Horror Movie Blog > Horror Movie Reviews > The Deliverance 2024 Review
The Deliverance, produced by Lee Daniels, is Netflix's current supernatural horror hit, but is it worth a watch?
The movie, heavily inspired by The Exorcist, is based on the true story of LaToya Ammons, a single mother whose family was apparently haunted by some evil spirits.
In the film, Ebony Jackson (Andra Day) and her three kids move into yet another home, this time in Pittsburgh with Ebony’s mother, Alberta (Glenn Close). The family is struggling, Ebony has issues with alcohol, Child Protective Services monitors them because of her past, and the kids’ father has left for Iraq.
To make matters worse, strange noises fill the house, and the youngest child, Andre, has a disturbing imaginary friend who claims it lives in the basement and closet. Oh, and a mysterious woman is watching the house and then the shit starts to hit the fan.
The Deliverance delivers some good dialogue but apart from that, it just doesn’t do much more. The story is pretty standard and Lee Daniels doesn’t stray far from the usual horror formula but adds some soap opera-level family drama into the mix.
If the film was just a family drama and stayed on that path, it would have worked better as the horror is pretty weak and unimpressive and simply put, you have seen it all before, only better as the scares just don't deliver (Pun intended) as they are predictable and you end up just rolling your eyes a lot of the time.
Nothing really stands out as it's just very bog standard.
You really have trouble connecting with the characters in this one, or at least I had trouble. They are all pretty one dimensional and with the film being almost two hours long, we do get some attempts at character development but you never really get to know the family or care about them.
The film just gets lost trying to juggle intense family drama with exaggerated supernatural horror and what starts as a promising story slowly turns awkward, and at times, unintentionally funny.
Despite some decent performances from Andra Day and Glenn Close, Lee Daniels doesn’t quite succeed in building the sort of gripping atmosphere it needs, and the movie could been better if it had gone for a more subtle, less formulaic approach.
And the ending is just a mess.
Watch The Conjuring on Netflix instead as after you have watched The Deliverance, you will be asking yourself why you didn't just watch countless other movies you have been meaning to watch instead.
It just isn't worth watching. [The Deliverance on IMDB]
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