Lee Daniels‘ first-ever horror effort, “The Deliverance,” is not to be confused with 1972’s “Deliverance.” Although, much like John Boorman’s three-time Oscar nominee about idiot canoers going through hell in rural Georgia, it does make movie-watching pretty painful.
Not since “Hillbilly Elegy” has Netflix done Glenn Close so dirty. That’s true even taking into account her small part in the hugely horrible “Heart of Stone” for the streamer last year. “The Deliverance” director Daniels, an ambitious storyteller with an admirably spotty track record, is best known for creating the TV show “Empire” with Danny Strong and, before that, helming the Sundance darling “Precious,” (which, yes, is based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire — thank you so much for remembering).
Back in 2009, Daniels’ talents as a producer on 2001’s “Monster’s Ball” preceded the success of his eventual Best Picture contender, “Precious,” but the bleak family drama about a Black family living in Harlem is what turned him into a celebrated director. His gritty portrait of a relentlessly abused 16-year-old (Gabourey Sidibe) was dark, violent, and hard to take. Daniels’ approach to creating cinematic realism had its detractors, but bold visions make great directors.
Those talents are still very much alive in Daniels, who has earned the right as a filmmaker to recruit singular acting titans like Close, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, and Mo’Nique (from “Precious”) into a movie as ill-advised as “The Deliverance.” It’s an exceptionally tough year to be trying your hand in horror’s exorcism markets, but Daniels’ idea to crack open his own legacy and morph a harrowing drama about a struggling family into an extreme genre effort could have worked. Sadly, the smart restraint he once showed with “Precious” — always knowing just when to pull back — is replaced here with a scattershot execution that has more half-scary ideas than it can manage or execute well.
Living with her bombastic cancer patient mother, Alberta (Close), the tough-as-nails Ebony (Audra Day) is a recovering alcoholic and parent to three children: teenager Nate (Caleb McLaughlin), middle child Shante (Demi Singleton), and the youngest Andre (Anthony B. Jenkins). Things are tense in the house way before anything possession-like is suggested. For one thing, the kids’ dad was deployed to Iraq months ago, the bills are piling up, and Ebony has no idea when he’ll be back. Even worse, Alberta says, “The catfish has too much garlic!” Oh, Alberta!
The mouthy matriarch has a way of getting under Ebony’s skin and that tension boils over into a few reasonably well-written fights, which frequently center race. Daniels’ willingness to once again explore even the thorniest dynamics of the Black experience is commendable almost 15 years since “Precious.” However, it’s worth noting that Close’s casting is a bit of a head scratcher as the “true story” about an Indiana woman’s haunting that Daniels is supposedly telling (her name is Latoya Ammons, look it up) featured no real-life counterpart to the doomed scene stealer.
Flies start trickling out of the basement in one of the first scenes and the sleep-walking Andre makes a memorably menacing display of chugging milk straight from the carton. Social worker Cynthia (Mo’Nique) adds to the chaos with frequent unannounced visits as the threat of Ebony’s children being taken away from her looms in the ever-shortening distance. The languishing mom swears she isn’t drinking and something is wrong in her house. Of course, no one believes her when the kids start showing up with bruises. After all, Ebony does hit them — the audience can see that much.
Even with plenty of winks and nods coded into Alberta’s suspicious devotion to the church, it takes more than 40 minutes for “The Deliverance” to decide it wants to be supernatural. That might be something of a semi-spoiler, but considering how much of Ebony’s almost two-hour journey interplays directly with obvious clues pointing to the devil, it’s hard to ignore in review.
Had Daniels explored all the underpinnings of a horror outing as a dramatic allegory for addiction — as the film‘s opening quote (“I need forgiveness for my sins, but I also need deliverance from the power of sin…”) suggests he might — the director could have fared better than going all the way to ghosts… or is it demons? Reverend Bernice (Ellis-Taylor) attempts to carry the film over that spiritual hump. Alas, not even the legendary actress, who is just one Tony short of an EGOT, can keep “The Deliverance” from falling into a melodrama akin to Daniels’ earlier “The Paperboy.”
As far as final girls are concerned, Ebony has plenty of good moments. Screaming, “Doctor, my son ate his own shit today!” is not one of them. Things for the family go from bad to worse remarkably fast, and what happens to the 77-year-old Close in the finale is deeply unfortunate.
Don’t misread that as me suggesting that something particularly grotesque or interesting happens. Just understand that what Daniels does to the “Fatal Attraction” icon — both visually and through the words this quietly unhinged script makes her say — is so gross and so, so goofy. “Stranger Things” actor McLaughlin gets props for at least selling his part as a promising teenager who, with or without his agent, needs to pack his shit and get out of there.
“The Deliverance” certainly has its poignant scenes. Sitting with her youngest son pre-genre turn, Ebony ponders the cycle of abuse and wonders aloud, “I don’t know how such a good person came out of somebody like me.” It’s equally marvelous that a movie this misguided could come from a filmmaker as skilled as Daniels. Tying a million ideas together…into a rope just long enough to hang itself…Netflix’s regrettable attempt at subverting expectations results in a throwaway effort that wastes its big names. In the end, it’s more rough than “Precious” — a storied success that, at least in the critical sense, still haunts Daniels to this day.
Grade: C-
Netflix’s “The Deliverance” is in limited theaters August 16. It starts streaming August 30.
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