NOW ON NETFLIX! Glenn Close is closer to finally getting that Oscar thanks to her stellar work in the stumbling exorcism picture The Deliverance, directed by Lee Daniels and written by David Coggeshall and Elijah Bynum. Based on a true story, the movie is set in 2011 in Gary, Indiana, where Ebony (Andra Day) has moved with her three children: Nate (Caleb McLaughlin), Shante (Demi Singleton), and Andre (Anthony B. Jenkins). Ebony’s mother, Alberta (Glenn Close), is there to help out, even if it is wearing on Ebony’s already thin nerves.
Ebony is laying off the alcohol as she had a catastrophe that almost got her kids taken away. Cynthia Henry (Mo’ Nique) is breathing down her neck as her kids are bruised up and acting out. This kind of acting out starts getting messy and violent, with all the fingers pointing Ebony’s way. But they don’t know about the strange noises from the fly-speckled basement, which lured Andre down there on the night he was accidentally locked down there. He hasn’t been the same since returning up, acting increasingly demonic. The Reverend Bernice James (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) is concerned and is monitoring the family in her car, as she doesn’t want what happened to the other family that lived in the house to happen to this one.
“…strange noises from the fly-speckled basement, which lured Andre down there…”
So obviously, The Deliverance is a horror movie, as any ambivalence about whether it is the supernatural at work is thoroughly laid to rest by the time the shape-changing begins. It takes the long route by starting off as a drama, completely establishing the characters and the crucial stakes they already face in their lives before Satan bounces in. These dramatic sections are the best part of the movie, as the acting and small details are superb.
The emphasis on the hard drama was so strong, at one point, I thought Daniels was preparing us for something really fresh and new for the possession subgenre. Maybe the director was following the Bill Gunn playbook and was going to make The Deliverance do for demons what Ganja & Hess did for vampires. But alas, we do not get a dramatic reworking of the concept of what a horror film could be. It turns out all the drama was just a promising slow burn that is quickly doused by a flood of weak tea.
"…a promising slow burn that is quickly doused by a flood of weak tea."
