Home sweet home.
You’ve probably heard that phrase before. You may have even uttered it yourself after returning to a familiar abode. A home should be a place where you can relax and recharge. A place of peace. Rest. Safety.
Ebony Jackson hopes a new home will be good for her family. After separating from her husband, she packed up her children and moved from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They’ve just moved into a house, and Ebony’s mother, Alberta, has come along to help with the transition.
The change hasn’t been easy, especially for the kids. They miss their dad. And Ebony and Alberta don’t always get along themselves. The latest source of tension? Alberta’s newfound Christian faith.
Still, they’re getting by.
That is, until Ebony’s youngest son, Andre, starts having conversations with an “imaginary friend.” Strange things start to happen around the house—and to Ebony’s kids. Their behavior becomes erratic and increasingly violent, though they have no memory of their actions afterwards.
Something is wrong. Very wrong.
To complicate matters further, Ebony’s temper and history of alcohol abuse make her the prime suspect when her children are injured during their episodes.
With the incidents piling up and Child Protective Services breathing down her neck, Ebony begins to suspect that something else might be at work here—something tied to the house. Something supernatural. Even demonic.
Alberta senses it, too. “There’s something evil in our home,” she tells her pastor.
What’s worse, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that whatever’s in the house wants them—as one character puts it—dead and gone.
Turns out, this home isn’t so sweet.
Though they don’t always do the best job of showing it, the members of Ebony’s family love each other. Ebony will go to extreme lengths to protect her children (albeit sometimes too extreme). And though Alberta may be rough around the edges, she takes her faith seriously and encourages her daughter to turn to God.
Though he is not physically present, Ebony’s husband keeps in contact with their kids and seems like a positive presence in their lives. (We find out later that he’s in the military and deployed.)
A pastor tells Ebony that God loves her, something that she eventually comes to believe and accept. A social worker has used a personal tragedy as motivation to protect children.
[Warning: This section contains some spoilers]
As you might expect from a story about demonic forces terrorizing a family, a lot of spiritual components can be found here. However, as opposed to a recent horror flick like Longlegs, which dwelt solely in spiritual darkness, The Deliverance doesn’t shy away from showing us the light.
The movie opens with text talking about the need for forgiveness and deliverance from sin. Alberta tells Ebony, “The Lord saved me” and “Jesus can save you.” Later, Ebony comes to see herself as a “child of God.”
Churchgoers praise God during a worship service. A pastor preaches about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead and His triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. A reverend leads a woman in a version of the Sinner’s Prayer. A child’s paintings depict a church. Several characters quote Scripture, pray and call out to God for help.
Still, this movie contains a ton of darkness.
Andre, a young child, is the demon’s primary conduit. He often enters a trance under the demon’s sway. He says several disturbing things and claims “God is dead” (though we later see evidence to the contrary).
Flies buzz around the family’s home throughout the film, usually signaling when the demon is at work—and a possible allusion to Beelzebub, the “Lord of Flies.”
In a flashback, we are told of a family that lived in the house prior to Ebony and her children. The family’s young son was possessed by the demon and did not survive. Later, we see the family’s mother in a demonic trance while she does some horrible things.
When it’s clear some spirit lurks in their house, Alberta seeks help from her pastor and asks for (essentially) an exorcism. The pastor rebuffs her and tells her to “try another church.”
Ebony meets Bernice, a self-stated “apostle … prophet, evangelist” who tells her that the demon in her house was sent by “the devil himself.” Bernice also details the process of casting out a demon.
A possessed person climbs up a wall. Characters lay in poses that allude to the Crucifixion. One person displays signs of stigmata, with bleeding wounds developing on the hands and brow.
A woman performs an exorcism. Though it’s not explicitly stated, she uses something akin to holy water. Someone appears to be possessed by something in opposition to the demon—the Holy Spirit, it seems—and begins speaking in tongues. A person has a vision of a glowing, heavenly presence.
Someone clutches a Bible. A crucifix is set ablaze. We see the steeples of an Eastern Orthodox church. Someone gives another a cross necklace. The hymn “I Know Who Holds Tomorrow” plays a few times.
Women wear low-cut blouses and short shorts. Ebony wears a formfitting top and underwear. While drinking, she dances provocatively, grinding up against a man.
Alberta shows off her cleavage for a nurse whom she’s interested in. She questions his sexuality since he hasn’t asked her out yet. (The man is interested and agrees to exchange numbers.) A man calls her a “sexy grandmother” and ogles her backside. Ebony makes a crude comment about her mother sleeping around
A wrapped condom is seen in the dresser drawer of Ebony’s eldest son, Nate. A man kisses a woman goodnight. One character appears to be a cross-dresser or drag queen. A young boy walks around in his underwear after getting out of bed.
