Sentences de mort

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" is a strange hybrid of slasher flick,political conspiracy,right-wing revenge film,cop thriller and post-Vietnam trauma.There is a serial killer on the loose named Charlie.He stabs to death or drowns attractive young women until he's surprised in a house by a returning husband and is shot by the wife.His Vietnam flashbacks ala "Combat Shock" are gloriously cheap.There is also an underground right-wing group who employ old army guys as vigilantes to kill various rapists and murderers."Delirium" was classified as an infamous video nasty in UK.There is a bit of sleaze and violence,but the film is relatively tame and bloodless.If you liked "Maniac" or "Lady Stay Dead" give it a try.6 out of 10.

There's not much to recommend about this Video Nasty except for the storyline, the premise of which should have resulted in a much better movie, and the acting, though they are wasted in this travesty.

This is the story of a secret society sick with the depravity on the streets of their neighbourhood so they hire a Vietnam Veteran to help clean up their streets... the trouble is he's suffering from shell-shock and starts to any and everyone.

This in itself could have given the audience a bloodfest to remember. However, the director, Peter Maris, opts for a slow pace. Which might have worked well to build tension if there had been a torture scene, which there isn't (another missed opportunity), but hinders the film since it's used throughout its runtime. The slowness of the film is made up of boring and pointless scenes that, though, well acted (compared to everything else), are badly directed. There needed to be more action sequences especially concerning the Vet's breakdown.

There're too many flashbacks to Vietnam. The director is so lazy he just cut in loads of stock footage; this adds to the lackadaisical feel of the direction and hinders the film and frustrates the viewer.

I would only recommend this to anyone who is watching the video nasty list to see why some of the listed films were banned (this one was banned because they thought some people may be prone to copy the actions of the Vet). However, be prepared to keep hitting the rewind button every time you wake up because this film has the power to induce sleep.

Man, you gotta love the swinging 70's! The villain of this movie goes to a "job interview" and manages (despite being very creepy-looking and apparently mute) to pick up a secretary, who takes him back to her place for sex, but after he proves impotent he stabs her to death. He then steals a car and picks up a leggy, hot-pants clad female hitch-hiker, but even after he nearly kills them both driving like a maniac, they still end up going skinny-dipping together and he strangles her in the surf. He next meets a young farm girl, but even though he is trespassing on her property, she is more interested in flirting with him than calling the police, and she gets a pitchfork in the neck for her troubles. Then he actually goes into a house where a woman is taking a bath, and he probably would have done great with her too, but he kind of blows it by taking a butcher knife to her delivery boy. The investigating officer meanwhile seems far more interested in making dates with the pretty roommate of the first victim than he is in solving the case. Fortunately, the girl whose case he IS trying to crack is still working as a secretary at the office where the killer had his "interview" and she stumbles upon a connection between this out-of-control "psycho puppet", her boss, and shadowy organization of Vietnam vet vigilantes who may be behind the mysterious "suicides" of a number of criminals who had gotten off on technicalities--at which point this movies turns from a cheap "Halloween" knock-off to something that anticipates the later (and much better) Michael Douglas film "The Star Chamber".

This is one of the movies that was banned in Britain in the 1980's as a "video nasty", but was so unremarkable in its native America that it is virtually forgotten today (and not even available on DVD). I'm not sure exactly sure what about this upset the Brits. There's some gore effects, but they're not that impressive. There is a lot of nudity, and the mixture of nudity and violence often got the hackles of the British censors up. This movie is also kind of misogynistic in that ALL the women are pretty much brain-dead and about as sexually discriminating as rabid alley cats in heat. (I especially like the first victim who is "going to tell everybody" that a guy she just met hours earlier and doesn't know from Adam "can't get it up"). But frankly its notoriety on the other side of the pond really gives this movie a lot more credit than it probably deserves.

More than the earlier "Halloween" or the later "The Star Chamber" this really reminded me of another late 70's film called "Killer's Delight" (aka "The Dark Ride"). That, however, is a much better movie, and it IS available on DVD, so if you're thinking about watching this, see that one instead. This is kind of "nasty" I guess, but mostly it's pretty forgettable.

For many, many years I had a certain fascination with this movie. I saw its video cover reproduced in a magazine called 'Halls of Horror' way back in the early 80's. The artwork showed a bald man in sun glasses firing a pistol, a woman screaming and a disembodied hand clutching a bloodied hatchet; the tag-line said 'they shall have murder wherever they go…'. I don't know, it may not sound like much now but at the time this strange and slightly lurid poster fascinated me. When I soon after discovered that this film had made it on to the notorious video nasty list my interest just grew even stronger. Looking back on it now and having finally seen Delirium I think I can better understand the pull of that video cover and it's actually reflected in the film itself. The poster is really somewhat odd in that it mixes genre iconography – its part horror, part action-thriller. And in essence that's what the movie itself is too. It combines genres in a somewhat unusual way. It's kind of a slasher mixed in with a vigilante flick, with a dash of post-Vietnam exploitation thrown in for good measure. This crazy mish-mash of styles is one of the things that makes Delirium interesting.

The story revolves around a secret group of Vietnam vets who are hired by businessmen to administer extreme justice to criminals who escape the law. One of the group goes on a serial killing rampage murdering a series of young women.

It isn't really very surprising that this one made the video nasty list. It's not exactly overly graphically violent but it has a pretty clear streak of misogyny running through it. The killer essentially goes around killing young hot women in some scenes that are pretty lurid. It does have to be said though that the psychopath is killed off a little too early, seeing as he is probably the most interesting part of the story. The vigilante side of the narrative makes up the rest of the movie. The head honcho turns out to be that bald man from the video cover I saw all those years ago. Quite bizarrely, the most disturbing moment from the scenes involving this underground group is scored by the soundtrack to the quiz show Mastermind. You can't help but expect Magnus Magnusson to pop around the corner and say 'your specialist subject is vigilante justice and misogynistic violence'. But of course he does not and it remains a deeply strange viewing experience for audiences from the UK to witness.

This isn't a movie with a very good reputation. Admittedly it's technically raw and clunky. But it's also kind of unusual and agreeably sleazy. It's pretty entertaining all things considered.