The informal men's club, "Hell Gang", has a rather dubious initiation process for its new prospects. A would-be initiate is outfitted with some lighting and camera gear and a flashlight, sent out in the dead of night to walk about 1/4 of a mile through a forested path, and video themselves on the porch of a supposedly haunted mansion. The video captured is the proof of their bravery and worthiness for membership. Aside from a minimal number of distribution and production credits at the very beginning, DELIRIUM opens directly to a scene of one such potential initiate attempting to make it through the process.
After a collection of found-footage action tropes, our would-be initiate falls into a trance-like state (and not for the first time in this opening sequence) and disappears into the dreaded haunted mansion.
For the rest of the movie we follow the members of the "Hell Gang" as they enter the haunted mansion and attempt to locate and retrieve their missing initiate. As you might expect, it doesn't turn out well for everyone involved. The End.
I am struck with the notion that what makes a movie truly disappointing is not so much when it's relentlessly terrible from first frame to last, but rather when a movie displays flashes and glimpses of genuine artistry and creativity, but those flashes and glimpses are mired in an overwhelming context of filmmaking manure. And so it is with DELIRIUM. Apparently randomly, there is some actual quality in this movie mixed in with stuff that is so bad it makes you want to drink bleach.
Here's a couple of examples.
Immediately following the dismally schlocky opening sequence comes the opening credits. Astoundingly, the opening credits sequence, while not completely original, is actually quite good, or at least it starts out that way. It's traditional in moviemaking to try to come up with some kind of original credits style, hopefully with characteristics that are in some way reflective of the nature or genre of the movie. With background music that is surprisingly beautiful, haunting, and what we assume is evocative of the ghostly and supernatural events that are to follow, the opening credits are expressed as a sort of floating tour through what looks like a turn-of-the-century laboratory or medical office. Individual credits are written or inscribed upon various objects that we see close up as we float around the room. Here are credits carved into a wooden table top, then engraved on a set of old rollerskates, then as worn labels on bottles of chemicals and now tooled into leather straps etc.
This is perhaps not the very first time that I have seen credits expressed in this particular way, but it's engaging and artistic and the music is exceptional. And then you notice that the whole thing is carried off rather amateurishly and inconsistently. Watching closely, you notice you can't actually read some of the credits because they're poorly executed. Then at one moment we're led to believe that we are viewing things in some kind of "bullet time" freeze, and then in the next moment characters are moving without any situational transition. Someone had good instincts and started to make some high-quality credits and then piled up on the rocks.
Or how about the basic set up of having a bunch of young, strapping jock types all descending upon a paranormally infected mansion en masse, all grimly determined to retrieve their initiate. Sounds like an interesting set up, no? Should be a potent confrontation between ectoplasmic troublemakers and testosterone-infused rebels. But nope. Everybody splits up and goes off in different directions, experiencing paranormal events that they just don't mention to each other and often don't even seem to react to. Characters seem to occasionally fall into a fugue state where they behave like zombies for no apparent reason and blah blah blah. Let's just flush that interesting set up right down the toilet.
Gaping plot holes, inconsistent scenes, continuity fails... There is no lower limit to the moviemaking sins to which this production will sink.
I recommend that you watch the movie through to the end of the opening credits. At least then you can come away with a somewhat positive feeling about it and you will have seen all of the good parts.
After a collection of found-footage action tropes, our would-be initiate falls into a trance-like state (and not for the first time in this opening sequence) and disappears into the dreaded haunted mansion.
For the rest of the movie we follow the members of the "Hell Gang" as they enter the haunted mansion and attempt to locate and retrieve their missing initiate. As you might expect, it doesn't turn out well for everyone involved. The End.
I am struck with the notion that what makes a movie truly disappointing is not so much when it's relentlessly terrible from first frame to last, but rather when a movie displays flashes and glimpses of genuine artistry and creativity, but those flashes and glimpses are mired in an overwhelming context of filmmaking manure. And so it is with DELIRIUM. Apparently randomly, there is some actual quality in this movie mixed in with stuff that is so bad it makes you want to drink bleach.
Here's a couple of examples.
Immediately following the dismally schlocky opening sequence comes the opening credits. Astoundingly, the opening credits sequence, while not completely original, is actually quite good, or at least it starts out that way. It's traditional in moviemaking to try to come up with some kind of original credits style, hopefully with characteristics that are in some way reflective of the nature or genre of the movie. With background music that is surprisingly beautiful, haunting, and what we assume is evocative of the ghostly and supernatural events that are to follow, the opening credits are expressed as a sort of floating tour through what looks like a turn-of-the-century laboratory or medical office. Individual credits are written or inscribed upon various objects that we see close up as we float around the room. Here are credits carved into a wooden table top, then engraved on a set of old rollerskates, then as worn labels on bottles of chemicals and now tooled into leather straps etc.
This is perhaps not the very first time that I have seen credits expressed in this particular way, but it's engaging and artistic and the music is exceptional. And then you notice that the whole thing is carried off rather amateurishly and inconsistently. Watching closely, you notice you can't actually read some of the credits because they're poorly executed. Then at one moment we're led to believe that we are viewing things in some kind of "bullet time" freeze, and then in the next moment characters are moving without any situational transition. Someone had good instincts and started to make some high-quality credits and then piled up on the rocks.
Or how about the basic set up of having a bunch of young, strapping jock types all descending upon a paranormally infected mansion en masse, all grimly determined to retrieve their initiate. Sounds like an interesting set up, no? Should be a potent confrontation between ectoplasmic troublemakers and testosterone-infused rebels. But nope. Everybody splits up and goes off in different directions, experiencing paranormal events that they just don't mention to each other and often don't even seem to react to. Characters seem to occasionally fall into a fugue state where they behave like zombies for no apparent reason and blah blah blah. Let's just flush that interesting set up right down the toilet.
Gaping plot holes, inconsistent scenes, continuity fails... There is no lower limit to the moviemaking sins to which this production will sink.
I recommend that you watch the movie through to the end of the opening credits. At least then you can come away with a somewhat positive feeling about it and you will have seen all of the good parts.
