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Delirium (2018)

96 min · Horror, Psychological Thriller, thriller film

Popularity5/5
12-month trend84k4.6kExpand

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2025-09 to 2026-08

A man released from a mental institution must navigate a haunted mansion while under house arrest.

The story

After spending twenty years in a mental institution, Tom Walker is released back to the mansion that he has inherited from his wealthy father, a senator who recently committed suicide. Tom is placed under house arrest, and must check in via video phone daily for thirty days or he will be returned to the institution. His parole officer, Brody, alludes to a violent crime committed by him and his older brother, Alex. Tom has hallucinations of his late father, hears noises throughout the house, and receives calls from a stranger with a garbled voice, which make him believe that he is relapsing.

Full plot (contains spoilers)

After spending twenty years in a mental institution, Tom Walker is released back to the mansion that he has inherited from his wealthy father, a senator who recently committed suicide. Tom is placed under house arrest, and must check in via video phone daily for thirty days or he will be returned to the institution. His parole officer, Brody, alludes to a violent crime committed by him and his older brother, Alex. Tom has hallucinations of his late father, hears noises throughout the house, and receives calls from a stranger with a garbled voice, which make him believe that he is relapsing. He has a vision of a girl being drowned, and discovers a tongue preserved in a mason jar in the indoor pool's control panel, which he writes off as another hallucination. He also discovers a secret tunnel in his father's office that provides access to peepholes around the house. His brief respite comes from a market worker named Lynn, who delivers his groceries. Tom calls Brody, who arrives to check on him. Brody misinterprets his advances and kisses him; when he rebuffs her, she becomes offended and attacks him, stealing his pills before leaving. Tom realizes that there is an intruder in the house, but discovers that it is his brother, Alex, who has escaped from prison. Although Tom believes Alex is another hallucination, Alex insists that he is real; he trashes the house, looking for hidden money from their father. Tom confesses to Lynn that when he was a teenager, he was humiliated by a girl he had a crush on in school. After he told Alex, the two scared the girl as a prank, but when she lashed out at them, an enraged Alex handcuffed Tom and forced him to watch Alex murder her. Alex went on to kill another girl, which landed him in prison and Tom in a mental institution, and their mother abandoned the family in shame and disappeared. Brody promises to bring Tom his medication back. Tom, believing himself to be stable, returns to the pool's control panel, but still finds the jar holding the tongue. After breaking it, he discovers an underground bunker. He returns to Lynn and finds her unconscious. Panicking, he attempts to leave to get help, only to be discovered by Brody. Believing him to be killing again, Brody draws her gun before getting murdered by Alex, who prepares to murder Lynn next. Unwilling to watch another murder, Tom attacks Alex, who overpowers him and throws him into the bunker. Inside, Tom finds a safe, as well as a chair facing a locked bedroom. Inside, he discovers a phone, which connects to the kitchen phone where he received the strange calls. He finds an old, emaciated prisoner in the locked room. He realizes the prisoner is his mother, who did not abandon them, but was kept chained up by his sadistic father; the garbled calls were from her, as it was her tongue that had been cut out. Tom frees her; Alex tearfully hugs his mother before shooting her and demanding Tom open the safe. Tom does so, revealing his father's hidden funds, but he and Lynn attack Alex. During the fight, the water pipes are damaged, and the room floods. Tom's mother chains Alex to a pipe, drowning him. Tom and Lynn are met by police. When an officer asks if the house is his, Tom replies that "It is now."

First release year
2018
Runtime (minutes)
96
Production countries
United States
Original languages
English
Directors
Dennis Iliadis
Writers
Adam Alleca · writer
Cast and characters
Topher Grace · Tom Walker; Braden Fitzgerald · Young Tom Walker; Patricia Clarkson · Brody; Callan Mulvey · Alex Walker; Cody Sullivan · Young Alex Walker; Genesis Rodriguez · Lynn; Robin Thomas · Efren Walker; Daisy McCrackin · Mrs. Walker
Genres
supernatural; psychological horror
Themes
Family secrets; Mental illness; Trauma; Isolation
Tone and mood
Supernatural; Psychological; Horror
Setting
A mansion inherited from a senator, featuring an indoor pool and an underground bunker.
Premise and plot tags
House arrest; Hallucinations; Prison escape; Hidden bunker
Source material / true-story basis
Home from a Black List script
Production trivia
The film was scheduled to debut on September 30, 2016, but was pulled from the calendar in July 2016.

Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.

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