Lee Daniels’ latest horror venture, Netflix’s The Deliverance, follows every exorcism movie trope to a T, as real-life event-inspired adaptation these days tend to do anyway. But the main hook that imparts the movie its own voice is the way the dysfunctional family dynamics are portrayed, which is so traumatic and conflicting at the same time that, interspersed with telltale elements of supernatural haunting, it manages to keep the viewers in a flux regarding the causality of events. That being said, when the focus is on the troubled, pressurized guardian figures of the family and how their personal demons have been affecting the younger members in worse ways than supernatural ones would—The Deliverance indeed delivers on that front—but right at the moment the horror becomes corporeal and tangible, the movie suffers worse than Father Merrin and Karras did at the end of The Exorcist. The worst mistake made by the director, however, is the way the ending is handled, upon which we will try to shed some light.Â
Spoilers Ahead
A Family in Tatters
Ebony Jackson has been at the receiving end of life’s cruel joke since her childhood. Ebony’s white mother, Alberta, used to be grossly neglectful and abusive towards her daughter. As if her addiction-riddled lifestyle wasn’t already agonizing enough for Ebony, Alberta had had careless flings with men during her youth—one among whom left a harrowing, deep-seated mark on the poor teenager’s psyche. As a biracial girl, growing up, Ebony not only felt herself cornered in front of the gaze of the outside world but also her mother’s whose selfishness has cost Ebony her childhood in more ways than one. A grown-up Ebony didn’t find any solace in her better half as well, an unnamed military recruit who has abandoned his wife and is pressing charges against her to take custody of their three children, Nate, Shante, and Andre. In a tragic yet natural consequence of how upbringing shapes the foundation of one’s life, Ebony has inherited the worst aspects of her mother as well. Now in her mid-40s, she is an alcoholic working mother, burdened by financial tribulations and the prejudiced glares of the outside. She has moved houses across the country multiple times before settling in Pittsburgh. Alberta has found faith while coping with her cancer treatment and is trying to reform herself when she decides to return to her daughter’s life.
Already touching rock bottom, the prospect of her mother settling in with them is mentally tormenting for Ebony, and occasionally her temper gets the best of her as she raises her hand against her kids. Alberta’s disappointed, judgmental look is even more infuriating for Ebony because she considers the whole reform act of her mother just a pretense to hide the naked, ugly truth of how she herself is responsible for the horrible mess Ebony’s life has turned into. It’s apparent this isn’t the first time Ebony has acted out in front of her children, as child service officer Cynthia is a frequent visitor at their home, and her continuous warnings about taking the custody of children from Ebony keep her on the edge. The older siblings, Shante and Nate, are more eager to reconnect with their father, as any teenager who feels miserable to return to his messed-up family would be—and this just adds on to Ebony’s unending pile of regrets and pains. As a mother, she is deeply loving and protective towards her children, and she shows it too, in her own way—be it through beating her elder son’s bullies up or gifting her daughter a new phone on her birthday—all the while managing all the due bills. But for a person who hasn’t even considered herself capable of love in the first place, building up a healthy connection with others is next to impossible.
The Haunting Begins
The infestation of horror was signaled from the beginning—a rotting cat in the basement, an imaginary friend whom Ebony’s youngest son, Andre, occasionally speaks to, eerie movements across the house—but with a family where peace and happiness are rare occurrences, it is no wonder that Ebony couldn’t tell metaphysical kinds of troubles from the ordinary ones. Young Andre had tried to share his discomfort with occurrences in the house, but Ebony wasn’t attentive to him back then, and only took notice about something inexplicably bad taking place after Shante’s birthday. She found herself in the kids’ room—in front of a banged-up wall she had presumably thrown her kids against. Ebony denies her abusive streak’s acting up once again, but her past even makes Alberta unsure of her claims.
The next day, at school—all three kids start behaving extremely erratically—Andre throws feces at his teacher, Nate maniacally laughs listening to how AIDS-related deaths among black people are connected with racist prejudices, and blood pours from Shante’s legs, as her frightening composure terrifies her choir group. Ebony hurries back from her work at a salon to ensure her kids get treated, but the medic supervisor indirectly points at domestic abuse being the root cause instead of addressing the inexplicable nature of their ailments. Ebony continues locking horns with her mother for not supporting her anger-fueled tantrums.
Things take a turn for the worse when Andre almost gets choked to death in his bathtub, when a seemingly possessed Nate decides to assault his brother all of a sudden. Alberta gets a hint that something malevolent has been corrupting the house and decides to approach the pastor of the church she visits, who denies any help of that sort.
Cynthia’s Concerns and Bernice’s Assistance
Cynthia makes another visit to Ebony, who is really not in the mood to entertain her, but she has to let her enter their house anyway. Cynthia’s stern lecture about Ebony’s failure in providing a safe and happy life to her children comes off as too hard-headed for Ebony, who had expected a bit more sympathy from a fellow black woman, given she is aware of the condition Ebony is living in at the moment. But Ebony learns that it is the sympathy on Cynthia’s part which she has been receiving as warnings, whose concern stems from a tragic past of her own—as she had lost her young son, Julian, in a street accident, caused by a momentary lapse of attention on her part. Which is why Ebony taking her family for granted fills Cynthia with regret and resentment towards her, and she warns Ebony for the final time. Ebony tries to convey her recent sordid experiences, but Cynthia rebuffs her, considering it to be the rambling of a mentally unstable woman.
