Film Review: The Deliverance

Director: Lee Daniels

Studio: Lee Daniels Entertainment

Genre: Horror, Supernatural, Religious

Format: Streaming

Money is tight and mom Ebony (Andra Day) is stressed and unhappy. So are her three kids and her mother, Alberta (Glenn Close), who just moved in with them and is receiving cancer treatment. Ebony is broke, a recovering alcoholic, and has a temper. “Mother of the year,” one of her children calls her, after she slaps him for being disrespectful.

Protective Services also has it out for Ebony, racking up the tension even more. Things go from bad to worse when the children start behaving strangely, especially her youngest, Andre, who has a new imaginary friend, “Tre,” he talks to in another language.

Most horror movies have the same recipe: weird, bad smells; flies and rot; the youngest sibling having conversations with someone who doesn’t appear to be there; things showing up where they shouldn’t be; a family with secrets and trauma. The Deliverance has all of that, but it lacks something important, which is levity.

The tone of this movie is pretty bleak, a little more so than most horror movies. In The Conjuring, we have the love and warmth of a very connected family to balance out the horror happening on screen. In Attack the Block, we are given laughs alongside the scares. Here, there are no laughs to be found. The family is deeply fractured and struggling to connect. There is only one real moment of bonding between the characters – when Ebony buys her daughter a new phone for her birthday, despite barely having the money for it.

I wish more of these moments had been available to us before the children and house were taken over by the demonic presence. Because while the plot had all the makings of a decent horror flick, we didn’t have the levity or emotional connection to the family to help carry us through the heaviness of this film. And, boy, there is a lot of it.

There are also a lot of overtly religious plot points that might feel unfamiliar to a watcher of typical horror movies. Director Lee Daniels has confirmed his intention with this, stating the film is less about demons and more about a “journey in finding Jesus.” This makes it a different kind of watch and pulls it out of solid horror territory. 

I wanted to feel more positive about this one. We have several excellent actors – Andra Day, Glenn Close, Mo’Nique, and Caleb McLaughlin – but most of them are underutilized, not given a script with enough nuance to really explore their characters.

This movie was still scary, though! If the goal is to watch something that will frighten you, The Deliverance will deliver.

Available on Netflix

Review By Chelsea Catherine
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