police force, the maniac – Charlie – gets killed after a failed attempt to make another victim. Then suddenly and completely unexpected, "Delirium" becomes a post-Vietnam war drama. It is revealed that Charlie was a member of a secret network of vigilantes that exists entirely out of bloodthirsty Vietnam veterans and they are hired by a board of eminent & businessmen in order to keep the streets crime-free. Charlie just went a little berserk and started killing women randomly, that's all! The "leader" of the vigilantes is a fairly short-sized yet menacing guy with a shiny bald head that would make even Telly Savalas jealous and, during the climax of the film, he goes totally bonkers as well. The concept of "Delirium" undoubtedly shows potential, but the elaboration is overly confusion and dull and reverts all too easily to dreadful clichés (like Vietnam flashbacks and power mad army officers). The first slasher half is rather exciting, with a couple of truly nasty murder sequences and the most laughably inept police investigation ever, but the second half is painfully tedious and derivative of much better films. I can't really bring myself to recommend "Delirium" to anyone, but I suppose it holds some interest if you're a cult movie freak.

Cops vs ex-military vigilantes who enlist the services of a Viet Nam vet who runs amok. Very pedestrian all around. Minimal blood, and the violent encounters are filmed as clumsily and distactingly unconvincing as anything I've seen in such cheapos. Least nasty of the infamous Video Nasties I've seen. That it ended up banned in Britain is a testament to overwrought censorship run amok.

Delirium starts off with an impotent Vietnam veteran called Charlie going on a murder spree, killing mainly young women. Just to keep the viewer interested two victims happen to be naked. But then the plot goes from horror/slasher to a thriller about a secret group of businessmen who carry out vigilante murders. Charlie had been part of this group but has gone off the rails. The police investigation takes up much of the running time and it does slow the movie down quite a lot, not helped by having a cast of mainly bad actors. The movie features a number of Vietnam flashbacks, they are ether obviously not filmed in Asia or stock footage is used. Combat Shock (1984) meets a gone wrong The Exterminator (1980). The body count is sufficient, some of the kills are fairly brutal but none are exceptionally gory. Delirium found itself banned in the UK as a Video Nasty, thankfully it is now available uncut and on Blu-ray. I would have rated it 5/10 but have scored it an extra point due to the inclusion of a track called Approaching Menace on the soundtrack, viewers in the UK should instantly recognise it as the theme tune to BBC's quiz show "Mastermind". I found this rather amusing. Shot on 16mm but blown up to 35mm Delirium is a low budget trash movie, if that's your thing or if you are interested in Video Nasties then I would recommend it, otherwise give it a miss.

This just didn't do anything for me. The print I watched was crap so that didn't help, but, its mostly just scenes of police talking, with some fairly brutal murders thrown in between. It takes a turn at about the hour mark, but, by then I was so zoned out I didn't give a crap. There's also some attempts at nudity, but, it's not gratuitous in any way. Just goes to show you why in many ways the whole UK video nasties scare was ridiculous.