Movie review: 'The Deliverance' scares up plenty of trouble for Andra Day

“The Deliverance” is one of those films you don’t want to watch late at night.

Set in a creepy house (though not in Amityville), it suggests every noise you hear could be something lethal.

Worse, there’s an illness of sorts that’s turning a woman’s children into everything from zombies to potential killers. Home sweet home? Oh, no.

Based on the case of an Indiana woman who claimed her house was haunted and her children possessed, “The Deliverance” points at many possibilities – could the mother be abusive, alcoholic, addicted? Were the children acting out what they thought they mother wanted them to do? Or was the house really possessed?

Director Lee Daniels tries to give this a “Precious” overlay and make the horror story seem less obvious. He puts Andra Day through the wringer (as the mother Ebony Jackson) and lets others around her speculate.

Particularly skeptical is Jackson’s mother (Glenn Close in another one of those over-the-top “Hillbilly Elegy” performances), who’s suffering from cancer and thinks maybe a little more religion might do the girl some good.

One by one, experts come in (you won’t recognize Oscar winner Mo’Nique as a social worker) and try to size up the situation. Moments in an exam room are chilling (particularly when a son climbs a wall backwards); nights at home are terrifying.

And yet, all signs point to the need for a “deliverance” or exorcism. Daniels stirs the pot vigorously and lets a minister (nicely played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) add another wrinkle.

By the time every possible avenue is exhausted, much rests in the mother’s hands. Day handles all of the turmoil quite well, even though it’s never quite clear what kind of film “The Deliverance” wants to be. Like the recent “Exorcist” reboot, this one wants to absolve certain folks from responsibility.

Close’s character, Alberta, certainly bears watching. She knows her daughter’s foibles and isn’t afraid to point them out. When they’re not battling about what’s right, they’re dealing with the mother’s illness.

Moments when the children are left alone seem even scarier. When one holds another underwater in a bathtub, “The Deliverance” becomes frighteningly real. An abusive family and a haunted house, it should be said, don’t mix.

“The Exorcist” gets plenty of referents here, even though “deliverance” is not the same thing. Racism enters in the picture, as well, but Daniels makes sure those who are sent to help can’t be painted with the same brush.

Day goes through plenty of hell as she tries to sort it out and gives a performance that might have been remembered had it been in something less obvious in its intentions.

“The Deliverance” doesn’t answer questions you have, nor does it provide the peace of mind that comes with resolution.

It does, however, suggest one big thing – no matter how hard Day’s family tries, they’re not getting the deposit back on that house.

“The Deliverance” begins Aug. 30 on Netflix.