We call it PTDS now. Instead of sending these beset vets to insane asylums and making movies about their anti-social deeds...we give them support dogs (often at taxpayer expense). Many of us long for the days when we used to call it "shell shock" or "battle fatigue." Those two terms came from the first two world wars...wars we won. Now that America loses all its wars...we call it PTSD...just an observation. In 1979, PTSD was not yet an industry. Thus today we look at 1979's "Delirium," directed by Peter Maris.
Charlie (Nick Panouzis) kills and murders during his stint in Vietnam. After a Vietnamese prostitute questions his manhood, he flips out. He'll be medically discharged, sent to an insane asylum, and escape. Now he is recruited by Stern (Barron Winchester) top help kill rapists and murderers on the U.S. streets. Uh oh...with issues regarding his manhood, Charlie engages on his own personal vendetta...against beautiful American women. He'll try to rape them and murder them. He'll kill the pretty Jenny (Pat Knapko) by impaling her with a spear through a door. Her roomie, Susan (Debi Chaney), is a babe and will give us some gratuitous bath and shower scenes. Charlie is now on the run. He runs...rests...meets a beautiful dame...murders her. A never ending pattern just like U.S. wars in far off lands.
Susan is able to help police identify Charlie. This alarms the organization that was going to hire him. This vigilante society made up of psycho army officers has a pretty long record of kidnaping fiends who get off on technicalities and killing them. An investigation into Charlie by two great detectives, Paul (Turk Cekovsky) and Larry (Terry TenBroek), lead them to some of the group members. With Susan's help, Larry and Paul close in on the cabal. Now Stern orders Susan murdered. Oh, Charlie keeps running across dames. The army veteran uses pitchforks, drowning, or meat cleavers to off them. Now Susan is in mortal danger, not from Charlie, but from the secret society that seeks to clean the streets of St. Louis. yes, St. Louis was a s**t hole back in 1979, too.
Would Charlie have learned computers and to recycle instead of raping and murdering if given a support dog? However unstable Charlie is, is he more likely to win a war for us than the current recruits entering into today's military? Is the secret society's inability to murder a dame clad in high-heels and sundresses (or totally nude) through the entire film a good explanation as to why the U.S. can't win anymore wars? Ms. Chaney is radiant and refreshing as the damsel in much distress who always seems to avoid being murdered. See "Delirium," and enjoy a flick that probably appeared on drive-in screens when it came out.
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