Delirium

I love this movie. It's hilarious, hellishly titillating, great at messing with the mind, and even enjoyable on its cheezier merits. In it, Malcolm McDowell plays a crooked psychiatrist who has made a habit of periodically abducting pretty patients from their rooms and raping them. At one point, he ends up making a major mistake and it looks pretty much like he and a patient of his have actually killed the sexy new patient he was going to ravage next. Soon, this corrupt scumbag starts to really flip his lid, not able to tell if the woman they killed is actually dead or not. The photography, the music, the sound, all of it was PERFECT! These filmmakers really know how to capture feelings of paranoia and utter dementia. Also, this movie is anti-psychiatry in all the right ways. Believe you me, I've been to some of these places! I know how those @ssholes really are, and it looks like Charles Winkler and company know, too. I do have to admit that there are a lot of typical "nut" cliches going on here, seeing as how mental patients are often portrayed as retarded people when they actually give off the appearance of being "normal" about eight times out of ten. Still, even this can be forgiveable because this movie was so much warped fun. The opening scene is pretty depressing and the end scene does have the director yelling "Cut it!", but one of the great things about this movie is watching it make a frenzied transition from dead-seriousness to absurdist hilarity with every further minute that passes. "Disturbed" is a minor classic that is tragically, painfully overlooked and underrated. It must be seen, so go watch it.

Don't be fooled-- this is absolutely B-level schlock and I do not argue that this is some lost masterpiece. But I cannot deny it has a campy vibe that makes the whole thing fun, so long as you aren't expecting the psychological thriller promised by descriptions of the plot. Malcolm McDowell hams it up and the plot veers into bizarre territory. Not everyone will like it, but if you enjoy oddball cult fare and dark comedy, you might enjoy this.

What can you say about a film in which you can hear the director call "Cut"? This should give one a taste for how the film is put together. The editing is off. The sound is off (notice the foley work that does not match the actions on screen). The work is like a working print, rather than a polished film.

The importance of this film must not be underestimated. It was the first EVER time that Malcolm McDowell sported the 'futuristic' spiked hair-do. It has since become his acting trademark. It is the 10th anniversary of the famous hair-style, and you should show your respect by renting this film.

A moderately amusing thriller with a comic edge. The (little known) director often uses distorted camera angles to portray the hero's slow "degeneration into a state of madness" (that's how he describes his condition at one point) and the script is clever enough to keep you guessing and wondering whether Malcolm McDowell (in a great performance that gives class to the production) is simply having "vivid" hallucinations or is driven to insanity by someone else. There are some impressively shot scenes in this movie, but it is marred by an inconclusive ending, which doesn't fully resolve the plot. (**)