Lee Daniels’ Netflix haunted house thriller, “The Deliverance,” opens by solemnly promising that it’s “inspired by true events.” It’s a clichéd start to some clichéd horror, but you’ll be rewarded for looking further: as it turns out, those alleged events are just an excuse to explore quieter, and more compelling, truths.
This is thanks, in large part, to a tour-de-force turn from Andra Day as exhausted single mother Ebony. She and her three children (Anthony B. Jenkins, Caleb McLaughlin, Demi Singleton) have just moved to a new home, and—what with the flies buzzing around the basement, and the kids’ newly weird behavior—it’s pretty clear something is off.