Delusion, the new Netflix thriller from Thailand, shows the pain that families go through while taking care of elderly family members suffering from dementia.
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families → show → dementia
But this show adds the complication of people thinking that the person with dementia is possessed by a murderous spirit.
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person → add → spirit
A teenager runs through the woods late at night.
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teenager → run → night
Then we see an elderly man staring at a wall inside his house.
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man → see → house
Suddenly he gets up and pulls a large knife that’s under his mattress, scaring his wife.
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that → get → wife
Wan (Natapohn Phornprapha) is in the middle of a reception she organized for the anniversary of her ex-husband’s company.
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she → organize → 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.
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father → get → knife
She takes her son Aim (Norraphat Nakadumrongchai) out of the reception over her ex’s objections and drives him to her parents’ house.
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She → take → house
Narong disappears into the night and is found by Pete (Jespipat Tilapornputt), a local police detective.
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Narong → disappear → Pete
At the hospital, Wan finds out that Narong has dementia, which is why he is becoming unpredictable and aggressive.
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he → find → dementia
But people in town seem to think that he is possessed by the spirit Phii Pong, which guts frogs and kills people it encounters.
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it → seem → people
Wan’s brother Wat (August Vachiravit Paisarnkulwong), a doctor, doesn’t buy the spiritual theory.
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brother → buy → theory
Neither does Wan, though her mother thinks the possession angle is more possible than dementia.
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angle → do → dementia
What Shows Will It Remind You Of?
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It → remind → You
Delusion has a similar feel to a supernatural-based thriller like From.
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Delusion → have → From
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.
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they → direct → what
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.
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he → have → Pong
That certainly comes through in the first episode, with even Wan’s mother in denial about her husband’s illness.
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mother → come → 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.
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people → go → family
Can Narong actually be a suspect, even if whatever he may have done was done while he was in a compromised mental state?
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he → do → 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?
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who → find → 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?
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people → overtake → children
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.
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she → have → son
And we haven’t even gotten to people thinking he’s possessed yet.
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he → get → ?
Narong looks into the camera of the tablet that Aim dropped while running from someone in the woods late at night.
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Aim → look → night
What was Aim doing there?
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Aim → do → What
He was looking for his grandfather.
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He → look → grandfather
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.
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show → have → patience
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie.
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he → write → himself
His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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writing → appear → Times
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