Set in 2011 in Pennsylvania, Ebony Jackson (Andra Day) is an alcoholic single mother who is prone to anger and violence who struggles to care for her children Nate (Caleb McLaughlin), Shante (Demi Singleton), and Andre (Anthony B. Jenkins) while taking help from her cancer ridden mother Alberta (Glenn Close). As she deals with strained finances and a new house that is rife with problems, Andre begins exhibiting odd behaviors that defy rational explanation.
The Deliverance comes to us from director Lee Daniels and writers David Coggeshall and Elijah Bynum and takes inspiration from the 2011 Ammons haunting case which became a widely publicized alleged haunting that attracted an inordinate amount of media attention and became something of an Amityville Horror for the new generation. The case attracted attention from both skeptics and paranormalists including Zak Bagans who bought the house and made the 2018 documentary Demon House and much like the Lutz family's experiences in Amityville, many have written off the events as a psychological phenomenon rather than a supernatural one. Credibility aside, there was certainly room to make a compelling story from this material, after all: The Conjuring series has been reasonably well-regarded despite the questions about Ed and Loraine Warren's work. Unfortunately while The Deliverance has a good cast and proven director in place that seem interesting, the actual execution is very standard reworking of tropes we've seen time and time again that have long since worn out their welcome.
If there's anything to be said for the film, it's definitely that Daniels has assembled a strong and committed cast who bring their A game to the material. Andra Day who was nominated for an Academy Award for her role as Billie Holliday in her last colab with Daniels is still very good here as she really sells it playing someone who's barely holding it together and wants to do right by her children but is unwilling or unable to actually follow through on it. Day creates a compellingly flawed character and for all the faults of the film, her performance isn't one of them. The three children played by Anthony B. Jenkins, Caleb McLaughlin and Demi Singleton also do well in their respective roles (even if they are playing very standard archetypes for a movie like this) and you get that sense of pain and sadness that comes from this situation. Glenn Close is also good as Alberta who helps Ebony while also nursing wounds between the two of them that led them to this point and you can see the two working well off each other.
While dramatically speaking The Deliverance seems like it has a rich setup, the actual execution of what it's supposed to be, a horror movie, is turgid and just not scary. Watching The Deliverance, you get the sense that Daniels really wasn't all that interested in making a horror movie as it's nearly 40 minutes or so before the tension ramps up and during that opening act it really feels like it's playing as more of a domestic drama than a horror film. Once Daniels gets into the horror elements his inexperience as a genre filmmaker really shows as he does have scenes of "shocking" material but with the way it's shot there's no surprise factor and with one major flashback sequence it takes what's supposed to be a horrifying revelation and makes it seem almost funny with how it's staged. If you've seen films like The Exorcist or The Amityville Horror this follows many of those same tropes like self mutilation, white eyed fugue states, and bizarre behavior, and while Daniels tries to up the shock factor with scenes like Andre defecating in class and then throwing the feces you just become aware that this material isn't working. The movie seems aware of the inevitable comparisons that'll be made to The Exorcist to the point it even name drops that film in its third act, and this does not do the movie any favors because the climax takes so many elements from that film that it doesn't matter they try to justify it by calling it a "Deliverance" it's still essentially the same result.
The Deliverance sees Daniels trying to step outside his usual dramatic comfort zone in favor of something in the genre space but it just does not work. As a horror film it's reliant on tropes that no longer have any surprise factor to them, and Daniels frames scenes that should be shocking with the punch and impact of a feather. I will say that at least unlike The Exorcist: Believer, I was never mad at The Deliverance but I also wasn't entertained either save for the acting of a "too good for this" cast.
