The Deliverance – A Big Generic and Poorly Paced Miss

The Deliverance is the newest film from director Lee Daniels and marks his first foray into the horror genre. Set in 2011, the story follows single mother Ebony Jackson (Day) who moves her family, including her religious mother Alberta (Close) and her three children, Nate (Caleb McLaughlin), Shante (Demi Singleton), and Andre (Jenkins), to a home in Indiana where they discover strange, demonic occurrences that convince them and the community that the house is a portal to hell. A film that had a lot of potential behind it, from Daniels, to the four Academy award winning or nominated actresses in the cast (Day, Close, Mo’Nique, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) who aren’t typically known to do horror, the end result is a rather pedestrian and overall forgettable tale.

While there is a lot to like here, the biggest has to be its aforementioned cast. Day is given far and away the most to do as Ebony, delivering a great performance that is honestly more than this film deserves. Playing a very flawed but fascinating individual, she carries the film on her shoulders. Close’s Alberta, meanwhile, is a campy and hammy role that doesn’t entirely fit the tone of the film but Close is arguably the most entertaining part of the film. She is great regardless of what she’s doing and it’s nice to see her in something so outside her comfort zone. The chemistry between Day and Close is a highlight, working to generate the most hard hitting moments in the film. Now, while they aren’t given as much to do, Ellis-Taylor and Mo’Nique are rock solid in supporting roles, as Rev Bernice James and Cynthia Henry respectively. The first half of this isn’t anything special, however, offers some compelling family drama to accompany its supernatural elements. Though nothing particularly deep or original, it works at what it set out to do but all that goodwill goes out the window come the second half.

The second half of the film essentially drops all of what the first half set up and devolves into a generic exorcism film that audiences have seen countless times before. While a sense of familiarity can be fine as long as it is well-executed, the execution here feels like it has been ripped off from better works and none of it is even scary or remotely creepy in the slightest. The jump scares are lazy, easily telegraphed, and don’t work at all, and the atmosphere is never as creepy or unsettling as it clearly strives to be. That being said, though it is noble that the film attempts to explore family drama and supernatural horror simultaneously, it struggles to balance these tones and therefore winds up confused for a large part of its sub 2-hour runtime. The final act is rough to get through, nearly going off the rails with an overly ridiculous finale which causes its runtime to feel a bit bloated.

In the end, it is nice to see a director like Lee Daniels try to tackle the horror genre, and assembling a mostly all black cast in doing so, but it is a shame that in spite of his good intentions, The Deliverance is a bit of a miss with a lot more lows than highs. While it boasts a lot of talented people both in front of and behind the camera, the filmmaking and writing constantly lets its talented cast down and strands them in an utterly generic and poorly paced horror film.

still courtesy of Netflix

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/