Delirio di sangue

Neurotic artist (John Phillip Law) is driven luridly insane by the death of his beloved wife (Brigitte Christensen), and his spectacularly vile necro-cannibal manservant (George Mitchell) diabolically turns the maniacal maestro's ancestral pile into a gruesome, cadaver-strewn nightmare! While the text is an amusingly camp, cliché-sodden shambles, the goofy exchanges, wanton sexual perversity, bloody eviscerations, unleavened hysteria, and endearingly rudimentary practical FX provides a cornucopia of bloodthirsty B-movie mayhem! This tantalizingly trashy, goriously tasteless Gothic slasher has scintillating Schlocky sensibilities on par with John Waters and H. G Lewis, thrillingly making 'Blood Delirium' a delirious treat for Euro-cult horror fans! Technical aspects of the splendid Screenbound Blu-ray are exemplary, pristine sound and vision enhances the plasma-plastered shocker's dazzling idiosyncrasies, and the extras offer compelling insight into the making of a sleazily demented Italian cult classic!

This is a pretty wild one alright... Towards the end of the great Italian Giallo movement.

One thing that can be said about it is that it didn't just completely mindlessly go for brutal graphic gore as many did by that time. Although there are some pretty dicey scenes in it, and although quite sleazy at times, still, it is done with a fair amount of true Gothic atmosphere and at times an engaging Surreal mood.

Don't get me wrong, there are some rather extreme scenes here, but for me personally there is a difference to a degree as to the intent and the tone of something with that kind of content. In other words, you can have a coldly sadistic, very mean-spirited tone by someone like Eli Roth for example, a man who wouldn't know how to make a genuinely 'Fun' Horror movie to save his life.

Or... like in this case, you can have almost the same degree of extremity, but the tone and mood are all quite different. More of a Surreal, Gothic, almost Retro dreamy atmosphere where you still kind of turn away in Horror, but with more of a 'Fun' vibe that doesn't come across as mean-spirited in its intention. So, to me, there is a distinct difference.

John Phillip Law is of course very well known by this point for much better and more famous films years before like 'Danger Diabolik', and at this point he is clearly just glad to have the work. But, as Troy Howarth says in the commentary, and I do agree, is that even though his performance is Way the hell over the top, still, he'd rather see an actor fully commit even to a rather Out There role than just go through the motions. And, boy does he give it all he's got!

The guy who plays his assistant was also very well known at the time and had made many films. Their interaction during the movie I thought had a special something that made it almost more sympathetic, which is Really stretching the meaning of that word when you see him do some of the things he does. I will say that, without giving away any true spoilers, the one scene where he is continuing to rape the girl after she is clearly dead I found rather disturbing. But, thankfully it is very brief. Extremely Creepy, but brief... : )

So, not one I would ever highly recommend as one of the better Giallo films, not even close. But, just for pure wild effort and commitment on the parts of the director and actors, I will give it a '5'...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My Particular Way of Rating:

5 - Flawed, but perhaps with some entertainment value.

6. A decently passable story maybe worth a watch.

7. A solid film, well made, effective, and entertaining.

And, obviously, you can probably figure out what above and below these would mean... : )

This extremely rare Italian film (the only ever video release I know is the Greek one - it probably was never released even in its country of origin) is a thoroughly interesting movie, even though the production values are very low and it is, without a doubt, an oddball of a movie.

John Phillip Law is a troubled painter on the edge of madness; his slightly psychotic state of mind becomes worse as his wife, who always gave him inspiration and faith, dies. Soon after her death he discovers his butler (played nicely sickening by Gordon Mitchell) trying to rape her corpse, which fills him with fury, but he needs the butler as an assistant because he would be helpless without him. After his wife is buried, the painter doesn't feel any inspiration anymore and is unable to get a painting done. So he decides to get his wife back and steals her corpse from the cemetery (with a help of the butler, of course). At the opening of his latest exhibition, he meets Sybille, a woman that resembles his wife almost like a twin sister. He invites her to his lonely castle, and at first, she likes it there. But the painter's state of mind gets worse, even though she gives him new confidence. Problem is that his inspiration stays missing, until his butler kills a girl and he realizes how beautiful blood is. He starts to use blood as "the color of life", while the butler has to dispose from the bodies. When the woman discovers this, she has to be kept hostage in the lonely castle...

The story sounds a little bit like a retelling of Herschell Gordon Lewis's "Color Me Blood Red" from 1965, but this isn't the case. This one is rather a horror drama that somehow falls between the two genres: For a drama, it is too much exploitation, and for a horror film, it is too dramatic and not exploitation enough for not to write not gory enough.

Law and Mitchell are strikingly convincing in their roles of rather perverse characters, and the sound track adds to the atmosphere, although it doesn't seem to be always appropriate to the melancholy mood of the picture. The film also contains supernatural elements that are hardly convincing but somehow still fit into this weird work.

Director Bergonzelli is probably best known for his psychedelic giallo "Nelle Pieghe Della Carne" (aka In the Folds of the Flesh) from 1970. in one scene, he even repeats an element of his earlier film: The butler disposes of the bodies by putting them into sulfuric acid - the same way the protagonists do it in "Nelle Pieghe". And the atmosphere in "Delirio di Sangue" contains also some rather psychedelic attitudes, if not that obvious.

It seems clear that Bergonzelli, who also wrote the screenplay, was inspired by the life and madness of Vincent van Gogh, a portrait of whom hangs on the wall of the painter's working room. Needless to say that the notion of van Gogh makes a scene with an ear that gets cut off necessary - and the viewer won't get disappointed.

All in all, "Delirio di Sangue" is a wonderfully strange piece of celluloid. I assume that most viewers would consider it as a piece of crap, because it's made on a very low budget, neither delivers any action packed moments nor even scenes of excessive gore or sympathetic dramatic protagonists you could identify with. It's a quite nihilistic film, with an oddly repulsive plot, which makes it unique in a certain way.

A very interesting film that is far too little known, but which won't be appreciated by a broad audience, I guess. My rating: 7 out of 10.

I can't believe that Sergio Bergonzelli's "Blood Delirium" has such low rating.I guess that some people can't even recognize a good movie."Blood Delirium"/"Delirio di Sangue" deals with dark love and obsession.It's creepy,sleazy and gruesome-it has scenes of necrophilia,dismemberment and several rather repulsive images.The film is well-acted and stylish.In the broad form "Blood Delirium" is another Italian shocker that sometimes seems to aspire to be a drama-what sets it apart is the overbearing perversion.The film is extremely hard to find,so if you get the chance grab the copy and treasure it.8 out of 10!

Misogynistic Trash. Really awful film. I read that Sergio Bergonzelli directed mostly porn during his career. I believe it. He managed to get a bad performance out of John Phillip Law. He managed to get a bad performance out of everybody.

The story takes the mad scientist trope and adds a twist. John Phillip Law plays a mad artist who can see small parts of the future. Gordon Mitchell plays his rapey necrophilic Igor-like sidekick. There are many sexual crimes.

Brigitte Christensen is the protagonist. She spends most of the film waiting around and needing to be rescued. Marco Di Stefano plays her boyfriend who eventually goes looking for her.

On a positive note, the castle location is fantastic!

And there was a brief, but interesting time-traveling ghost idea. But it seems like the director couldn't decide if the ghost was time-traveling from the future or from the past. It didn't matter. The ghost was just a deus ex machina and was not a central part to the movie which was mostly about madness and misogyny.