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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: November 29th, 2022.
Director: Sergio Bergonzelli
Cast: John Phillip Law, Gordon Mitchell, Brigitte Christensen, Marco Di Stefano, Olinka Hardiman
Year: 1988
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Blood Delirium – Movie Review:
By the time 1988 rolled around, the glory days of Italian cinema and writer/director Sergio Bergonzelli career were in the rear view mirror but this penultimate film from the man who gave us In The Folds Of The Flesh is, if nothing else, an entertaining blend of horror and sleaze.
It opens with a pretty blonde woman named Sybille (Brigitte Christensen), a concert pianist by trade, coming home from work and stripping down to some lingerie so that she can prepare a fancy dinner in time for her boyfriend Gerard (Marco Di Stefano) to arrive. Moments later, she's got a message on her answering machine from herself, trying to communicate from the future, warning her of impending doom! The message instructs her to put two candles together so their flames can become one and then the piano starts playing all by itself and then stuff flies around the room a bit. Sybille is, quite understandably, confused by all of this. Gerard, when he arrives, doesn’t seem too concerned by any of this and mostly just wants his dinner. Gerard sucks.
Elsewhere, a painter named Charles Saint Simon (John Phillip Law) who is obsessed with the work of Vincent Van Gogh grieves for his wife, Christine (Christensen again), after she passes away. When Saint Simon meets Sybille and realizes she's a dead ringer for his dead wife, he becomes obsessed with making her his own. Meanwhile, Saint's weird necrophile butler, Hermann (Gordon Mitchell) skulks about doing weird necrophile stuff. When he asks Hermann to bring Christine’s corpse back home from the cemetery, he’s only too happy to oblige.
At any rate, Saint Simon, broke since Christine's passing, convinces Sybille to come over and check out his fancy castle. She agrees and he pressures her to stay and she kinda-sorta agrees. With Sybille around to reignite his inspiration and get him painting again, he realizes that in order to get the perfect shade of red he'll need a fresh supply of human blood, which is where Hermann, who has a penchant for coming up with attractive naked ladies and draining them off their blood, comes in handy. Saint Simon starts to take this idea pretty far, plotting to kidnap Sybille's super-hot friend Corinne (Olinka Hardiman). Will Sybille make it out of this mess alive?
Bergonzelli isn’t messing around here, delivering plenty of nudity in the opening two minutes of the film and with plenty of naked female flesh on display throughout the duration of the film. Mixing elements of softcore sexploitation with horror movie tropes, Blood Delirium may not always make a whole lot of sense but it throws enough WTF? moments at the audience that it isn’t too hard to look past that and just enjoy the show for the insanity exhibition that it is.
There’s lots of weird artwork on display throughout the movie, which helps to add to its bizarre atmosphere, and an unusual amount of answering machines on display in the film, anchoring it in the eighties. The film benefits from some nice castle locations and some decent cinematography. The gore and effects work isn’t bad and both Brigitte Christensen and John Phillip Law are pretty fun to watch in their respective roles. Law in particular chews a lot of scenery here and is very entertaining. The real star of the show, however, has to be an aging Gordon Mitchell as the film’s true main attraction, corpse fucker Hermann!
Blood Delirium – Blu-ray Review:
Blood Delirium is presented on a 50GB disc with the feature using 29.4GBs. The AVC encoded 1080p high definition image is framed at 1.66.1 widescreen and is presented "newly scanned & restored in 2K from its 35mm internegative." There’s some very minor print damage in the form of small white specks here and there but generally speaking, the image is very clean. Detail is strong throughout and colors look excellent. There’s appreciable depth and texture here to take in and the image always looks like a proper film presentation, retaining the expected amount of natural film grain and showing no digital conversion related issues like noise reduction or edge enhancement.
The disc offers 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 tracks in English and Italian with optional English subtitles available for each track. The English track has some minor sibilance that wasn’t noticed on the Italian track but both are properly balanced and free of any other issues. There also seems to be a bit more depth to the Italian track.
Extras start off with a commentary from film audio commentary with film historians Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth. They note how this is the first uncut official home video release for the film, the poor state of Italian cinema during this time period, lots of stories and details relating to Bergonzelli's career and directorial efforts, how Bergonzelli and other low budget directors took advantage of the state of the industry though often in porn, details on the different cast and crew members involved in the production, Bergonzelli's tendency to punish those he saw as rivals when he had to work with them, how Gordon Mitchell wound up in the movie, where John Phillip Law's career was at this time, comparisons to other Italian genre films, the possible influence of both American and European films and how the movie explores the theme of the artist as a monster.
Assistant director Corrado Colombo is interviewed in the twenty-nine minute Once Upon A Time In The Italian Eighties featurette. He speaks about how he got into filmmaking, where he got his start, working his way up the ladder, how he connected with Bergonzelli and what he was like to work with, his skills as a director and his personality traits both good and bad. Columbo also talks about the making of the feature, its limited budget, working with Law and how the Italian film industry's best days were behind it once his career started to take off.
Killer's Muse is a twenty-eight minute interview with actress Brigitte Christensen where she goes over how she got her start doing live theater before getting into acting for film, how she wound up working in the Italian film industry in the first place, some of the different Italian cast and crew members that she worked with, what it was like on set during the making of the feature, getting along with Law and her thoughts on Bergonzelli's skills as a director.
Gerard's Delirium is a nineteen minute interview with actor Marco Di Stefano that reviews how his father got him into art and acting, doing live theater before film work, meeting and marrying Brigitte Christensen around the time the movie was made (they would eventually divorce), some of the other actors he got along with on the shoot and issues he had with both Bergonzelli and Law.
Finishing up the extras for this release are a theatrical trailer, alternate Italian opening and closing titles, menus and chapter selection options.
This release also comes packaged with some nice reversible cover sleeve art and, if purchased directly from the Vinegar Syndrome website, a limited edition embossed slipcover.
Blood Delirium - The Final Word:
Blood Delirium is a seriously sleazy slice of gothic horror and trashy exploitation with some pretty fun performances and plenty of weird moments to keep you intrigued as to how it’s all going to place out. Vinegar Syndrome has done a great job rescuing this one from obscurity, offering up the feature in a nicely restored edition on a disc stacked with extra features.
Click on the images below, or right click and open in a new window, for full sized Blood Delirium Blu-ray screen caps!
