Reviewed by Jo Wood
Stars Shirley MacLaine, Perry King, Lisa Kohane, David Elliott,
Michael Hordern, Miriam Colon, Lovelady Powell,
Peter Turgeon, Barbara Trentham, Earle Hyman
Written by Irene Kamp & Matt Robinson
UK certification UK 15 | UK RRP £12.99
DVD Region 2 | Runtime 105 minutes
Directed by Waris Hussein
I'm a bit of a girl when it comes to scary movies, it has to be said, but the fact I had to switch The Possession of Joel Delaney off one evening, only to resume watching when it was light outside, means it was sufficiently disturbing for lone, night-time entertainment. In a world where men are cleanly shaved and baby faced, and women are blue-eyed and breathtakingly beautiful (the 1970s), Shirley MacLaine gives a solid performance as high flying divorcee, protective (verging on incestuous) sister Norah to Joel Delaney (King).
It does exactly what it says on the tin, in as much as Joel is possessed by the spirit of a murderous, decapitating Spaniard. The story is followed through the eyes of Norah, who is stubbornly in denial about the possibility of possession (as one, I suppose, might be), besides the fact Joel occasionally has the odd fit of extreme violence and rambles away in Spanish with a deranged glint in his eye... A year before The Exorcist was made, this horror slowly builds to an effective and chilling climax, without a spinning head or c-word in sight, making it, in my eyes, far more palatable. The brother/sister relationship is bizarre from the off — Norah is clearly besotted by Joel, in one scene flirtingly splashing water at him while he's naked in the shower (my brother would, I'm sure, tell me in no uncertain terms to bugger off if I ever walked in on him in the shower), and glares unflinchingly at any woman who gives him a second glance. Joel panders to her affections but is occasionally scathingly rude to her, hinting to a deeper resentment on his part. While she lives in the 'nice' part of town, he prefers the diverse, edgier, poorer East village, getting mixed up with the wrong crowd, namely Tonio Perez, who's body he is eventually possessed by.
This horror is chilling in the '70s sense. I thought the end was a tad predictable, but perhaps because films since have copied the formula. Well acted and some of the sets decades before their time, in the build up to Halloween this year, seek this film out if you have a burly man or customary cushion to hide behind...
EXTRAS * Commentary by horror experts Kim Newman and Stephen Jones, the theatrical trailer and an image gallery.