Blood Delirium starts off as it means to go on with a weird and wonderful scene in which concert pianist Sybille (Brigitte Christensen) arrives home, strips down to her French knickers and suspenders, and prepares the dinner table for the arrival of her boyfriend Gérard (Marco Di Stefano). Still topless, Sybille is surprised to receive a message through her answering machine from a woman who claims to be from the future; meanwhile, chairs move around the room and the piano starts playing by itself. Sybille holds a conversation with the disembodied voice, which tells her to take two candles and hold the flames together. As she is doing this, Gérard turns up in a natty embroidered Nehru jacket that is about as tasteful as his pony-tail. From this moment on, things only get stranger and stranger...
Next up, we see artist Saint Simon (John Philip Law) in emotional turmoil as his wife and muse, Christine (also played by Christensen), shuffles off this mortal coil. While Christine's body is laid out, and Saint Simon ('maestro' to his friends) is busy mourning her loss, the painter's manservant Herman (aging peplum star Gordon Mitchell) takes the opportunity to declare his love for the dead woman, fondle her tits and then hump her corpse. Naturally, Saint Simon isn't happy about this, but he eventually forgives Herman: after all, good help is hard to find.
A year later, and Sybille and her boyfriend are relaxing at home when an invitation to an art exhibition by Saint Simon blows in through an open window. Sybille believes this is fate, and wants to attend, but probably wouldn't be so keen if she knew what the painter was up to at that moment: exhuming the maggoty, decomposed corpse of Christine in order to rekindle his artistic inspiration. With a rubber mask and a wig, she's almost as good as new!
While out driving, Sybille and Gérard chance upon the art gallery where Saint Simon - who believes that he was Vincent Van Gogh in a previous life - is showing his latest work. Sybille goes in; Gérard goes back to work. In the gallery, Saint Simon sees Sybille and thinks that she is Christine, or that she is the same soul in another body, or something like that. Anyway, he invites the woman to his castle to show her his etchings and she accepts, Gérard presumably okay about his wife-to-be going to stay with another man for a few days. When Saint Simon leaves the gallery, he sees three glowing orbs floating through the air. I'm not really sure what they're supposed to be, but they make another appearance at the end of the film, so they must be important.
The next day, Sybille arrives at the artist's castle. Saint Simon shows the woman his studio, where she spots a painting of a demon squirting water from its anus. 'Oh, that's interesting - what is it?', she asks. 'It's Satan fathering the universe', replies the artist. Sybille isn't the slightest bit concerned by his answer. Neither is she bothered when Saint Simon presents her with a gold lamé dress befitting of a hooker, that once belonged to his dead wife. Nothing strange about that, so it seems. Hell, Sybille doesn't even bat an eyelid when, the next day, she sees Herman trying to sexually abuse local girl Yvonne, who he informs her is 'the best piece of ass in the province'.
Later that night, as Sybille is getting ready for bed, she hears a woman screaming, but does nothing; I guess she's too tired to see what is wrong. As it happens, it's Yvonne who is calling out for help, for Herman is trying to rape her again. A struggle between the girl and the manservant ends in violence, Yvonne stabbed in the chest with her own knife. Herman tells his master what has happened and receives a punching for his trouble. However, when Saint Simon sees the blood spilt on the floor, he realises what a great substitute for paint it will make and hauls the body up to his studio.
After all the blood has been drained from Yvonne, Herman takes her body to his workshop where he cuts her into pieces. Sybille is awakened by the noise and investigates, and is shocked to see Herman at work, hanging Yvonne's head on a hook, feeding parts of her to his dog, and dropping grisly odds and ends in a vat of acid. Finally, Sybille gets the message: something is dreadfully wrong with the artist and his hired help! She tries to escape, but doesn't get far.
After being being drugged and raped by Herman, Sybille sneaks out of her room and tries to phone her friend Corinne (Olinka Hardiman), but is grabbed by the manservant mid-call. Saint Simon sends Herman to bring Corinne to the castle, pretending that Sybille is ill and needs her help. Corinne ends up as art supplies. When Gérard arrives home, he finds a phone message from Corinne and goes looking for his girlfriend, posing as a gallery delivery man to get inside Saint Simon's castle. The crazy finalé sees Gérard attempting a rescue, fighting with both Saint Simon and Herman, but eventually being captured himself. The maniacal painter strips both Sybille and her boyfriend, and starts to drain them of plasma (his next painting will be entitled 'Blood Wedding', he declares), but is stopped by a sudden storm and those three glowing orbs, which cut off his ear, leaving him just like Van Gogh.
A naked Sybille and Gérard make their escape, Saint Simon's paintings bleed and catch fire, and the castle collapses, the falling masonry crushing the mad artist and his manservant.
