Respected director Lee Daniels comes closer to horror by exploring the subject of a demonically possessed family. The Deliverance further knocks the audience out by touching on themes of abuse – alcoholism and the attempt to put the dysfunctional family in order within a chilling supernatural context. Andra Day and an almost unrecognizable Glenn Close lead a very talented cast through this raw and savage rite of passage. In an unapologetic view of Christianity, they find redemption in Jesus Christ their savior. Daniels is clear in his own belief. There is no compulsion to accept his views and yet this is a moving experience on numerous levels.
A year later, in 2011 Pittsburgh, Kyra Ebony Jackson (Day) moves in with her three kids and her mother, Berta (Close), who is sick with cancer into an old house. Kyra is biracial and alcoholic, and her relationship with her mother, a flirtatious and life-loving people, who repudiated to move past her sin and has became born again, is shaken. The young girl Ebony has been seen several times in the film but in cut to the jump or short sequences and is in some abusive boyfriend of Berta’s. Ebony has never forgiven Berta for this betrayal but has tolerated and even aided Berta in her chemotherapy.
Andre, Ebony’s youngest son played by Anthony B. Jenkins, starts to talk to an imaginary companion and holds complex conversations that seem strange even him. Ebony loves her son too much to oo her age and allow those kinds of things. Those are the types of things that one read about in stories. There isn’t any townhouse where this Sheila resides, bill collectors are after her every minute of every day in a month ending her self esteem and that of her older teenagers is out. Nate, Caleb McLaughlin and Shante, Demi Singleton tread carefully round their fiery parent. She’s not one to tolerate nonsense and is quite abusive when undermined.
Ebony’s Children have always been under the watch of the Child Outreach program due to previous mistakes of yii’s. At a city agency, social worker Cynthia Henry, Mo’Nique feels a bit of a scare with that volatile Ebony, looking at her in particular as an inadequate parent. She has concerns about the children she looks after. Cynthia is stunned when Nate, Shante and Andre start to exhibit signs that should not be there in normal circumstances. Now a scared Ebony has no idea what was happening to those kids. Berta wonders, is it really possible for her to be the one held accountable. They are both oblivious to the dark history of their new home.
Daniels, an Oscar-nominated producer known for Monster’s Ball amongst others and writer-director of Precious, uses an intense and intimidating style to depict the tenuous peace between Ebony and Berta in the graphic picture. They hiss and insult in a sharp voice that will hurt your ears. The women do make attempts to trust one another, but both have been made weak by their respective experiences as mothers. Berta did not shield Ebony from sexual exploitation. This caused Ebony to become an angry, alcoholic woman. Anger was her armor against heartache. She can’t help feeling rage or revulsion rather, but instead understands perfectly how such emotions impact her children.
In comparison, Ebony is determined to be superior to Berta. With her world crumbling down, she is barely managing to stay upright. You feel for her, even with her many shortcomings. Unsurprisingly, Day is magnificent as a disturbed mother trying to convince everyone that she is not mad. She is easily the most painted picture as a devil. Ebony has to persuade Cynthia that she is not to be held liable for what is wrong in her house. But this is a hard pitch when looking from the outside, the negative side clearly overshadows the positive. Day calls on and manages to use every drop of her emotional fluids to show distraught before she finds the will to go against evil incarnate.
On screen, Berta is that one character who doesn’t feature often. She is a white woman on a black end as much as possible. The comfort of Black hairstyles is given when braiding amore of Two characters—Ebony and Shante–hair. Race is not the reason for her separation from Ebony. To Berta’s daughter, Berta is a huge bitch, that said she cannot be written off. This created a deep and special type of connection, a shared trauma but with love underneath their anger and hatred. Close gives a stunning performance in one of the best roles of her successful career.
The Deliverance abruptly starts its second act as an intense family drama and then transforms into a bone chilling horror film. Daniels takes the excesses of William Friedkin’s The Exorcist spirit to transform the core premise. This shift is not understated. Ebony’s dark side is evident when a deeply greed spirit presents her with a knife. It is the younger supporting cast who suffers most of its rage with some truly horrific scenes. With startling transformation that will frighten audiences Anthony B. Jenkins will have Linda Blair’s possessed looking character earn her money. Daniels threatens to do the unexpected and at first, perfects it with the tone shift.
Deliverance as a film has a Christian message imbibed all over its content. However, Ebony ridicules Berta for having what she considers an unreasonable blind faith. That feeling however vanishes when Ebony at last understands the root of the difficulties that have taunted her for ages is none other than the source of evil. It is time for her to quiet down the haters – the self-doubt due to low self-esteem and accept Jesus Christ whom she considers the only way of conquering that female monster who threatens her children. Daniels goes into a bonkers, Bible-thumping-esque preaching of hellfire and brimstone, as she stages a death match. The film goes one step too many in the cockeyed excesses of an uncompromising last-ditch effort that simply feels that there is a limit to these things. But its boom at the climax is unbelievable.
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