Written by David Coggeshall And Elijah Bynum
Directed by Lee Daniels
Alberta (possessed to Ebony): "I should have flushed your ass down the toilet when you were just a blood clot!"
I've been keen to catch up on this one. For a movie that temporarily inspired a Twitter meme and was based on a true story, I was hoping this would have a bit more to it. I hate to say it, but I was a tad underwhelmed here.
Anyways, we've got struggling single mother Ebony Jackson (Andra Day). She's got three kids - Nathan (Caleb McLaughlin), Shanti (Demi Singleton) and Andre (Anthony B. Jenkins) and she's just moved into a new home. It's a home that she didn't tell her social worker, Cynthia (Mo'Nique) about and that last bit might be the least of Ebony's problems.
The movie established that Ebony had a drinking problem and could be violent at times. We get an example of that when she dealt with a kid who bullied Andre but then there's her contentious relationship with her now religious mother, Alberta (Glenn Close).
Personally, I'd say the dynamic between Ebony and Alberta would be the highlight of the movie. With the latter dying of cancer, Ebony goes from trying to pay Alberta's medical expenses to constantly reminding her of her shortcomings and the crappy childhood she had. Basically the way Ebony treats her own children wasn't dissimilar to how she was treated as a child herself.
Getting to the horror aspect of this movie, Ebony had to move into a haunted house and it's not long before everyone in that house became infected by it's demonic presence. The kids ended up with bruises and had to be hospitalised, while Ebony had blackouts and terrified her children without remembering what was going on.
Of course, this did lead into a rather sluggish third act where that meme moment from Alberta was given its context. On top of that, Ebony teamed up with Reverend Bernice James (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) to save her children as well as making a believer out of Cynthia. The ending does come across as very rushed if I'm being honest.
- The movie is based on the real life Ammons haunting case from 2011 in Indiana. They mention the case at the end of the movie.
- Omar Epps pops up briefly as Melvin in the movie.
- Standout music: Andra Day's I Know Who Holds Tomorrow.
- Chronology: The movie is based in Indiana but ended with Ebony taking her children back to Philadelphia to reunite with their father.
As a horror movie, The Deliverance had one or two decent moments but it's a bit too schlocky even for my tastes. The pacing was all over the place and the actual scares and demon stuff were sluggish to watch. There's some good performances but not enough to make this a movie I'd want to watch again.
Rating: 5 out of 10
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