The Deliverance Plot Summary
The Deliverance, inspired by the Ammons Haunting case, is a psychological horror thriller that centres on Ebony, who is dealing with the separation from her husband. She relocates to a new house with her three children and her ailing mother.
Ebony is a troubled woman prone to alcoholism and occasional drug abuse, which is why she is under regular visitation by a social services officer. As the family settles into their new home, they are plagued by unusual behaviour in the children, along with suspicious sounds and smells originating from the basement.
What was wrong with Ebony’s house?
Ebony and her family move to a different house at the beginning of the film. After a few days, Ebony notices black flies in the house and a rotting smell from the basement. At the same time, Ebony’s youngest son, Andre, exhibits unusual behaviour, such as talking to his imaginary friend Trey, whom he claims lives in a hole in the basement and sometimes in the closet.
Ebony dismisses it as mere disturbances and child’s play since she is not only financially struggling with a backlog of payments but also trying to curb her alcoholism and drug abuse. Simultaneously, the child services representative threatens to take her kids and place them in foster care, noting the mysterious bruises on their bodies.
Over time, the behaviour of the children becomes erratic, especially in the case of the youngest, Andre. Finally, Reverend Bernice James approaches her and tells her that the house is haunted by a demon. She informs her about the family who lived in the house before them, where the boy had been possessed and died due to a failed exorcism. Later, the mother became possessed and ultimately killed her husband and daughter before hanging herself.
Who killed Alberta and why?
While Ebony meets with Reverend Bernice James, Alberta, Ebony’s religious mother, is at home. She had insisted on putting up a cross in the living room, sensing supernatural activities in the house. Therefore, she is attacked by a possessed Andre and strangled to death. The demon kills her for her courage in putting up the cross, and when Ebony returns, she finds that the cross has been burned.
What happened to Ebony’s children?
After her mother’s death, Ebony and her family are counselled at the hospital, where it is hinted that Ebony might be struggling with psychological illness, along with her children, due to their stressful conditions at home. The eldest two kids, Shante and Nate, are placed in foster care, while Andre is kept under supervision due to his violent behaviour.
Ebony has previously taken Reverend Bernice’s warning lightly, but now she actively seeks her out for help. Through Bernice, she discovers that not only is Andre possessed by the demon referred to as Trey, which is the name of its previous victim, but the demon is also controlling her other children, Shante and Nate.
What happens at the end?
Bernice tells Ebony to believe in Jesus because the words are useless without faith. It is also hinted that Ebony had resigned from God after she was sexually assaulted as a child by one of her mother’s possible partners. The two women, then, secretly take Andre from the hospital to the house for an exorcism. The exorcism seems to work until the demon inside Andre kills Bernice. In her last breaths, Bernice instructs Ebony to carry out the exorcism fearlessly, handing her the holy water and adding that it is fear that gives the demon the upper hand.
Ebony follows the demon to the basement, near a giant hole that leads to hell. The demon shapeshifts into Ebony’s likeness, strangling and cursing her. When it seems almost certain that she might die, Ebony calls out to God and miraculously gains the strength to rebuke the demon. She also begins to exorcise the demon in a different language, finally sending it back to the hole where it came from.
As the film ends, Ebony reclaims custody of her children after six months and moves back to live with their father, as the parents decide to make their relationship work for the sake of their children.