Lamberto Bava's Delirium is all about Serena Grandi by intention. The film was made in order to promote her in a new genre, the thriller. However, it's not really because of Serena (or her gigantic racket) Delirium deserves special attention. It's the surreal murder scenes, shot from the killer's point-of-view, and we're talking major league absurdities here. In these scenes all the female victims are presented as they may look in the delirious killer's mind, dehumanized in the moment of killing and reduced to insects or whatever bizarre image. Which means some really fantastic mask and make-up work by veteran Rosario Prestopino and his team, looking even more fantastic thanks to beautiful cinematography by Gianlorenzo Battaglia. The rest of the film is standard giallo (or gialli, thriller), with the usual bunch of suspicious characters and where the least suspected turn out to be the killer. Nothing special, routinely directed and acted but with plenty of glamorous shots of Serena for the fans. The supporting cast consists of a couple of other interesting names in smaller parts, though. Former disco-queen Sabrina (remember "Boys boys boys") plays a topless model killed by bees while first victim Katrine Michelsen was once Miss Denmark.

Lastly I must mention (and I'm doing it for free) the incredible DVD disc Media Blasters have released recently. If you have only seen Delirium in the old chopped pan & scanned version it will come as a shock how good the film look in glorious widescreen with all its colorful cinematography intact. The disc also offers a new interview with director Lamberto Bava who proves to be an intelligent nice old guy (so not at all like Lucio Fulci, come to think of it). It's interesting though, that he claim to be so fond of the movie here, saying it means a lot to him. Well, I can point to at least a couple of interviews made in the past where he says he definitely regrets having made it. How odd.

© The Inzomniac's Movie Madness Review.