Delirium: Photo of Gioia / Le foto di Gioia (1987)

Very late in the day Delirium is an entertaining and admirable, yet nevertheless ultimately doomed, attempt to revisit the glory days of giallo by Lamberto Bava who adopts a number of themes from the work of his father with coloured filters to achieve the effect of gel lighting and such referential moments a as tension in a room of shop mannequins scene. There is also an obvious Hitchcock link in a major plot theme that is lifted wholesale from The Rear Window.


To sex up the film ever so slightly, and set it apart from the work of Mario, son Lamberto sets the film in the world of glamour modelling rather than fashion.


The film ultimately falls down because despite being a movie that shows a clear awareness of the history of the genre the hairspray, Dynasty style shoulder pads and the rock score break the illusion in a terribly 1980s way.


George Eastman and Daria Nicolodi co star and despite the fact that the pneumatic sexpot Serena Grandi disrobes frequently the attempted sexiness only serves to give the non horror segments a made for TV Red Shoe Diaries type feel.

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