Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

Delirium Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 20, 2022

Coming Home is often cited as the film that brought awareness of the devastating emotional effects on soldiers of the horrors of fighting in Vietnam to a really wide audience, but of course there have been several other films that traffic in somewhat the same territory. This includes a number of films released around the same time as Coming Home, like The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now. In what might be thought of as the cinematic equivalent as the bastard stepchild sibling, 1979's Delirium also plies a tale of a Vietnam vet who suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, and who becomes a violent, raging maniac as a result. Maybe just slightly hilariously, at least in a "but, wait, you also get" sort of way, there's actually more than merely one Vietnam vet suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and who has become a violent, raging maniac as a result, and in fact one of the film's kind of odd plot points presages The Star Chamber, by having these addled sorts band together to form a kind of vigilante justice society. Unfortunately, Charlie (Nick Panouzis) has been doing a bit of "side work", as it were, and this film probably attained its questionable status as a "video nasty" due to Charlie's tendency toward murdering pretty young blondes.

One of the kind of odd things about Delirium, and perhaps not especially helpful from a purely structural standpoint, is the fact that there is a virtual hierarchy of killers in the film, with Charlie having been recruited into this veritable "Star Chamber" by another former Vietnam nut case (meant in only the nicest possible way), Eric Stern (Barron Winchester), whom a pull quote on this disc mentions as looking "like a cracked out Seth MacFarlane", but who struck me more as a Hunter Thompson wannabe (see screenshot 3). What's so odd about this plot formulation is that (minor spoiler alert) Charlie doesn't actually make it through the entire movie alive, despite the fact that he seems to be at least one of the focal characters. Alas, this is no Psycho, not to state the obvious.

The chief through line then tends to be the kind of flat footed police work undertaken by cops Paul Dollinger* (Turk Cekovsky) and Larry Mead (Terry Ten Broek), as they deal with a troubled woman named Susan Norcross (Debi Chaney) who has found her roommate brutally murdered. Suffice it to say there is a none too surprising link tethering Charlie to the entire situation.

In some ways it's kind of weird that this got branded a video nasty since, while it is at least passingly graphic at times, it may seem positively tame compared to newer, even more graphic, fare. But that very assignation and the near impossibility of being able to see this film has made it a cult collector's item, almost by default. Not to mix metaphors and/or referents too liberally, some may be best advised courtesy of what a high school coach told a bunch of us hormonal guys on the hunt for "experience" back in the day, namely, "The anticipation may be greater than the realization."

*Giving a cop a surname one letter different from one of the all time most notorious criminals may not have been the smartest screenwriting decision.

Delirium Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Delirium is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Severin's back cover touts a "worldwide disc premiere" for this feature, while also stating that it is "restored from the only known 35mm print in existence". The print was evidently a blow up, since the IMDb states this was shot on 16mm and the basic appearance here supports that. Interestingly in that regard, the trailer for the film included on this disc, while obviously very brief, certainly seems to have been culled from a less problematic looking element. This is pretty badly faded a lot of the time, so much so that what I'm assuming is supposed to be a shocking red pool of blood as the film ends looks more dirty brown. The palette is kind of anemic throughout the presentation, but it does attain some considerable warmth in some outdoor scenes in particular, notably one sequence when Charlie takes a detour to a beach. Several darker moments don't fare as well, and there's some passing crush and general lack of detail in some of the dimmest moments. Grain is understandably pretty gritty, even chunky, looking a lot of the time, and often has a yellowish cast. There's also the typical kinds of age related wear and tear fans of this "ilk" of film have come to expect, including nicks and scratches, some of which can be seen in some of the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review. This was obviously not hugely budgeted, and the mere fact that only one print is known to have survived suggests less than adequate curation, so while this is rough and not overwhelmingly detailed, Severin provides a transfer with very healthy bitrates on a BD-50 (when I bet this shortish film and supplements could have easily fit on a BD-25), so I can't imagine fans of the film not being generally pleased with the treatment it's gotten here.

Delirium Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Delirium features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track. The track may arguably fare somewhat better overall than the video side of things, and the kind of spacy, electronics laden score by David C. Williams sounds surprisingly forceful, if just a little too "wet" to my ears. Dialogue (such as it is) is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. There's some background hiss evident in quieter moments, but there's no outright damage to report. Optional English subtitles are available.

Delirium Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Directing Delirium (HD; 20:24) is a fun interview with Peter Maris, who gets into his background and work on this film.


• Monster is a Man (HD; 16:34) is another fun interview, this time with special effects artist Bob Shelley, who kind of hilariously recounts how his expertise as a munitions guy in the Army was parlayed into a film career. One hopes he was never stationed in Vietnam.


• Trailer (HD; 1:48)

Delirium Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you were a pretty young hitchhiker who got into a car with a troubled looking man who never said a word despite you repeatedly questioning him, wouldn't your first instinct to be to get away, not go skinny dipping with the dude? Logic may not prevail in Delirium, but there's a certain low grade immediacy to the film that may provide an exploitation adrenaline rush or two, even if the whole Vietnam vet thing seems positively gratuitous in the long run. Video is probably the best that could be expected given the history of the film and the provenance of the element, with audio generally fine, and the two supplemental interviews fun, for those who may be considering making a purchase.