Bernice James, the black female evangelical prophet, who had been snooping around the Jackson household for a while and who Ebony and Alberta believed to be a social service worker spying on them, finally decides to introduce herself to Ebony by meeting her outside a bar, promising to help her in the crisis she is facing. Bernice doesn’t beat around the bush too much and flat out lets Ebony know that the house they have decided to settle in is infected by the presence of one of the biblical demons, Lucifer’s accomplice, and that decades ago a family of four were the victims of the primordial evil—and horrendously lost their lives. Bernice regrets the fact that she wasn’t able to save the family and wishes to make amends by saving Ebony’s, which is why she had been mysteriously watching over them ever since they moved. Ebony gets the possible confirmation of Bernice’s assessment by learning that the youngest member of the previous family was a kid named Trey; the name is familiar to Ebony, as Andre’s imaginary friend, who asks him to kill himself, shares the same name.
How Did Ebony Lose Custody Of Her Children?
However, Ebony, who so far has been twice detached from anything related to faith, thanks to the wounds of her younger days, which didn’t heal by intervention of any divine presence, is not ready to treat this problem as something that relates to otherworldly machinations. Ebony refuses Bernice’s help and warns her to stay away from her family.
While Ebony was having a conversation with Bernice elsewhere, Alberta dared to venture to the basement alone—the root of the evil presence in the house—to check it out on her own. This proved to be a fatal mistake, as Alberta is murdered by the demonic presence lurking in the house; the cross she had put up in the house burns on its own—and none of the kids even get a whiff of the terrible occurrences, possibly due to the demonic presence entrapping their minds. Ebony gets traumatized after losing her mother and, in her confused state, decides to drive away with her kids—when another demonic episode relating to Andre nearly results in a terrible accident. The authorities finally decide to put Ebony’s children in the church’s foster care after traces of alcohol are found in Ebony’s blood, and she goes through a psych evaluation.
Was Ebony Able to Save Her Children?
Andre gets admitted to the hospital after furiously convulsing, and while checking up on him, Cynthia gets a nasty surprise as the possessed kid taunts her by mentioning her late son, Julian, and climbs to the ceiling of his room like an arachnid. Cynthia realizes that Ebony was genuinely suffering from an evil presence when she had asked for her help back then. Meanwhile, a desperate Ebony goes to Bernice, as she feels that after Alberta’s demise, she is the only person who would trust her words and help her.
Ebony had rejected faith, but in order to save her children from the grasp of the demonic presence, she needs to accept the divine in her heart—and as Bernice rightly points out, the process starts with self-love. For so long, Ebony thought herself incapable of being loved, and her inner turmoil projected outwards in negative form. But this time, she realizes that she needs to try believing in her worth to stand against an enemy that feeds on the malice in one’s heart. With Bernice’s help, Ebony manages to sneak into the hospital Andre has been admitted to and sneaks him outside as the trio arrive at the basement of the haunted house. Bernice needs to perform a deliverance ritual to cast out the demonic presence from Andre, and the ritual is a bit different from traditional exorcism as it doesn’t depend on scriptural sermons or religious texts; purity of faith and connection with the divine are enough to complete the procedure. Bernice warns Ebony to not get swayed by the psychological manipulations of the demon, who will try to trick Ebony by preying on her fears and insecurities. However, Bernice herself falls victim to the demonic presence by letting her emotional guard down for a brief moment.
After tormenting Ebony with a demonic apparition of Alberta, the presence tries to get under her skin by poking around Ebony’s insecurities. As Andre continues to get used as the demon’s vessel, his elder siblings, Shante and Nate, start getting horrifically brutalized by the demon’s presence. The demon takes Ebony’s form to force her to succumb to her self-loathing tendencies, to make her shun the love she needs to have for herself, and to denounce the positive connection she shared with her mother. However, despite being nearly broken, Ebony holds on to hope as she proudly proclaims the love she and Alberta shared for each other and feels the divine presence within herself guiding her path. With the fear and self-doubt no longer being an impediment, Ebony manages to conquer the demonic presence and drive it through the hole in her basement—presumably the gateway to hell where it came from. Ebony saves Andre, and in doing so, Shante and Nat are liberated from their afflictions as well.
In The Deliverance’s ending, Cynthia pays a visit to Ebony, as she informs her she has a legal battle to take on to regain the custody of her children, but now a much more composed, hopeful Ebony is positive that if God’s plan wills, she will have her family back. Cynthia is aware of the otherworldly trouble Ebony’s family was suffering from, which was responsible for their present predicament, and as she helps Ebony with the legal process, six months later, Ebony gets her children back, and they are seen venturing to a new house in Philadelphia. Ebony has also started to make efforts to rekindle her relationship with her husband, much to the kids’ delight—and with a promise to start their lives anew, the family moves on.Â
The real-life counterpart of the haunted house was demolished later on, as shown before The Deliverance’s end credits roll, but the major flaw that remains with the ending is not related to paranormal aspects whatsoever. The troublesome family dynamics on display, which practically presented the matriarch of the family in desperate need of mental help, along with her children, were not addressed, and the ending tries to claim that inclusion of faith in life magically solved all the problems. More than supernatural, it was the real-life experiences that were horrifying for the kids and needed to be addressed with a more sympathetic gesture than an exorcism by other name.
