The Deliverance
Netflix | Release Date: August 16, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
39
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
12
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
The New York TimesAmy NicholsonAug 29, 2024
The usual possession beats are here — creepy crawling! smoking crucifixes! shivering violins! — and given their own quirky spins. (One key revelation takes place over coffees at McDonald’s.) Yet, Daniels carves space for the intimate moments that matter to him. Read full review
65
Film ThreatMichael Talbot-HaynesSep 26, 2024
Watch The Deliverance for Close if you haven’t already done so. However, a performance of this caliber in a movie like this is like seeing a BMW 5-series being used to do donuts in a field of manure. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineMark HansonAug 15, 2024
Lee Daniels does such a good job investing us in the human drama of The Deliverance that it almost feels unnecessary when the supernatural elements inevitably take over in the final act. Read full review
60
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiAug 30, 2024
The Deliverance is bolstered by the cast’s commitment to the story and their characters. Without them, the film's ending wouldn't have been remotely believable. Read full review
60
ColliderMatt DonatoAug 16, 2024
While there's a randomizer sense to everything, frights abound, and there's a mercilessness that bites down hard. Execution may slip and slide, but Daniels doesn't waste his first crack at the ghoulishness of this Earth or deep below. Read full review
55
TheWrapElizabeth WeitzmanSep 5, 2024
Ultimately, Daniels has made a touching and forceful film about three generations attempting to overcome familial and societal trauma. It’s only the Devil who underdelivers. Read full review
50
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezSep 2, 2024
While the poor, urban setting of The Deliverance is a little bit unique for the supernatural genre, the way the suffering and dreariness within the backdrop collides with the ghastly misery of the unrelenting horror of it all is just several steps out of bounds. Read full review
50
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaAug 30, 2024
While horror fans might not get much out of The Deliverance, it might be worth watching for the performances alone. At the very least, several of the acting choices Glenn Close makes here will burn themselves into your brain and make you forget all about her turn in "Hillbilly Elegy." Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireAug 30, 2024
The Deliverance would have worked just fine if it had functioned solely as a domestic drama infused with the thorny, real-world issues of addiction, poverty and racism. Read full review
45
The Daily BeastNick SchagerAug 29, 2024
A subpar exorcism movie that’s all the more depressing for being directed by Lee Daniels, whose distinctive flair is only sporadically spied amidst its shopworn clichés. Read full review
42
IndieWireAlison ForemanAug 20, 2024
Had Daniels explored all the underpinnings of a horror outing as a dramatic allegory for addiction — as the film‘s opening quote (“I need forgiveness for my sins, but I also need deliverance from the power of sin…”) suggests he might — the director could have fared better than going all the way to ghosts… or is it demons? Read full review
40
EmpireBen TravisSep 3, 2024
Well-intentioned, with a strong performance from Andra Day — but uneven human drama eventually gives way to boringly familiar horror tropes. All round, The Deliverance struggles to deliver. Read full review
40
IGNChase HutchinsonAug 30, 2024
Andra Day delivers a commendable performance as matriarch Ebony Jackson, but the entire experience is neither scary enough as a horror film nor insightful enough as a drama to leave a mark. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterLovia GyarkyeAug 22, 2024
[Daniels] desire to wrest explicit meaning out of the mother’s experience and corral viewers toward a single conclusion unwittingly places The Deliverance in mawkish and disappointingly cartoonish territory. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawAug 15, 2024
This film is covered in a thick ectoplasm of disappointment. Read full review
25
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 1, 2024
For a guy who jumped straight into putting his name before the title of his films, Lee Daniels is still too ham-fisted and clumsy to make these down-market melodramas come off. And he’s got no clue about building suspense and delivering shocks. Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubJacob OllerAug 30, 2024
The Deliverance is alternatingly dull and totally nuts. It is never scary, and only sometimes holds your attention. Read full review
25
ABC NewsPeter TraversAug 30, 2024
Even talented people can make terrible movies. Case in point: this all-star, devil-made-me-do-it horror show from Lee Daniels with an overqualified cast, underfunded special effects, a sinkhole of a script and a nutso confidence in its own nonexistent profundity. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleCarla MeyerAug 28, 2024
Daniels has the talent to make a genuinely complex horror film. What was “Precious,” if not a horror movie made all the more chilling by its lack of supernatural elements? But for “The Deliverance,” Daniels simply dusts off the same crab-walking, veins-a-popping demon moves we have seen a million times. Read full review
20
The TelegraphTim RobeyAug 30, 2024
The film succumbs to being undiluted tripe. Read full review
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