Based on a true story, the new Netflix movie The Deliverance spends too much time on the backstory and not enough time on the horror aspect.
The film focuses on single mom Ebony, who has a drinking problem. She moves into a house in Pittsburgh in 2011 with her three kids. But right after moving in, the mom begins to notice that her youngest son, Andre, (Anthony B. Jenkins) has started to act differently.
Weird things start to happen in the house, like banging and knocking noises, as well as weird sounds that come from the basement. The activities soon escalate when Ebony, played by Andra Day, throws her youngest son up against the wall in a fit of rage – but snaps out of a trance and does not remember committing this act.
A Pentecostal pastor approaches Ebony and tries to convince her that she and her family are being possessed by a demon that feeds off of families that have a weak link. The pastor says she tried to prevent an incident in the house 20 years earlier in which a mother killed her family.
The film has a running time of almost two hours and throughout the duration, the haunting and spooks only pop up a handful of times.
The movie is a slow burn and focuses more on the backstory than the actual plot. For context, the scariest part of the movie does not occur until the film’s last 20 minutes.
The film is good for people who only watch horror films occasionally or scare easily. But horror movie fanatics probably should stick to something else.
