Blood Delirium
Blood Delirium
| 08 August 1988 (USA)
Blood Delirium Trailers

After his beloved wife dies, an unbalanced painter who believes himself to be the reincarnation of Vincent Van Gogh goes over the edge and digs up her corpse--with the help of his necrophiliac butler--to bring it back to his castle and use it for "inspiration". He soon meets a beautiful musician who looks exactly like his late wife and brings her back to his castle. However, she eventually discovers their secret: the butler murders young women, disposes of their bodies and uses their blood--"the color of life"--for the artist's paints.

Reviews
NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!
Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.
Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%
DipitySkillful an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.
The_Void Blood Delirium is an almost completely unknown Italian horror film and, apparently, is partially lost as certain scenes from the 'uncut' version of the movie have never been seen as the uncut version remains unreleased anywhere in the world. The film is directed by Sergio Bergonzelli; the oddball director best known for his bizarre and often-disliked Giallo 'In the Folds of Flesh', and anyone who saw that film is likely to have an idea of what to expect as this director apparently doesn't do ordinary! The storyline is something of a crossover between the Giallo and horror genres and focuses on a painter. Charles Saint Simone has lived with his butler in his castle ever since the death of his wife. He's lost all inspiration for his painting; but that changes suddenly one day when he meets a young woman who is the spitting image of his deceased lover. His inspiration returns...but it isn't until he discovers the colour of blood that his love for painting goes into overdrive.The film stars John Philip Law; the star better known for his leading role in Mario Bava's Danger: Diabolik. He puts in a solid performance in the lead role, although he is eclipsed somewhat by Gordon Mitchell who co-stars as the butler. The two have a good chemistry together and their perverse characters work well. The 'clever' part of the film comes from the fact that the story is intertwined with Vincent Van Gogh's life. While this is a good and interesting little horror film; I do have to admit that I am just a little bit bemused by the overall positive reaction it gets from the people that have seen it. It's clear that Bergonzelli did not have the biggest budget to work with, but the film is not as great as it could have been given the ideas and the storyline. There are a few memorably shocking scenes; although I do wonder just what was cut out. Overall, I am glad I saw this film and it is well worth tracking down if you can find a copy; but I'm not as wild about it as the others that have seen it.
trashgang First of all, this flick is extremely hard to find, so I had to search real hard around the globe to track it down until I did in a full uncut version with irremovable Greek subtitles. And it was a VHS copy, luckily not to much damaged and English spoken. After five minutes it was already clear that this was an Italian production. But surely not one of those giallo productions. The style of filming was typical, the shots, the sound, the dubbing. You are immediately involved in the movie, a bit Gothic in the beginning with the ghost appearing in the castle. Also the unnecessary nudity in the beginning, not that we mind, had nothing to do with the flick but is/was typical Italian style. The movie itself is about a painter losing his wife and becoming mad when he sees another girl that looks really the same like his dead wife. But he goes nuts and his , let's call him the butler , is insane too. After the painter his wife died and laying in her coffin the butler starts making love to her, necrophilia. So this flick becomes weirder and weirder, they capture some girls, hang them upside down, slice their throat and use the red stuff to paint. And the butler cuts the bodies in pieces after you guess, misused their bodies. It still gets weirder so one to watch, if, as said in the beginning you are able to catch a copy.
HumanoidOfFlesh I can't believe that Sergio Bergonzelli's "Blood Delirium" has such low rating.I guess that some people can't even recognize a good movie."Blood Delirium"/"Delirio di Sangue" deals with dark love and obsession.It's creepy,sleazy and gruesome-it has scenes of necrophilia,dismemberment and several rather repulsive images.The film is well-acted and stylish.In the broad form "Blood Delirium" is another Italian shocker that sometimes seems to aspire to be a drama-what sets it apart is the overbearing perversion.The film is extremely hard to find,so if you get the chance grab the copy and treasure it.8 out of 10!
rundbauchdodo This extremely rare Italian film (the only ever video release I know is the Greek one - it probably was never released even in its country of origin) is a thoroughly interesting movie, even though the production values are very low and it is, without a doubt, an oddball of a movie.John Phillip Law is a troubled painter on the edge of madness; his slightly psychotic state of mind becomes worse as his wife, who always gave him inspiration and faith, dies. Soon after her death he discovers his butler (played nicely sickening by Gordon Mitchell) trying to rape her corpse, which fills him with fury, but he needs the butler as an assistant because he would be helpless without him. After his wife is buried, the painter doesn't feel any inspiration anymore and is unable to get a painting done. So he decides to get his wife back and steals her corpse from the cemetery (with a help of the butler, of course). At the opening of his latest exhibition, he meets Sybille, a woman that resembles his wife almost like a twin sister. He invites her to his lonely castle, and at first, she likes it there. But the painter's state of mind gets worse, even though she gives him new confidence. Problem is that his inspiration stays missing, until his butler kills a girl and he realizes how beautiful blood is. He starts to use blood as "the color of life", while the butler has to dispose from the bodies. When the woman discovers this, she has to be kept hostage in the lonely castle...The story sounds a little bit like a retelling of Herschell Gordon Lewis's "Color Me Blood Red" from 1965, but this isn't the case. This one is rather a horror drama that somehow falls between the two genres: For a drama, it is too much exploitation, and for a horror film, it is too dramatic and not exploitation enough for not to write not gory enough.Law and Mitchell are strikingly convincing in their roles of rather perverse characters, and the sound track adds to the atmosphere, although it doesn't seem to be always appropriate to the melancholy mood of the picture. The film also contains supernatural elements that are hardly convincing but somehow still fit into this weird work.Director Bergonzelli is probably best known for his psychedelic giallo "Nelle Pieghe Della Carne" (aka In the Folds of the Flesh) from 1970. in one scene, he even repeats an element of his earlier film: The butler disposes of the bodies by putting them into sulfuric acid - the same way the protagonists do it in "Nelle Pieghe". And the atmosphere in "Delirio di Sangue" contains also some rather psychedelic attitudes, if not that obvious.It seems clear that Bergonzelli, who also wrote the screenplay, was inspired by the life and madness of Vincent van Gogh, a portrait of whom hangs on the wall of the painter's working room. Needless to say that the notion of van Gogh makes a scene with an ear that gets cut off necessary - and the viewer won't get disappointed.All in all, "Delirio di Sangue" is a wonderfully strange piece of celluloid. I assume that most viewers would consider it as a piece of crap, because it's made on a very low budget, neither delivers any action packed moments nor even scenes of excessive gore or sympathetic dramatic protagonists you could identify with. It's a quite nihilistic film, with an oddly repulsive plot, which makes it unique in a certain way.A very interesting film that is far too little known, but which won't be appreciated by a broad audience, I guess. My rating: 7 out of 10.