DELUSION

US, 1991, 100 minutes, Colour.
Jim Metzler, Jennifer Rubin, Kyle Secor, Jerry Orbach, Robert Costanzo, Tracy Walter.
Directed by Carl Colpaert.

Delusion was very well received in the 1990s but by an audience which admired small thrillers and variations on film noir. It has gained something of a cult status.

This is a road movie, familiar enough in some of the plot outlines, the central character, George, Jim Metzler, is in something of a similar situation to Janet Leigh at the beginning of Psycho, driving out of town with embezzled money.

He picks up a couple on the way through the desert, Kyle Secor an Jennifer Rubin, who, of course, are not what they seem. Secor portrays a hired killer. Jerry Orbach also portrays a killer.

There are several twists and turns, revelations of character, power struggles, which keep the audience attentive.

The co-writer-director, Carl Copaert, was originally from Belgium but has worked in the United States, and who firmly in his career worked with Roger Corman.
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1. A road thriller? 1990s film? Achieving something of a cult status?

2. The colour photography, of California, the desert, Nevada, Reno? The musical score?

3. The twists in the plot, the title, and whose delusions?

4. The use of the thriller conventions, the car and the road, hitchhikers, twists of plot, revelations of characters, hitmen and murders, big business, Nevada?

5. George, his social status, his work, let go? Embezzling the money, in the car? His friend, the law, his motivation?

6. Travelling the desert, picking up the couple? The initial impression? Chevy and his being sickly? Patti? The audience learning that Chevy was a hired killer, to eliminate George? Patti was a showgirl, part-prostitute? His interactions with them, listening to them talk, feeling superior? Their turning the tables? A different kind of George?

7. The repartee, uneasy, witticisms? Stopping? Larry as a hired killer? Dealing with him?

8. The border, the gun, the takeover, the tension?

9. Larry, jovial, the barbecue, the diversion?

10. The money, Patti having it? George, death, Sales, the escape and the diversion?

11. The confrontation, the fall, being found? George, Sales?

12. Tthe twists in the plot, the different revelation of characters?