Blood Delirium – Vinegar Syndrome (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1988
Director: Sergio Bergonzelli
Writer: Sergio Bergonzelli
Cast: John Phillip Law, Gordon Mitchell, Brigitte Christensen, Marco Di Stefano, Olinka Hardiman, Lucia Prato, Ezio Prosperi

Release Date: October 24th, 2022
Approximate Running Time: 94 Minutes 17 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Italian, DTS-HD Mono English
Subtitles: English, English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $42.98

"Saint Simon, a deranged and manic painter, believes that he is the reincarnation of Vincent van Gogh. When his beautiful wife dies unexpectedly, Simon suffers an emotional breakdown and insists that his necrophiliac butler, Hermann, help remove her corpse from the cemetery and bring it back to his castle to help him retain his creativity; placing the body on display inside of a hidden crypt. Still struggling with his art, Simon soon meets a young woman named Sybille, who bears a striking resemblance to his late wife, and lures her back to the castle with the intention of making her into his new muse. Trapped inside, Sybille must find a way to escape the horrors taking place within the castle walls, as Simon has recently discovered that human blood may hold the key to unlocking his true creative potential." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "Newly scanned & restored in 2K from its 35mm internegative."

Blood Delirium comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 43.9 GB

Feature: 27.3 GB

The source used for this transfer looks excellent. Flesh tones look healthy, colors look correct, image clarity, black levels, and compression are solid, and grain remains intact.

Audio: 4.5/5 (DTS-HD Mono Italian, DTS-HD Mono English)

This release comes with two audio options, a DTS-HD mono mix in Italian and a DTS-HD mono mix in English. Both audio mixes sound great. Dialog comes through clearly, and everything sounds balanced and robust when it should. There are two subtitle tracks: removable English subtitles for the Italian language track and removable English SDH subtitles for the English language track.

Extras:

Extras for this release include a theatrical trailer (3 minutes 6 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English with removable English SDH subtitles), alternate Italian front and end titles (3 minutes 37 seconds, Dolby Digital mono Italian, no subtitles), an interview with assistant director Corrado Colombo titled Once Upon a Time in the Italian Eighties (29 minutes 12 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with actress Brigitte Christensen titled Killer's Muse (28 minutes 21 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with actor Marco Di Stefano titled Gerard's Delirium (19 minutes 13 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an audio commentary with film historians Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth, reversible cover art, and an embossed and spot gloss slipcover limited to 5,000 units.

Summary:

Sergio Bergonzelli directed Blood Delirium. He is a filmmaker who is most remembered for directing In the Folds of the Flesh.

Content wise, Blood Delirium is best described as a horror film with supernatural elements. That narrative revolves around a painter who believes that he is the reincarnation of Vincent Van Gogh, who one day meets a woman who looks exactly like his recently deceased wife. And besides looking like his deceased wife, this woman is also a pianist. From there, he lures the woman to his castle and tries to make her his new muse. That said, to say that the story at hand is bizarre would be an understatement.

The performances are best described as enthusiastic. The most memorable performances were by John Phillip Law (Danger: Diabolik) in the role of Saint Simon, a deranged artist who uses women’s blood to create art, and Gordon Mitchell (Lady Morgan's Vengeance) in the role of Saint Simon’s necrophiliac butler. John Pillip Law delivers an over-the-top performance that works well within the story at hand, and Gordon Mitchell spends most of his screen time attacking women and fondling corpses. Another performance of note is Brigitte Christensen in the dual roles of Christine (Saint Simon’s deceased wife) and Sybille, who's a dead ringer for Christine.

From a production standpoint, Blood Delirium is a film that fully exploits its resources. The wild premise is well-executed; the narrative has an ample amount of nudity, bloodletting, and WTF moments, most notably an absurd finale. The most surprising aspect are the visuals, which are filled with trippy and grotesque imagery. The cinematographer was Raffaele Mertes (Dario Argento's Trauma). Ultimately, Blood Delirium is a crazy ride that is best enjoyed if you don’t try to make sense of what's going on.

Blood Delirium gets an excellent release from Vinegar Syndrome that comes with a solid audio/video presentation and a wealth of informative extras, highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer