Delirium (1979)

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS

 

AKA: Psycho Puppet

Dir: Peter Maris

Starring: Turk Cekovsky, Debi Chaney, Terry TenBroek, Barron Winchester, Bob Winters, Nick Panouzis. 

Take a squat, bald Vietnam War veteran vigilante; a psycho killer; a couple of un-professional, doltish cops; add an undercurrent of misogyny and play along to the tune from Mastermind and you have Delirium.

Peter Maris’ Delirium(aka Psycho Puppet) is another of those just-above-interesting-enough Video Nasties that isn’t very ‘nasty’ after all. It’s no different to a multitude of psycho/cop/vigilante thrillers that clogged the American drive-in scene in the late Seventies. I’ll elaborate more on it’s status as a Nasty later, but first here’s what happens.

Judge, jury and executioner: Barron Winchester as Stern.

Susan Norcross (Debi Chaney) comes home to her apartment one evening to find her roommate brutally murdered. The police – when they’re not trying to get into Susan’s pants – go on the hunt for the killer, who we find out is Vietnam vet Charlie. Charlie, haunted by flashbacks of combat and sexual inadequacy, goes on the lamb, killing anyone who unfortunately happens to cross his path. Meanwhile a group of ex-soldiers have formed a vigilante group where they employ their own brand of ‘justice’. The group’s leader, Stern (Barron Winchester), orders the capture of Charlie before the police do, but their efforts are fruitless and lead to squabbles and infighting. With no leads the cops become frustrated until Susan starts suspecting her boss (Bob Winters) is up to no good. When Stern hears of this he orders Susan to be killed and the blame put on Charlie. Little does Stern know that Charlie has been killed and Susan narrowly escapes assassination. The police close in on Stern and co. who don’t fancy going quietly. A bloody shoot ensues and Stern meets a bullet-riddled end.

Delirium has many flaws but is one of those films that, in more capable hands, could’ve turned out well. I won’t get hung up on acting or budgetary constraints as these are part of the course with these kind of films. However, the story, though quite an interesting idea, turns boring because the film tends to focus more on the less interesting parts and neglect the most effective strand. Stern and the vigilante court are given top billing in many of the film’s synopses but actually plays third fiddle to the police investigation and Charlie’s killing spree. If Delirium had gone down the vigilante route it would’ve been a better film. This strand of the story has many possibilities such as a political statement about the Vietnam War and a chance to flesh out some complex characters.

Instead the film focuses mainly on the police investigation which turns out to be far from riveting. For most of the film, we follow detectives Dollinger (Turk Cekovdky) and Mead (Terry TenBroek) as they encounter dead end after dead end after dead end. It seems every time we join these two plods they’ve come up with no leads at all and yet the film still feels the need to follow their efforts despite turning up nothing each and every time.

The other strand of the story is Charlie’s murderous rampage. Although more interesting than the endeavours of Dollinger and Mead, the problem is that the strand goes nowhere. Charlie is bumped off half way through the film and you just feel that the time spent following him has been wasted.

Delirium’s muddled narrative suggests to me a film struggling with an identity crisis. It doesn’t know if it wants to be the Vietnam vigilante movie of the general synopsis, a police murder investigation or a slasher. Instead it is a mix of all three but fails to get it’s priorities straight.

Another problem I have with Delirium is an undertone of misogyny that inhabits the film. I’ll start with the buddy cops who seem to feel no guilt in trying to chat up a woman right after she’s found her best friend impaled on a spear! They also engage in demeaning banter behind her back like a couple of horny teenage boys and patronise her – “who does she think she is, Dick Tracey?” – even though she comes up with more leads in the case than they do! Then we have Charlie, whose victims are, yes, mostly female. During the many flashbacks, it’s implied that the source of Charlie’s anger is down to girls laughing at the size of his pecker. You’d think seeing his buddy’s blown to bits would trigger such blind rage, but no.

Detectives Dollinger and Mead: Douchebags.

It’s also fun to point out some other hilarious flaws in this film. Charlie meets Susan’s roommate after he turns up for a job interview, next thing you know they’re going on a date. So let me get this straight, a man who looks like a psychopath walks into the office and then the secretary suddenly wants to have sex with him?! Yeah right, pull the other one! Then we have the hitchhiker who, before being strangled by Charlie, decides to strip off in front of him and take a dip in the lake, despite only meeting him 2 minutes before! What is it with this guy? We also have a very familiar score. ‘Approaching menace’ is stock music better known as the theme from Mastermind. This makes the film seem a bit of a joke to UK audiences. Insert your own, “I’ve started so I’ll finish joke”here.

 

 

Reassessment of Delirium reveals that it’s status as a Nasty is dubious at best. There are one or two scenes of gore including Charlie stabbing a girl through the neck with a pitch fork and hacking a man’s arm off with a meat cleaver but that’s about it. It’s always the same questions I find myself asking: what makes this film different from the dozens of similar films of the time and who really deemed this offensive and why? These are questions that can be raised against many of the Nasties; whereas Cannibal Holocaust and I Spit on your Grave were bound to illicit controversy, Delirium just doesn’t stand out as an obvious choice to ban under obscenity laws.

Combat shock: Charlie rampage comes to an end permaturally.

Delirium is a slightly above-average film. It’s OK. As mentioned above I did find it quite boring and it felt longer than it actually was as a result. I wouldn’t go as far as saying I wouldn’t have watched it if it wasn’t a Nasty, but I don’t think I’ll watch it again. I suppose it’s a good laugh to here that ‘Mastermind’score though.