HORROR BUSINESS Episode 170: SHOCK & DELIRIUM

Greetings, and welcome back to Horror Business. We’ve got one heck of an episode in store for you guys as we’re talking about 1977’s Shock and 1987’s Delirium.
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We briefly talk what we’ve doing involving horror recently. Liam talks about seeing the film Hope, as well seeing the 4K restoration of Akira, as well as the book Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay. Justin talks about seeing Terminator 2 in theatres for the 35th anniversary, as well as the films The Killing Cell, The Complete Howard French Course, The End Of Oak St, Evil Dead Burn, Girl In The Night, a screening of Evil Dead II at the Mahoning Drive In, as well as attending the 25th anniversary shows for Square Of Opposition Records.

Up first is Shock. Justin begins by talking about how frightening the movie is, and Liam talks about the infamous hallway jump scare. We talk about how the film is laden with a heavy sense of dread and how the classic creepy little kid element was almost unnecessary given how terrifying the rest of the film is.

We talk about how the movie effectively makes the ghost of Carlo look slightly inhuman. We briefly discuss the career of Daria Nicolodi and her impact on the genre of giallo and Italian horror in general, and how her performance goes a long way towards making this movie truly upsetting.

We briefly talk about how the film is in general underrated, and how if Lamberto Bava was partially responsible for directing and not solely Mario Bava it it’s definitely one of his, Lamberto’s, better ones. We discuss how the film briefly dips into the “psychotic woman” trope, but that said trope is somewhat grounded in the narrative. We again briefly touch upon Nicolodi’s career and personal life.

Up next is Delirium. We talk about somehow the movie is incredibly boring despite having copious amounts of nudity. Justin talks about how the film was so over the top and cynical that it felt like a parody of the giallo subgenre.

We talk about Bava’s inexplicable hatred of his main actor and the sexist tendencies he has. We talk about how the films red herring makes zero sense and is entirely unbelievable.

We briefly talk about the films use of strange monstrous masks to show that the killer has a twisted view of reality even though it’s not done enough to really establish anything. The film’s hypocritical view of female sexuality is discussed.

Liam talks about how the film comes off more confused as to what it wants to be than anything else. We briefly talk about how the film has a touch of the giallo visuals towards the end when there’s a use of bright coloring and shadow.
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