Filmmaker Lee Daniels is facing backlash over comments he made about a white character, played by Glenn Close in his new film The Deliverance.
via: The Independent
The horror film is currently the most-watched title on Netflix and has led to many discovering the story of “the Demon House”, which saw an Indiana family claim they were haunted by a demonic presence and swarms of unkillable flies in 2011.
With the movie, Daniels, whose past credits include Precious and The Butler, has taken a foray into the horror genre – he even claimed strange occurrences plagued production.
The film stars Andra Day, Mo’nique and Close, with the eight-time Oscar nominee playing Alberta, the chain-smoking mother of Day’s character.
By the end of the film, Close’s character is being exorcised by a priest, which shows the actor disappear into one of her roles in a way film fans have not see before.
As part of these scenes, she utters a phrase that has since gone viral on social media, following the film’s release on Friday (30 August).
While being possessed by a demon, in a scene reminiscent of The Exorcist, the character sniffs and says to her daughter: “I can smell your nappy pussy.”
One viewer shared a clip of the film, writing:” Lee Daniel’s you will pay for your crimes for having Glenn Close say this,” to which Daniels replied: “Had to do it.”
Daniels has repeatedly praised Close for her performance, promising viewers ahead of its addition to Netflix: “Y’all are not ready for Glenn in this.”
Speaking about the role, the filmmaker wrote: “Every Black person knows an Alberta. She’s part of the fabric of our community, but we’ve never seen her on screen before. Thank you Glenn for bringing her magnificently to life.”
Of course people took issue to what Lee had to say, and aired their grievances on social media because they had a problem with Lee making a character who they say is actually black a white woman:
The Indianapolis Star article the film is based on chronicled claims made by Latoya Ammons, who said her family were haunted by evil spirits after hearing unexplained footsteps in the basement and seeing a shadowy figure of a man pacing back and forth in the living room.
Ammons also claimed that she saw her 12-year-old daughter levitating above her bed one night, and that all three children were possessed by demons who contorted their faces and deepened their voices.
Both the seven and nine-year-old boys were admitted to hospital, at which point the nine-year-old was claimed to have walked backward up a wall and onto the ceiling.
The Deliverance is available to stream on Netflix now.
While I believe that Lee's comment regarding women like Glenn's character being a "fabric of the black community" was a poor choice of words, we're not going to act like white women like her do not exist in poor black-dominated neighborhoods.
As for The Deliverance, as a horror movie fan I thought it was just ok. In regards to supernatural horror Lee brought nothing new to the table, and while I love Glenn as an actress, who's also underrated, it did feel like Lee put her in the film to chew up the scenery.
The over-the-top Tyler Perry-isms took away from the core point of the story, and tonally the film was all over the place.
The film should have just focused on a struggling single mother trying to protect her children from supernatural evil forces, and less on the hood rat trauma tropes often thrusted in films centered on black families.
I also had issues with the pacing of the film, and while we don't get enough horror-thrillers centered on a black families, The Deliverance felt like a poor man's version of The Conjuring.
Aunjanue Ellis Taylor, Andra Day and Mo'Nique also did their thing in the film, but all everyone wants to talk about it Glenn's performance, which, to be expected she chewed up every scene she was in.
However by the time we got to the third act where Aunjanue and Andra's characters try to exercise the demon from Ebony's youngest son I had already checked out of the film.
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