Delirium: Photos Of
Gioia Directed by Lamberto Bava. Starring Serena Grandi. (1987)
Lamberto
Bava is a filmmaker with a scattered legacy of cinematic duds and triumphs,
Photos of Gioia is alittle bit of both. Possibly the dumbest film he’s ever
made is Devil Fish (which I’ve only
been able to sit through during MST3K). He struck ghoulish paydirt with The Demons series, which are brilliant! He’s
sort of become a joke between Skunkape and I for awhile so as a gesture of “Hey
he’s not such a shitty director” Mr. Ape sent me this flick in the mail.
It’s
drenched in euro trash fashion model sleaze. It’s got the same Argento
influences of overly foreign actors and cheesiness, but not much blood (which
would make it an overblown Italian skin flick). There are tons of photo shoot
happenings in crystal blue shimmering pools at gaudy mansions in the high
fashion world of PussyCat magazine! Serena Grandi is spectacular to look at and
makes this dopey semi slasher film watchable. She resembles an Italian Jane
Mansfield, working in a Bold & The Beautiful type soap opera atmosphere.
She hangs out with Daria Nicolodi (who thankfully is dubbed), her husky voice
never was able to reek havoc on the ear drums (that is until she is interviewed
and had acted in Mother Of Tears, by far her dumbest role). There are tons of
creative lighting and over saturation of trashy fashions (that as a red blooded
American male I am unable to understand). The film is asking waay too much for
a horror fan and seems geared toward late night Skinemax. It is in the catalog
and Chas Balun mentions that there’s more boobs then blood.
There is a killer loose stalking Gioia
and her models. The first suspect is this pervish “Rear Window” tribute
character (who totally looks like Richard Ramirez). He prank calls her and says
yucky shit over the phone like I’m gonna explode on your flower!
There
is some hilarious office banter at the offices of PussyCat magazine and Gioia
(Grandi) is the head entrepreneur. Her rival is a pearl necklace wearing stuck
up woman, who I like to refer to as the “Shark Bitch”. She wants credit for
making Gioia’s career and calls her whorey and fat. She says great dialogue
like “Be careful the hate of a woman can be very bad!” She is pissed off that a
former hooker like Gioia has gotten so far in the porn industry and their
competition against each other reminds me of Kevin Mccarthy and Weird Al’s
rivalry in UHF.
The
first victim has a giant veiny eyeball taking up have her neck and face. She
looked like a Madball or a Nightbreed monster. The killer sees his
victims in different Halloween masks, but you have to guess what exactly you
are looking at, it’s alarming and unintentionally funny. The cheesy wah wah
guitar (score by Simon Boswell) adds more to the goofiness. The Cyclops lady’s
corpse is manipulated and shot with a camera in front of a back drop of a giant
half naked photo of Gioia, incriminating her.
Serena
Grandi bumps into her former boyfriend George Eastman, who looks like he just
walked off the set of Iron Master.
They later get it on in a soapy tub, with gratuitous boob shots. Her Richard
Simmons lookalike boss walks in on them, he dresses like a combination of
Michael Jackson “Thriller” era with a Bill Cosby sweater.
Sorry I ate your baby in Anthropophagus |
The
second victim looks like 80’s porn star Christy Canyon, this time the photo
shoot looks like two Eddie’s from Powerslave
era Maiden grope her among a sci fi location. After getting getting it on
with Richard Simmons look-a-like guy she gets attacked by bees. Before that
happens she does a full naked strip with a bee mask on while the insects sting
her to death.
Slave to the power of Vag!( sung to the tune of PowerSlave) |
A
lot of bullshit happens and it drags on a lot (there’s that dull Lamberto
pacing), but the killer does finally show his face and he looks like Jello
Biafra wearing Robert Smith’s makeup. There are many scenes of eroticism with
weird objects (knives, blue light saber) and finally everything turns out OK
for Gioia. Her creepy stalker comes to her rescue and the Shark Bitch bails her
out, The End. The main draw for gore fanatics is the cheesiness of watching
Italian horror actors that have starred in better films and if I were twelve I
would’ve been excited to stay up late and catch this naughty monster mask
flick, but I guess that part of me still appreciates this kind of filth.
Nice review over at this great blog called House of Self Indulgence
Available on DVD (not sure about netflix) hopefully it will turn up on Youtube!
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