The new Netflix horror filmThe Deliverancemade a splash over Labor Day Weekend and iscurrently contending for the top spot on the platform. TheLee Danielsfilm is notable for its Black-majority cast, demon possession narrative in the lane ofThe ExorcistandThe Conjuring, andGlenn Close’s iconic wigs. But this haunted house movie is more than a Hollywood creation;it comes with a frightening backstory.The Deliveranceis directly inspired by the Ammons family haunting, a case of demonic possession that occurred in 2011 in Gary, Indiana. The real-life story centers around Latoya Ammons, her mother, Rosa Campbell, and her three children. While Daniels takes artistic license to tell a more sensationalized version of the events,many details inThe Deliverancedraw directly from the Ammons case notes.
The Deliverancefollows Ebony Jackson (Andra Day) as she moves into a new house in her town with her mother, Alberta (Glenn Close), and her three children, Nate (Caleb McLaughlin),Shante (Demi Singleton) and Andre (Anthony B. Jenkins). When we first meet Ebony, it is established that she has been working with a DCS officer, Cynthia Henry (Mo’Nique), after her husband filed complaints of alcoholism, physical abuse, and parental neglect against her. As soon as the family moves into the house, strange things start to happen, which escalate quickly in the final quarter. However, the film’s first half is more of a family drama thatblurs the lines between the supernatural and the impact of mental health on families.
‘The Deliverance’ Is Based on the Case of the Ammons Family
The official case notes of the Ammons haunting, including “medical, psychological, and official records” wereacquired byThe Indianapolis Starduring its investigation of the incident. This report details the events that occurred after Latoya Ammons moved her family into a rental house in Gary, Indiana in November 2011. The incidents started in classichaunted house moviefashion— with an eerie foreshadowing. In this case, it was flies swarming the Ammons’ porch in the dead of winter. Ammons and Campbell also reported hearing footsteps coming up the basement stairs during the night and the basement door creaking, even when they had locked it. In the film, flies swarm near the Jacksons' basement door, andthe basement also serves as the ultimate source of the family’s haunting.
Following these initial disturbances,accounts of events in the Ammons household got progressively more drastic. Ammons claimed that her 12-year-old daughter levitated above her bed, her 7-year-old son was thrown out of the bathroom by an unknown force, and all threechildren began speaking in unnaturally deep voicesin frequent bouts of demonic possession. In Daniels' interpretation of events inThe Deliverance, Andre, the youngest child, is the target of the demonic presence living in the basement. As the demon possesses him, he begins to exert control over his siblings too, and things grow increasingly violent.
Is There Any Proof of the Ammons' Demonic Possession?
Were it not for theeyewitness accounts of medical staff, police, and the Department of Child Services case manageron site, the Ammons haunting would have had very little evidence in its favor other than Ammons' and Campbell’s testimonies. But in this case, authorities witnessed strange occurrences as well. When the Ammons family visited their physician, medical staff reported seeing the 7-year-old lifted and thrown into the wall by an unseen force and promptly called 911. When a DCS officer was hired to look into possible child abuse allegations, she recounted in herofficial reportthatthe boy rolled his eyes back in his head, growled, and grabbed his older brother’s throat in the hospital. Washington and a registered nurse corroborated that later that same night,the boy “glided backward on the floor, wall, and ceiling.” Lee Daniels presents these events somewhat differently inThe Deliverance. For instance, Nate tries to strangle Andre in the bathtub at home. However, Daniels stays true to the case when Cynthia, the on-screen DCS officer, watches Andre climb backward up the wall inone of the film’s most unsettling scenes.
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Following the hospital incidents,DCS officials took emergency custody of Ammons' childrenwithout a court order, and, in June 2012, Reverand Michael Maginot performed three separateexorcismson Latoya. In the film, the final battle with the demonic presence happens in a single night, and rather than a Catholic priest, Ebony is assisted by the “Reverend Apostle” Bernice James (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) whose"deliverance" ritual is more powerful and direct than an exorcism. Similar to the real story,the film focuses on Ebony as the very last person who must confront the demons,even though the haunting began with her children.
‘The Deliverance’Blurs the Line Between Mental Health and the Supernatural
DespiteThe Deliverancebeing a haunted house movie,itfocuses a lot on Ebony’s mental health and abusive behavior.In the real events of 2011 to 2012, an unidentified caller contacted DCS only after Ammons and her children were taken to the hospital. The caller expressedconcern that Ammons was experiencing delusions and that her children were “performing” possession under her encouragement. In the Ammons’ physician’s notes, he described her as experiencing “delusions of ghost in home” and “hallucinations.” In the film, Ebony is tested for schizophrenia and breaks down in tears when she admits to hearing sounds that no one else can hear and feeling paranoid that something is out to get her. Once again,Daniels makes a parallel between the effectmental illnesshas on a person and being haunted by a supernatural force.
In the film, Daniels also takes the involvement of DCS back further,keeping Ebony as the potential culpritbehind her children’s injuries from the very beginning. As early as the first scene in the film, Ebony hits her children, and on several occasions, her heavy drinking causes her to black out, meaning the viewer doesn’t get to see what happens during her gaps in memory. In one central scene, the viewer follows Alberta up the stairs after she hears her grandchildren screaming. Inside the bedroom, Ebony is on the floor, her children are cowering in the corner, and no one can explain what happened. Because we don’t get to see it firsthand,it is unclear if Ebony or demons caused the children to scream.
In November 2012, Latoya Ammons regained custody of her children, andthere have been no reports of haunting since the family moved out of the housein Gary and to a new place in Indianapolis. While what really happened in the Ammons haunting may never be uncovered, thechilling real talehas continued to interest many, including Lee Daniels. Before the end credits, Daniels shows an image of Latoya Ammonds and of the house where she experienced the hauntings. Underneath the images, text tells us that despite being bulldozed in 2016, there are reports of strange occurrences around where it once stood to this day.
The Deliverance
The Deliveranceis available to watch on Netflix.
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