Delirium (2018)— My take on the movie with spoilers!
PLOT SUMMARY: After leaving the asylum and put in house arrest, Tom begins to believe the house is either haunted or he is hallucinating.
Most times, when we think about criminals, we wonder what could possible have prompted them to fall into a life of crime.
More often than not, we blame their circumstances. Perhaps lack of financial security forced them to become thieves. Maybe they were mentally unstable and that’s why they resorted to killing someone.
No matter what, we find safety in the fact that these criminals are caught and made to either go to prison or undergo treatment.
Now what if these criminals come from an affluent family, have what appears to be a functional family and are given whatever they desire? What happens when they turn criminals? Who do we blame?
Delirium is a case of such a family.
DELIRIUM Movie Plot
We are introduced to Tom, leaving the asylum and being put on house arrest for a month. He is also told that his father passed away just a few days before he was set to be released, allegedly killing himself because he didn’t want Tom to come back.
Accompanied by a parole officer, Tom heads home to his lavish mansion complete with an indoor pool.
A large empty house to do whatever he wants, so what does he do?
Goof off of course and when he runs out of his favorite cereal, calls the supermarket where the delivery girl Lynn forms a friendship with him.
But things aren’t as easy and fun for Tom who begins experiencing strange events that he blames on hallucinations stemming from his mental issues.
When the parole officer makes a move on him and he refuses, she takes away his medication leaving him feeling odd and rude.
He keeps seeing a black dog, his father’s half-eaten face and begins to question whether he has relapsed.
It is when he begins to see his brother Alex who is supposed to be in prison that he realizes that he has lost it.
DELIRIUM Ending Explained with Spoilers!
Spoiler alert: His brother is actually real and has broken out of jail.
The only question is, why does he hide from his brother?
Okay wait, there are more questions.
His brother allegedly burned down in prison but Tom was never informed.
The phone through which Tom’s presence in the house is detected is in the kitchen and yet Tom chooses to sleep in a room so far away from the phone that he must run to pick it up before the tenth ring is over. Why not pick a room closer to the phone?
Lynn has issues of her own which is why she sympathizes with Tom. She finds one article in the newspaper about a girl and isn’t freaked out about the incident that caused Alex to be sent to jail and Tom to an institution. The brothers were accused of murdering a girl and she was okay with hanging around the house all alone even when Tom pretty much throws her out of the house on every occasion.
As it turns out, Alex was the murderer of Tom’s crush. He handcuffs Tom when he drowns her which is why Tom loses it. Alex is caught when he tries to murder another girl and so the police think that Tom, whose DNA shouldn’t have been in the second crime scene, should be punished as well.
Anyway, Alex claims he does this because Tom cannot do what he really wants to do and it was their father’s sick blood that caused them to be psychos.
Tom thinks that their mother abandoning them has caused their inappropriate behavior. Well, it turns out that their mother never left them and is in fact keep imprisoned in a tunnel under the pool near the safe. Oh, and their mother’s tongue is cut out and kept in a jar in the swimming pool controls.
So apparently their father was a sick man.
In the end, Alex tries to murder Lynn, Tom intervenes and is once again handcuffed. He breaks free and fights him off. Alex kills the mother who doesn’t die on the spot and when the pool leaks and floods the tunnels, uses her chains to strangle Alex.
As Tom leaves the house with Lynn the police ask him if it is his house to which he replies that it is now.
This is an interesting tale with a mind bending concept. Does Tom really see what is real or is he hallucinating?
However, the various plot holes hamper the storyline and it doesn’t make sense how anyone seems to be able to enter the mansion.
The horror parts could have been more intensifying especially when the mother is shown to be alive.
Scare scale:
So everything that happened was real or all was just in his head? Saw this movie and was very good. But very confusing .
ReplyDeleteMore Spoiler Warnings...
DeleteI’m still wondering myself and now I’m guessing that is part of it. At the end of the movie when the cop asks him if it’s his house they don’t show the girl next to him and my guess is she is what Alex his brother was, in my opinion a split personality. At the cut scene in the credits where what I can only guess is the dad filiming both mom and children together is the movie giving a hint towards what I believe is split personality. It shows the mom and children together, then she towards the camera, it cuts away to a different view and it goes back to the mom but this time in the same view it only shows her and one child. I think that was just another hint it could all be in his head as I’d like to think as split personalities. I could be totally wrong but believe that’s part of this movie, it wants you to keep wondering and fill in the details with your imagination. I am a huge horror movie fan. I watch pretty much everything from B movies to big budget A movies, along with the crappy C movies that pretty much a kid with a camera phone filmed. This is definitely a B movie, which screams low budget, but what is weird is blumhouse is already a low budget mostly horror movies company. I’m pretty sure they only make movies in the single to low double digit million dollar movies, so why the need for an even lower production cost company like BH Tilt company Is a mystery for me. Anyway back to the point the movie was pretty good for a B movie that went straight to VOD.
