The Deliverance

There are those who believe that evil spirits are among us everyday. They can be found in an old hotel, an old factory or even in an old house. A spirit from a human who didn´t leave completely to the other side and may be seen by certain people. I have in the past told a story before of what happened to me personally as a very young boy, for some reason i seemed to have blocked that memory but my father never forget that day. It was 1983 in my hometown known as Uddevalla ( a smaller city in Sweden ) and while my father was upstairs in our home i was in the kitchen. Next to the kitchen was a pantry that used to be closed for the most part unless they needed to put cans or other groceries in there. According to my father he came downstairs and saw me completely pale of fear. He have never seen me so frightened. When i finally began to speak i told him how the spirit of a very old man appeared right out of the pantry while the door was closed with a very evil look. My father still remember that day even today and even though he didn´t know who the man was, he was always curious of why the spirit of this old man showed himself infront of me. Either way i have tried to remember what happened but it seems like i can´t recall that moment at all. Speaking of spirits we have seen in a lot of horror films over the years different kinds of stories based on true events. I personally may not believe every story that claims to be true but there are exceptions of course. Like the story regarding the 2013 supernatural horror film known as The Conjuring telling the story of the Pellon Family moving into a farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island. As the family begin to live their lives at their new home paranormal events occur the very first few nights. The Conjuring is based on a paranormal case of the famous paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren ( in the film played by actors Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga ). A very effective horror film no matter if you believe in this case or not that should be seen from director James Wan. The sequel The Conjuring 2 is also worth checking out. Every year there are plenty of horror films released that includes evil spirits and i can mention at least 10 films you should see in this category of horror. Either way i decided to give the  Netflix horror film The Deliverance a chance just to see if it would be any good. I have read some positive comments online from people who watched this film so i felt curious to see if this is something i would appreciate as well. Is this a perfect horror film to watch while it´s getting colder outside in the autumn or should you skip this one completely and watch The Conjuring instead?

Ebony Jackson ( Andra Day ) is a mother of three: eldest teen son Nate ( Caleb McLaughlin ), teen daughter Shantee ( Demi Singleton ), and youngest son Dre ( Anthony B Jenkins ). The four of them have just moved into a new home, the third in a short time frame. They are joined by Ebony´s elderly mother Alberta ( Glenn Close ), who is going through a cancer disease. The family is struggling with money and at the same time Ebony is still a struggling alcoholic. One day Ebony hear Dre talking to someone who isn´t there. Dre claims he is talking to his friend Tre and at first Ebony doesn´t feel worried about it. But once strange things begin to happen in this house it seems that they are not alone.

Since there are so many supernatural horror films to choose between you could easily say that The Deliverance does not bring anything new to the table. Once you have seen this film i guarantee you will remember at least 5 films you have seen in the past that feels similar to The Deliverance that includes supernatural horror, That doesn´t mean this is a bad film in any way because i actually enjoy it. So let´s get into what i appreciate with this film and i will bring up one detail i feel could have been done better. To the positive i will say i think the story of a struggling single mother is actually quite effective in this film. Lead actress Andra Day ( who did a really good performance as Billie Holiday in the biographical film The United States vs. Billie Holiday ) playing the character Ebony give us a realistic portrait of a strong black woman carrying a lot of pain inside of her. Andra Day manage to capture this pain through facial expressions and her dialogue as well. Trying to give her children a good childhood who is an alcohol addict, while her elderly mother Alberta ( played really well by legendary actress Glenn Close ) is struggling with cancer. This is actually the strength of The Deliverance giving us a struggling middle class family just trying to survive. I do think the children give solid performances as well. Ok, so no to my biggest issue with The Deliverance. If you are going to do a supernatural horror movie that´s effective you need to make the horror scenes work well with the story. This is something that i feel doesn´t feel as effective as i was hoping to see. Im not saying this film fails as a horror film but certain scenes feel mellow when i want to be scared, If you want to capture the audience you have to create certain moments where the atmosphere grabs you such as in The Conjuring. Director Lee Daniels ( who is the director of The United States vs. Billie Holliday ) may not take any chances with The Deliverance and rely on old school 1970´s horror, if you are a fan of exorcist films then this might be worth a look. I can´t really complain about The Deliverance it´s a simple horror film but does it´s job by delivering a good looking film with a solid cast. Does anyone have any holy water left? I might need some for my demonic neighbor.

Rating: DDD