Delirium (1972) by Renato Polselli

Director: Renato Polselli

Year: 1972

Country: Italy

Alternate Titles: Delirio caldo; Death at the Villa

Genre: Giallo

Plot:

After a savage murder, a respected psychologist is brought in to help understand the specifics of the case with the police, unaware he’s the culprit all along brought about by his own psychosis and impudence, bringing him dangerously close to being discovered during his rampage.

Review:

This was an immensely offkilter though incredibly enjoyable genre effort. Among the better features found here is the incredibly wacky storyline that plays things with a straight sensibility despite carrying out incredibly bizarre behavior while doing it. On the whole, the idea of this one following the psychiatrist involved in a series of murders with several other police officers interested in cracking the case which devolves a series of clues that suggest him as the culprit but is never able to pinpoint anything to him which is an immensely effective and workable starting point. The connection to the various murders occurring, pointing to the doctor but the detectives believing otherwise for the story to move along, creates an intriguing angle here with how flimsy the manner is for believing that, and with the series of murders taking place that lead to a worthwhile ending point, which makes everything here incredibly fun to play out.

What makes the ensuing investigation all the more deranged, however, is the relationship status that we see play out between the professor and his wife, which is incredibly bizarre and unconventional. The whole idea of the doctor keeping himself from sexually gratifying his wife and doing everything he can to prevent himself from tarnishing his image of her perfect beauty and desire ends up causing a state of impudence that’s wholly comical to see laid out. With a sequence involving him being reluctant to her affections and offering a belated anniversary card that announces his intentions, him as a successful scientist but a failure otherwise, the relationship they share should be ended, the exaggerated and wholly ludicrous manner this takes from there gives this the kind of unnatural atmosphere that helps to paint him as the delusional, unhinged psychopath that this needs him to be for everything to make sense of his psychotic rampage.

On top of this bizarre and wholly unconventional setup, the film’s giallo trappings are quite fun and manage to bring up some intriguing elements. The opening encounter showing him picking up the young woman from the bar, taking her on a suspenseful ride home before letting her out and going after her into a local river where she knocked off, sets the stage for a really bizarre series of interactions that focus on the clearly deranged and psychotic lunatic walking around trying to play nice with everyone, making all kinds of unhinged faces at them when things don’t go his way, and then finally snapping into a fun, extended chase that takes place afterward. Later scenes, including a victim grabbed out on the streets and taken back to their house where they’re stripped, dumped into a running bathtub, and whipped until they’re dead, or a fun brawl with a victim in a cellar filled with S&M equipment, give this some more fun moments, and alongside the fine nudity, allow for the positive points here.

There are a few elements here that bring this one down. The main issue here is the demented sense of reality present while trying to make sense of everything throughout here, as it’s so offkilter and bizarre that it’s hard to stay invested in this at times. The relationship dynamics and general behavior of everyone here are so ludicrously over-the-top and unhinged that it becomes an exercise to see how ridiculous this can get, and it never gets even close to coherent or logical throughout here. The hallucinogenic visuals and absurd reactions to everything make it even harder to do anything, and it becomes so much more obvious at the finale, where the dynamics and hysterics are at such a fever pitch that everything is just completely impossible to take seriously, especially the type of concepts at play here, where it doesn’t make any sense anyway before going through such weird performances to accomplish it all. These bring the film down overall.

Overview: ****/5

An immensely bizarre and unconventional giallo, there are some worthwhile factors to be had here with how goofy and generally bizarre this is, which is a personal preference for how effective that really is. Those with an appreciation for that style or approach, who enjoy this era of the genre, or who are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.