Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Delusion’ On Netflix, Where A Man With Dementia Is Accused Of Being A Possessed Killer

Delusion, the new Netflix thriller from Thailand, shows the pain that families go through while taking care of elderly family members suffering from dementia. But this show adds the complication of people thinking that the person with dementia is possessed by a murderous spirit.

DELUSION: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A teenager runs through the woods late at night. Then we see an elderly man staring at a wall inside his house. Suddenly he gets up and pulls a large knife that’s under his mattress, scaring his wife.

The Gist: Wan (Natapohn Phornprapha) is in the middle of a reception she organized for the anniversary of her ex-husband’s company. She gets a call from her mother Panee (Tom Siriani Yankittikan), telling her about how her father Narong (Nu-Surasak Chaiyaat) has been stalking the house with that knife. She takes her son Aim (Norraphat Nakadumrongchai) out of the reception over her ex’s objections and drives him to her parents’ house.

Narong disappears into the night and is found by Pete (Jespipat Tilapornputt), a local police detective. At the hospital, Wan finds out that Narong has dementia, which is why he is becoming unpredictable and aggressive. But people in town seem to think that he is possessed by the spirit Phii Pong, which guts frogs and kills people it encounters. Wan’s brother Wat (August Vachiravit Paisarnkulwong), a doctor, doesn’t buy the spiritual theory. Neither does Wan, though her mother thinks the possession angle is more possible than dementia.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Delusion has a similar feel to a supernatural-based thriller like From.

Our Take: Delusion, directed and co-written by Chayan Laoyodtrakool, moves slowly in its first episode, but it sets up an interesting conflict between what people believe and what they see. Wan and her family have to deal with a devastating circumstance, which is managing Narong’s dementia, while fighting surrounding townspeople who are convinced that he is possessed by Phii Pong. That certainly comes through in the first episode, with even Wan’s mother in denial about her husband’s illness.

But Narong’s wanderings and other events where people go missing or are found dead is going to concentrate people’s anger on Wan’s family. Can Narong actually be a suspect, even if whatever he may have done was done while he was in a compromised mental state? Can the idea of Phii Pong find enough critical mass to make people forget that they’re going after an elderly man who needs memory care? And just when does the spiritual explanation overtake the scientific and practical one, just as a way for people to be able to explain something extreme like missing and murdered children?

Performance Worth Watching: Natapohn Phornprapha has to keep a stoic exterior as Wan, but we know that she’s feeling the weight of being a caretaker for both her son and father. And we haven’t even gotten to people thinking he’s possessed yet.

Parting Shot: Narong looks into the camera of the tablet that Aim dropped while running from someone in the woods late at night. What was Aim doing there? He was looking for his grandfather.

Our Call:STREAM IT. Delusion has an interesting mix of supernatural thriller and stark exploration of what it means to take care of elderly parents, but the show takes a little bit of patience to get into.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.