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Supernatural terror has the power to be about something more than spooky ghosts and hauntings depending on the other ingredients added. The Deliverance is a chance to center the familiar exorcism story on a black family that has fallen on hard times. In the hand of director Lee Daniels, however, this dose of horror feels more by-the-numbers than adding a new flavor to this tired and bland subgenre.
There is at least some bite to this picture. Andra Day melts into her role as Ebony Jackson, an overworked, alcholic, and distraught single mother with too much on her plate. Her three kids continue to frustrate her and presence of her sick mother, Alberta (Glenn Close), only complicates matters further. The anxiety soon turns to terror when strange things start happening around the house. While Ebony starts drinking harder, her children start misbehaving in school by leaking bodily fluids in a few ways. Watching her struggle with her problems and shout back at all who refuse to help is great drama for a handful of scenes, especially with backup from Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as the wise reverend and Mo’Nique as the scrutinizing social worker.
Close and Day put on fine performances, but they’re carrying this film that seems to stumble around its tale of exorcism. Sometimes the film leans more towards The Babadook by highlighting manifesting fury of a parent losing control. But then the picture veers off into the more traditional exorcism route by pushing out all the Christ tactics. That said, it’s been some a minute since I’ve seen an exorcism film where stigmata and speaking in tongues are in play. This admiration is more the dusting of these tropes than finding anything all that compelling to do with them.
So much of this film feels as though it’s stumbling around in the dark trying to find some greater importance. There are hints of a better movie peppered in the most raw moments of drama before talk of demons and ghosts is on the table. Ebony’s plight feels relatable and Day’s performance sells it well. Close also gives a fine performance, though I doubt that fact will surprise many. But she can only do so much in a film where she becomes possessed by a black demon called Tre that forces her to talk about “nappy pussy.”
The Deliverance is an uneven cocktail of decent drama and haggard horror. Part of me wishes the film had stuck to more of a route akin to The Babadook, where the allegory of loss and single-parenthood takes on a monstrous form without clear-cut solutions. Rather than find a usual tool for the paranormal terror, Lee Daniels merely spills them out on the floor and hopes that something forms in the mess of possession and prayers. Much like the characters who speak in tongues, it’s mostly gibberish that comes out of this assembly.
