DELIVERANCE, THE

(director: Lee Daniels; screenwriters: David Coggeshall, Elijah Bynum; cinematographer: Eli Arenson; editor: Stan Salfas; music: Lucas Vidal; cast: Andra Day (Ebony), Glenn Close (Alberta), Mo’Nique (Cynthia Henry), Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (Rev. Bernice James), Anthony B. Jenkins (Andre), Miss Lawrence (Asia), Demi Singleton (Shante), Tasha Smith (Pastor Powell), Omar Epps (Melvin), Caleb McLaughlin (Nate); Runtime: 112; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Lee Daniels, Tucker Tooley, Pamela Oas Williams, Jackson Nguyen, Todd Crites; Netflix; 2024)

“When the supernatural dominates the story in its second half, the domestic story stops mattering.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Lee Daniels (“Precious”/”The Paperboy”) directs this messy haunted house supernatural horror pic that affects a single mom and her family. It’s written by David Coggeshall and Elijah Bynum, and is inspired by the true story of the Indiana woman Latoya Ammons. She believed there were evil spirits in her home that possessed her children.


Ebony (Andra Day) is the mixed-race, financially downcast matriarch, who despite being an alcoholic and having a volatile relationship with her white mother Alberta (Glenn Close), manages to keep the family together.

The film opens in 2011 Pittsburgh. Ebony and her young dreamer son Andre (Anthony B. Jenkins) fix things up before moving into their new home. Meanwhile Ebony’s mother Alberta, a recent Christian convert, attends church with the older kids–Shante (Demi Singleton) and Nate (Caleb McLaughlin). The itinerant, impoverished family is weary from their travails and of being without their absentee father away on military duty.

Life for the family is carefully sketched out in the early scenes.

Ebony has anger-management problems, Alberta attends weekly chemotherapy sessions. Nate tries to protect himself from local bullies, Andre likes being alone and Shante badly misses his father.

Cynthia Henry (Mo’Nique) is a social worker from the Child Protective Services who uncovers that Ebony is abusing her kids, as abuse runs in the family history.

If things could get worse they do, as creaking doors, strange footsteps, and a dead crow haunt the house with evil spirits. Ebony, in desperation, seeks help from Rev. Bernice James (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor).

When the supernatural dominates the story in its second half, the domestic story stops mattering.

REVIEWED ON 8/23/2024  GRADE: C
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