Although there are many things about this film that I am totally confused about, it's simply too warped and bizarre for me to dislike. Law and Mitchell seem to be having an absolute blast playing complete deviants, the plot is utterly demented (necrophilia, rape, murder, and reincarnation), there's some fun gore, and plenty of gratuitous nudity with all three women getting completely nekkid. If your tastes lean towards the unconventional, there's a good chance you'll have a lot of fun with this one-of-a-kind oddball horror - if you can find a copy (it's apparently very hard to come by).
7.5/10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.
Next up, we see artist Saint Simon (John Philip Law) in emotional turmoil as his wife and muse, Christine (also played by Christensen), shuffles off this mortal coil. While Christine's body is laid out, and Saint Simon ('maestro' to his friends) is busy mourning her loss, the painter's manservant Herman (aging peplum star Gordon Mitchell) takes the opportunity to declare his love for the dead woman, fondle her tits and then hump her corpse. Naturally, Saint Simon isn't happy about this, but he eventually forgives Herman: after all, good help is hard to find.
A year later, and Sybille and her boyfriend are relaxing at home when an invitation to an art exhibition by Saint Simon blows in through an open window. Sybille believes this is fate, and wants to attend, but probably wouldn't be so keen if she knew what the painter was up to at that moment: exhuming the maggoty, decomposed corpse of Christine in order to rekindle his artistic inspiration. With a rubber mask and a wig, she's almost as good as new!
While out driving, Sybille and Gérard chance upon the art gallery where Saint Simon - who believes that he was Vincent Van Gogh in a previous life - is showing his latest work. Sybille goes in; Gérard goes back to work. In the gallery, Saint Simon sees Sybille and thinks that she is Christine, or that she is the same soul in another body, or something like that. Anyway, he invites the woman to his castle to show her his etchings and she accepts, Gérard presumably okay about his wife-to-be going to stay with another man for a few days. When Saint Simon leaves the gallery, he sees three glowing orbs floating through the air. I'm not really sure what they're supposed to be, but they make another appearance at the end of the film, so they must be important.
The next day, Sybille arrives at the artist's castle. Saint Simon shows the woman his studio, where she spots a painting of a demon squirting water from its anus. 'Oh, that's interesting - what is it?', she asks. 'It's Satan fathering the universe', replies the artist. Sybille isn't the slightest bit concerned by his answer. Neither is she bothered when Saint Simon presents her with a gold lamé dress befitting of a hooker, that once belonged to his dead wife. Nothing strange about that, so it seems. Hell, Sybille doesn't even bat an eyelid when, the next day, she sees Herman trying to sexually abuse local girl Yvonne, who he informs her is 'the best piece of ass in the province'.
Later that night, as Sybille is getting ready for bed, she hears a woman screaming, but does nothing; I guess she's too tired to see what is wrong. As it happens, it's Yvonne who is calling out for help, for Herman is trying to rape her again. A struggle between the girl and the manservant ends in violence, Yvonne stabbed in the chest with her own knife. Herman tells his master what has happened and receives a punching for his trouble. However, when Saint Simon sees the blood spilt on the floor, he realises what a great substitute for paint it will make and hauls the body up to his studio.
After all the blood has been drained from Yvonne, Herman takes her body to his workshop where he cuts her into pieces. Sybille is awakened by the noise and investigates, and is shocked to see Herman at work, hanging Yvonne's head on a hook, feeding parts of her to his dog, and dropping grisly odds and ends in a vat of acid. Finally, Sybille gets the message: something is dreadfully wrong with the artist and his hired help! She tries to escape, but doesn't get far.
After being being drugged and raped by Herman, Sybille sneaks out of her room and tries to phone her friend Corinne (Olinka Hardiman), but is grabbed by the manservant mid-call. Saint Simon sends Herman to bring Corinne to the castle, pretending that Sybille is ill and needs her help. Corinne ends up as art supplies. When Gérard arrives home, he finds a phone message from Corinne and goes looking for his girlfriend, posing as a gallery delivery man to get inside Saint Simon's castle. The crazy finalé sees Gérard attempting a rescue, fighting with both Saint Simon and Herman, but eventually being captured himself. The maniacal painter strips both Sybille and her boyfriend, and starts to drain them of plasma (his next painting will be entitled 'Blood Wedding', he declares), but is stopped by a sudden storm and those three glowing orbs, which cut off his ear, leaving him just like Van Gogh.
A naked Sybille and Gérard make their escape, Saint Simon's paintings bleed and catch fire, and the castle collapses, the falling masonry crushing the mad artist and his manservant.
Although there are many things about this film that I am totally confused about, it's simply too warped and bizarre for me to dislike. Law and Mitchell seem to be having an absolute blast playing complete deviants, the plot is utterly demented (necrophilia, rape, murder, and reincarnation), there's some fun gore, and plenty of gratuitous nudity with all three women getting completely nekkid. If your tastes lean towards the unconventional, there's a good chance you'll have a lot of fun with this one-of-a-kind oddball horror - if you can find a copy (it's apparently very hard to come by).
7.5/10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.