That's a good theory but you have to remember how low budget this is and that kind of thinking doesn't come with this little of money. I watched the movie again and spent a little extra time watching the mid credits scenes this time utilizing pause. I not only saw the scene you are talking about but having some background in mental health I looked for clues that would confirm your theory. First as the last scene is fading out if you pause it at the right moment you see the older brother Alex on the right as you had seen earlier but then the little brother Tom's legs which means this is not a split personality but in fact 2 people. I think that whole end credits scene is showing the hidden troubles in the marriage that outsiders would not have noticed. Second I was watching the end of the movie toward the tunnel scenes and waited for true mentally disturbed actions. I didn't see it. I think Alex turned bad due to his dad's illness but instead of a true psychopath serial killer he just murdered to get his way and make it easier. When they brought into the storyline the whole safe and money issue really killed it. I think your theory would have been way better and they would have only had to change a few scenes. Showing that true mental illness is not bound by upbringing and family values or wealth but deep seeded in the mind and that any one of us could be that psycho serial killer hiding among us. That could have given this movie a cult following even with such a low budget.
DeleteI agree with Abby G.
DeleteThe things he saw : the dog, his fathers face etc was all in his mind.... his brothrr and mother were real. However it doenst make sense how the mother was still alive after all these days, what did she eat ?? How did she go to the bathroom??
ReplyDeleteAll that tomato soup they showed piled up in the kitchen.
DeleteIt was chicken soup.
Deletewow nice sharing its cool I really like it. Thanks.
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You put things out of order and incorrect information was given. The mother left after the boys were caught and Tom believed it was because of what Alex had done. She also did not strangle Alex. All she did was put the same chain that Tom freed her from on his neck; locking him in place to drown while she hugs him.
ReplyDeleteIt's also listed as a horror/thriller. If you're an actual fan of these it's because they're more thriller than horror. You go in knowing this. Giving it a bad rating/grade because you're judging solely half of the listed genres is unfair to the movie itself.
Lynn also explains pretty well why she stuck around. She's just as screwed up as him. When you feel like everyone around you thinks you're a freak you tend to seek out others like yourself. Humans don't like being alone. We're social creatures. Also she has a tad of the I can fix him complex.
I don't understand the issue with anyone being able to enter his house. It's stated several times throughout the film that Tom leaves doors and windows unlocked. You also never once see Tom lock any of them. He barricades a few interior doors, but that is the extent of his safety measures.
Things that were real:
- His brother being alive
- His mother being alive
- The phone calls he would get
- What is seen on the tape with the woman and the box on her head
- Lynn is also real
I fully believe Alex was trying to keep Tom under the illusion that he was going crazy again. It's sort of hinted that Alex killed their father, but never goes into detail enough for a definitive answer. I don't know if Alex knew about the mother under the pool because his character seems disgusted and upset upon finding her. He only blames their dad after he sees this saying that his blood is poison. The fact that he hated their father before this leads me to believe that the he was abusive to the boys to some degree. Their family is also not a functional one.
Having wealth and being able to provide a child whatever they want does not define a stable home. The movie hints the father is rather extremely abusive to his wife with him stating "you know the rules" "she never spoke back to me before" and "she knew the rules." At the end with the mother getting upset demanding he stop filming could have been the beginning of the end for her. Considering how much he enjoyed filming I think it's safe to assume the woman with the box on her head seen in the tape was the mother and again this is a huge hint toward abuse. I also think it's safe to assume she regularly called the upstairs phone. I'm just guessing it was a cruel joke on the fathers behalf.
Tom wanted to be in his old room. That's it. He got the house and he chose to sleep in a familiar room. That's why he ran to the phone all the time from that specific room. No matter how old you get when you feel scared, threatened, or upset you want something comfortable and familiar.
Just Tom being crazy:
- Seeing his dad
- Seeing his dads dog
Why he saw these things? Don't know as it's not really explained. It felt more like it was put in to keep you guessing if Alex and everything happening was real. Other than that I see no reason as Tom was on his meds till the parole officer took them from him.
The ONLY plot-holes I could come up with are why was Tom seeing his dad/dad's dog and why in the ever loving hell did Tom NEVER just call his doctor and explain that she took his pills? What is the worst that could happen? If he went about it the right way he honestly could have easily gotten her fired. The only reasoning I could come up with is he was afraid they would believe her over him.
Everything else is pretty much explained by the end. I think you treated this movie a bit unfairly. I couldn't take it seriously because all I could see was Eric from That 70's Show and not Tom. It felt like you halfheartedly watched this movie possibly in the background because you missed A LOT.
100%
DeleteI think you perfectly summarized the movie and I agree that the reviewer did not truly give this movie the chance it deserved. I personally prefer these thriller type movies to scary type. I feel like you're explanation of the imagined events versus the real ones was on point. I am glad I am not the only one who thought that he should have called his doctor to explain the med situation, but you are probably right in saying that he feared they would believe the parole officer over him if it came to that. I liked that it made you question what was real and what was not but didn't leave it so ambiguous that you have no idea what actually happened and what was imagined. So many movies, especially lately, leave the ending open ended with many unanswered questions. And while this film did have some unanswered questions I felt like it left the film with some resolve.Overall, I actually really enjoyed this movie.
I’m confused as to who locked the mother away and for how long. Was it the dad? Or was it the brother. The dad, right? Why?? Just a sicko?
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ReplyDeleteCould the reason Tom can see the dog and his father that he has psychic abilities? I know if had feelings like he had, I would be taking anti-psychotics.
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