‘You pay for the whole seat – you only use the edge!’
Dear Dead Delilah is a 1972 American Southern Gothic horror film written and directed by author John Farris (Masters of Horror: ‘I Scream. You Scream. We All Scream for Ice Cream’; The Fury; When Michael Calls). It stars Agnes Moorehead, Will Geer and Michael Ansara.
Nashville: The stern matriarch of a family that lives in a huge mansion finds that a killer is hiding in the house, searching for a $500,000 fortune rumored to be hidden there and chopping off the heads of anyone who gets in the way…
Reviews:
“Moorehead, whose last film this was, is the one gem. She wears a brown wig and the only cast member who speaks in a Southern accent that sounds genuine. Her constant frowning facial expression is entertaining and helps enliven this otherwise poor excuse of a film with every scene that she is in […] The film does boast some graphic murders that seem well ahead of its time in the grisly department.” Scopophilia
“At times it has the cardboard drive-in vibe of S.F. Brownrigg (Don’t Look in the Basement, Don’t Open the Door) but its flashes of dreamy surrealism, and taste for broad soap opera theatrics also brings David Lynch to mind. It is a bit rough around the edges (me likey) but it truly accomplishes some striking moments of eerie weirdness. Best of all, the various deaths of the conniving family members are as strong as anything in Bay of Blood or Friday the 13th.” Lance Vaughan, Kindertrauma
” …it’s cheap, uninspired, flaccidly directed, and what very few interesting ideas it has are poorly handled. It was another of those movies that came in the wake of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane) in which an older actress graces a horror movie with her presence; in this case, Agnes Moorehead, who seems to be on autopilot here (it would be her last movie).” Dave Sindelar, Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings
“Director-writer John Farris spends a lot of time focusing on the family strife, but it is pretty apparent who is behind all of the killing when it all starts to go down (hint: when only certain characters know about another certain character’s criminal past, they just might be the killers).” William S. Wilson, Indiana Junkie and the Temple of Box Office Receipts
“One of the lower profile entries in the grand guignol cycle begun in the 1960s, Dear Dead Delilah is bloody fun all the way, boasting some wonderfully gory murders, and hammy acting all around. One gets the feeling Moorehead had a ball with this, her final film.” The Terror Trap
Main cast:
Agnes Moorehead (Frankenstein: the True Story; Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte; The Bat), Will Geer (Seconds), Michael Ansara (The Manitou; Day of the Animals; It’s Alive), Dennis Patrick (House of Dark Shadows; Dark Shadows TV series; The Time Travelers), Anne Meacham (The Gardener; Seizure), Robert Gentry, Patricia Carmichael, Elizabeth Eis (Dark Shadows TV series), Ruth Baker, Ann Gibbs, John Marriott, William Kerwin (Playgirl Killer; writer of Love Goddesses of Blood Island and co-writer of Sting of Death).
Choice dialogue:
Delilah Charles [Agnes Moorehead]: “How can I destroy people when they’ve already succeeded in destroying themselves?”
Delilah Charles [Agnes Moorehead]: “There’s no hatred burns like the hatred of the chronically weak!”
Filming locations:
Nashville, Tennessee, USA
