The Possession of Joel Delaney

Not for the weak minded
As a fan of horror, I figured I would give this movie a viewing. As you guessed it, the movie concerns possession, but also goes into the 70s culture and seems to pass judgment on the rich. How's that for a horror film?

Shirley MacLaine plays a New York socialite who raises her two children and looks after her brother. Both come from a rich background. Her brother, Joel Delaney, tries to attack his landlord and is taken away raving like a madman. MacLaine, not understanding, proceeds to the psychiatric hospital and starts throwing her ex-husband's name around. After pulling some strings, the brother is released. The rest of the movie brings the gruesome murders for which her brother is now a suspect. He also begins speaking dreadful things in Spanish, but no one remembers him learning fluent Spanish.

The movie is set in the 70s, and the movie tries to show the collision between the Puerto Rican culture and the rich socialite culture. The possession happens when a...

a red rose in Spanish Harlem
Predating "The Exorcist", "Joel Delaney" is the story of wealthy, grating Manhattan socialite Norah Benson (Shirley MacLaine), whose relationship with her brither Joel Delaney (Perry King) is a mite too close. When not busy treating her maid like the furniture and attending the sort of party where someone exclaims that her butler was simply appalled she had taken the bus, Norah start to notice that Joel is acting strangely. Soon after, heads start to roll.

MacLaine is brilliant in this, forcing the audience to care for what is in essence a very unlikeable heroine: Norah is an inveterate snob, an egomaniac (she seems to think that everyone from her ex-husband to her ex-maid should drop everything to come to her aid immediately) and has a relationship with her brother that borders on incestuous. Shirley still draws you in, showing the basic goodness and humanity in Norah. A very young Perry King is also very good here, flitting from sweetness to madness in a blink...

AN UNUSUAL HORROR TALE.....
Shirley MacLaine plays Nora, an aloof, privileged, divorced mother of two living in Manhattan. She's kept herself emotionally and socially distant from people and things she considers beneath her status. But when her beloved younger brother Joel (Perry King) begins having a severe and frightening personality change after moving into an apartment previously inhabited by a now deceased young serial killer, she's forced to confront realities she's hardly prepared to deal with. Then murders similar to the serial killer's occur. Racial undertones (the killer was Puerto Rican) and the occult blend somewhat uneasily in the film, but this is balanced by the truly creepy atmosphere, the acting and some disturbing sequences that made my skin crawl. The final sequence at the beach house is shocking. This is a horror film that is not for all tastes. For instance, there's a hint or two that Nora's feelings for Joel may go beyond just brother & sister. Also Nora's character is not your usual horror...

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