🇮🇹 Italy 🔪 Slasher 🎬 Soavi 💎 Gem #129 (1987) 👹

”I'm honestly shattered about Betty. But I need the money. And I need a hit. Just like all the rest of you."

Well, that’s the end of Michele Soavi’s four major films. He can easily hold his own with Fulci and Argento. His work is stylish, imaginative, literary, and nearly always visually striking. This is true of Deliria, which is in contention for prettiest slasher.

This is a straight meta-slasher, not at all a giallo. That was a surprise; his work has never been exactly what I was expecting. The owl-head costume from the murder play is inspired. There’s a reason every review seems to gravitate towards that choice: an owl-head killer is, like the fish-head demons and the pelican attacks, a very identifiably Soavi decision with an unforgettable outcome.

As it turns out, a theater on lockdown is a great place for a series of murders. This plot point, however, I did have some trouble with—Deliria is the sort of film that depends entirely on a series of the most idiotic decisions possible in order to get started. The moment the director orders someone to lock the doors and hide the key, you can guess who dies first and, effectively, the entire rest of the plot. And, despite saying they will stay together and appearing to attempt to be careful, they immediately do the picked-off-one-by-one thing.

Those are the downsides—well, that and that Deliria was genuinely unscary (although moderately bloody) until the last half hour. It makes up for this by being witty and full of memorable characters that are always interesting. But around the 30 minute mark a lot of the playfulness stops and a great cat-and-mouse sequence takes place that is absolutely tense and able to scare.

I loved the closing sequence. The final girl was predictable and she is a solid final girl. There is a bit of stupidity but she gets it done and the stakes feel a lot higher once she’s directly at risk and others are falling away. There is a slight issue with most other characters being disposable, but… whatever, it’s fun. And the last scene ends with equal parts fear and great humor.

For me, Soavi’s first film is his least frightening, so where I would rank this depends on what you want to experience. This is visually brilliant and very fun; La Setta is more frightening but less striking overall. There’s no question, DellaMorte DellAmore is my favorite, followed by La Chiesa, but there is not a single bad choice in the mix.

That’s that for Soavi’s horror films. I’m going to watch some of his later crime thrillers and see how they are, but, as for these four—watch them all, clearly. Ideally watch the new Severin 4K transfer for all but this.

OH! And how could I forget the best character: Lucifer the cat.

Recommended.

Some Lists:

👹 Lucifurry: Pets Named Evil
🎬 Michele Soavi
🔪 Slasher
🇮🇹 Italian Horror
🇮🇹☠️ Italian Horror/Giallo Master List (Ranked)
8️⃣ 1980–1989
💎 Slightly Hidden Horror Gems and 🌱 Candidates
📽️ Viewing Next 🗂️ Index of Lists

Looking for something different? Consider these:

La Setta | La Chiesa (The Church) | Demoni 1 and 2 | Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person | Red Rooms | [REC] | The Sadness | Train to Busan | Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key | Sette note in nero (The Psychic) | La terza madre (The Mother of Tears) | ...E tu vivrai nel terrore! L'aldilà (The Beyond) | Black Cat: Gatto nero | All the Colors of the Dark | Tin and Tina