Many of our favorite supernatural horror movies are said to be based on true stories. Rev up the search engine and type in “The Amityville Horror” or “Poltergeist” or the “Conjuring” movies or “The Exorcism of Emily Rose,” and you’ll find information detailing how these films were inspired by “real-life events.”
I use quotation marks because while I don’t doubt that at least some of the humans involved in such stories genuinely believe they experienced otherworldly hauntings, possessions, etc., my skepticism runs high. I mean, it’s not like we’ve ever seen a ghost from the 19th century or a trash-talking demonic spirit helping publicize these films, right?
So now we arrive at Lee Daniels’ effectively chilling albeit somewhat formulaic horror story “The Deliverance,” which is inspired by the story of Latoya Ammons and her family after they moved into a rental home in Gary, Indiana, in 2011, and reportedly experienced all sorts of strange and disturbing paranormal activity. (Spoiler alert: No demons were ever arrested in the case.)
While the family in “The Deliverance” mirrors the mother-grandmother-children dynamic of the Ammons family, and many of the things the Ammons claimed to have experienced are depicted here, this is a purely fictional feature film and a wickedly entertaining one at that. The wonderfully talented Andra Day gives a ferociously powerful lead performance, and there’s strong work from the supporting ensemble, including Mo’Nique and Glenn Close, with the latter turning in some of the looniest character work she’s ever done, and I mean that in a good way.
Three years after Lee Daniels and Andra Day teamed up for “The United States vs. Billie Holliday,” with Day receiving an Oscar nomination and winning a Golden Globe, they make for an impressive creative duo once again in a very different genre. Day delivers grounded, authentic work as Ebony Jackson, an alcoholic and single mother of three (her estranged husband is in Iraq) who lives in a rental home and is struggling to make a go of it.
Her flinty and acerbic mother Alberta (Glenn Close) also lives with the family, and oh is she a piece of work. When Alberta isn’t criticizing her daughter (“This catfish got too much garlic … who taught you how to cook like this? Not me”), she’s donning risqué outfits and flirting with intention with men half her age, even when she’s getting her chemotherapy treatments. (Based on Ebony’s interactions with her mother, we get the impression Alberta was a nightmare of a mother and is perhaps trying in her own way to make up for it now. She IS a good grandmother.) Complicating matters: the frequent pop-in visits from social worker Cynthia Henry (Mo’Nique), who is concerned about the children’s poor performances at school and worried that Ebony might be drinking again and is neglecting the kids.
Glenn Close plays Ebony’s acerbic mother Alberta.
Life is hard and complicated enough, and that’s BEFORE the supernatural stuff hits the fan. As is usually the case with these haunted house movies, the disturbances start relatively small before all hell breaks loose. The Obligatory Door to the Ominous Cellar keeps creaking open. Footsteps are heard in the middle of the night. Youngest child Dre carries on conversations with an imaginary friend named Tre. And yikes, what’s that smell in house?
With the music by Lucas Vidal and the cinematography by Eli Arenson contributing to the increasing sense of dread, “The Deliverance” digs its claws into the viewer with some nicely delivered jump scares and genuinely weird and creepy VFX, as Ebony’s children get caught in the grips of whatever is inhabiting their home. “This house is making [my children] sick,” says Ebony, but of course the authorities don’t believe her, and the family keeps on living at the house, because that’s what happens in scary movies.
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor is terrific as Rev. Bernice James, who tells Ebony about the family that lived in the house 20 years ago and fell victim to its evil, with the youngest boy eventually dying. Upon learning that Dre’s make-believe friend is named Tre — the same name as that little boy who was killed 20 years ago—Bernice tells Ebony, “That’s no friend. That’s the devil. Ebony, that demon wants your son.”
Time for the good reverend to summon all her powers and perform a “deliverance” of Dre, to rid him of that pesky and taunting devil that has taken possession of him. We’ll leave it to you to discover what happens next but suffice to say that when all is said and done, Ebony and the family might be looking to move to another house.