Ebony, especially when she’s been drinking, can get violent with her children and others. She smacks Andre in the mouth with the back of her hand after he makes a disrespectful comment. She slaps Nate during an argument. He shoves her back, and she falls to the ground. (He’s immediately apologetic.)
A teen hits Nate with a rock, causing him to bleed. In retaliation, Ebony beats up the bully and threatens to do the same to his mother.
Alberta accuses Ebony of beating her kids. It’s implied that Alberta may have physically abused Ebony growing up before her conversion to Christianity. At the very least, we learn, she put Ebony in harm’s way and a man (perhaps one of Alberta’s boyfriends) sexually abused her.
Ebony’s kids exhibit signs of physical abuse. Someone repeatedly bangs his head into a door. Andre claims Ebony threw him and his siblings against the wall.
Someone holds a child under the water of a bathtub, trying to drown him. We hear a woman’s son was hit by a car and died when he was 7. Someone threatens another person with a bat—and she strikes another woman’s car.
In a flashback, we see a possessed woman behead her husband with an axe. Blood spatters, and we see the man’s body, bloody and twitching. We learn she later strangled her young daughter and hung herself.
The demonic entity attacks several people—choking, beating and even twisting them. Some die from their injuries. A boy claws at his shirt and gnaws his own arm, drawing blood. Another person bleeds from the mouth and eyes. Someone bursts into flames.
We faintly hear a domestic disturbance. A bird flies into a window: We see it bleeding and dying. A dead cat is found in the house’s basement.
Nearly 70 uses of the f-word. The s-word is used more than 20 times. “B—-” is heard nearly 30 times, and “n—–” is uttered 11 times.
“A–” is said 16 times, along with uses of “p—y,” “d–k,” “f-gs,” “h—,” “ho” and “wh–e,” “t-tties” and “c–t.”
Jesus’ name is abused twice. God’s name is misused six times, sometimes paired with “d–n.”
A child’s painting depicts a woman passed out on a couch with an empty bottle in hand. Ebony has a drinking problem and gets drunk at several points in the film.
Ebony finds a half-empty bottle of vodka in her son’s closet. He says he was hiding it from her so she wouldn’t be tempted to drink it. Alberta checks Ebony’s breath for alcohol. Ebony staggers home after a night of drinking. Later, she lies to her son about being drunk (though he sees right through it). Ebony gets drunk at her daughter’s birthday party. She drinks at a bar during the day.
Alberta gets chemotherapy treatment for cancer. Another woman is asked if she uses drugs. She says no, then asks, “does weed count?”
The family watches a scene from Valley of the Dolls, which mentions “booze and dope.” Characters smoke cigarettes.
Ebony is initially skeptical of Alberta’s faith, which she compares to a drug fix. Alberta can be overly critical of Ebony. Andre tells his mom that she’s being cheap. Some sort of separation has taken place between Ebony and her husband.
As Ebony storms off toward a confrontation, her daughter, Shante, says, “She gonna go to jail again.” She complains about the family being broke. Nate is saving money to get away from his mom. Ebony neglects to call her social worker to tell her about her move to Pittsburgh—the decision seems intentional.
A character says he “boosts” or steals for a living. Someone refers to a mixed-race child as a “mongrel.” A teacher tells her class that “art is truth.”
When Ebony’s children come under the sway of the demon, they do all sorts of problematic things. In one extreme instance, Andre defecates in the middle of class and throws his feces at his teacher. Later we hear that he also ate his own feces.
Someone vomits into a sink. We see menstrual blood running down someone’s leg.
From 2011 to 2012, Latoya Ammons and her family reported strange and frightening occurrences in their home in Gary, Indiana, which they attributed to demonic spirits. The case, documented by the Indianapolis Star, eventually involved social workers, police, and a Catholic priest.
The Deliverance draws much of its inspiration from that account. (Latoya Ammons is even mentioned by name during the end credits.) Ultimately, it’s a story about a family trying to survive extreme and outright spiritual darkness.
To the film’s credit, it delivers the point that the only power that can overcome such darkness is found in Jesus Christ. No matter what evil we face, we are assured that Christ has already won the victory—defeating sin and death through His sacrifice and resurrection—and we can share in His victory by putting our faith in Him.
With that in mind, The Deliverance strives to tell a redemptive story. But there’s a lot of content issues here that muddy the waters.
In many ways, this is standard R-rated horror fare: dark, disturbing images. Bloody violence. A barrage of foul language and more besides. You’ll have to decide if you want to wade through that to get to this movie’s positive messages.
Bret loves a good story—be it a movie, show, or video game—and enjoys geeking out about things like plot and story structure. He has a blast reading and writing fiction and has penned several short stories and screenplays. He and his wife love to kayak the many beautiful Colorado lakes with their dog.
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