Netflix’s The Deliverance, directed by Lee Daniels, is not entirely based on a true story but is loosely based on a local family that lived in a haunted house located in Gary, Indiana, for approximately a year. Latoya Ammons, the real-life counterpart of Ebony Jackson, had moved into the old rental house with her mother, Rosa Campbell (Glenn Close’s character), and her three kids. The names of all these real-life people have been changed in the Netflix film to protect their identity. And not just the names of the people; even the location of the film has been changed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for creative reasons.
Coming back to the true story, the Ammons family moved into the “Demon House” in November 2011, soon after which they started hearing strange footsteps on the basem*nt stairs and even saw shadowy figures in their living room. As per the reports, the house was even swarmed with black flies, similar to what Ebony’s family experienced in the film. The reason for all these eerie occurrences remains a mystery to date, even though the film tries to give it a psychological angle.
After a series of traumatizing incidents, the Ammons family finally vacated the house in June 2012 and moved to Indianapolis, where they lived with Latoya’s brother, Kevin. As mentioned in the film, the real-life Latoya had also lost custody of her three kids after a Child Protective Services (CPS) officer reported the matter. However, six months later, in November 2012, she regained custody and was reunited with her family, just like Ebony Jackson.
In 2014, a professional paranormal investigator, Zak Bagans, purchased the “Demon House” from original landlord Charles Reed for 35 thousand dollars after he heard about it in newspapers and television. As soon as he arrived at the property, he started conducting a series of experiments to figure out the real reason for the paranormal activities. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find any solid proof, though many believed that it was the basem*nt that was haunted, just like the film mentioned.
The local priest, Father Michael Maginot, who is portrayed as Reverend Bernice James in the film, had performed multiple exorcisms on the Ammons family to finally get rid of the demon so that family could move on and start a peaceful life somewhere. Father Maginot believed that the previous owners of the house might have performed a conjuring ritual in the basem*nt and accidentally opened a portal to hell, which eventually led to a demonic presence in the cursed house. In The Deliverance’s ending, the film portrayed a similar “demon hole” in the basem*nt, which could imply that it was the pit that caused all the unnatural occurrences.
As per the police investigation, Indiana officer John Gruszka recovered a fingernail, a clip-on nail, and some women’s underwear buried under the stairs of the basem*nt. It seemed like someone was meddling with the demonic powers and accidentally unleashed the curse onto the house. Or maybe it was intentional. Bagans found out that Latoya had an abusive ex-boyfriend and he might have something to do with the hauntings, but the boyfriend refused to make any statement, and it turned into a dead end. In the film, Ebony had been sexually assaulted by her mother’s boyfriend when she was a teenager. It seemed Ebony never really shared the incident with anyone, not even her mother, but she blamed her for all those years of torment. Ebony’s childhood trauma eventually shaped her character and turned her into an easy prey for the demon. One could also believe that maybe there was no demon at all, and it was Ebony who was struggling to overcome her own dark thoughts, and in the end, she finally did. In one of the haunting scenes, she imagined a man walking in her bedroom, who was later revealed to be her sexual assaulter. It was him whom Ebony believed to be hiding in the basem*nt.
In his documentary, Zak Bagans brought a bunch of people to the property to film the house, but a lot of them started losing their minds. He also found out that whoever had stepped into the house in the past, sooner or later, met with a tragic fate or an accident that turned their life upside down. That was the reason why Bagans decided to abandon his research and finally destroyed the house so that its evil could get buried beneath that rubble. Though I feel he destroyed it because he didn’t want any other “producer” to film anything there.
In the Netflix film, we never saw any police visiting the house because Lee Daniels initially established that Ebony had a criminal record, which was the reason why she never contacted the police. However, in real life, a local police officer named Captain Charles Austin had arrived at the house after getting a call from Child Protective Services because the kids were not attending the school. At the property, Austin felt an eerie presence and therefore decided to search the house for the cause of it. He even went to the basem*nt and felt something weird in there, which he failed to explain in words.
Here comes the most freaky part of the true story. The hospital scene where we saw Ebony’s youngest kid, Andre, walking backwards up the wall, actually happened in real life. A CPS officer, Valerie Washington (mentioned as Cynthia Henry in the film), actually witnessed a 7-year-old Andrew (Andre) grinning like a demon and then walking on the wall backwards. And surprisingly, Valerie was not alone, and the incident was recorded on camera, which was why it couldn’t be ruled out as a mere hallucination. Valerie, along with the kid’s grandmother, Rosa, and a few other doctors and psychologists witnessed the same thing in the hospital, because of which many had to seek therapy after the incident. The real-life kid used to talk to an imaginary friend as told by his mother, though there is no evidence to prove the same. As per the documentary, Andrew (Andre) had also attacked his grandmother, where he head-butted her multiple times in the stomach. I guess a similar thing happened in the Netflix film where we saw someone killing Glenn Close’s character, Alberta, and it seemed like it was none other than Andre acting under the influence of the demon. However, this murder is entirely fictional. Andrew didn’t kill his grandmother in real life. And even the Reverend didn’t get killed.
If you may remember, in The Deliverance’s ending, Bernice James mentioned a Black family that lived in the haunted house around 20 years ago, in 1993. Janelle’s young son Trey was possessed by the demon in the house, and even though doctors tried their best to find the cause of his strange behavior, none could find anything wrong with the boy. In the end, Janelle ended up killing her entire family under the roof and hanging herself. Surprisingly, this incident was loosely inspired by a real-life event. A woman named Meka, who appeared in Bagans’ Demon House documentary, revealed that she lived in the same house with her mother and her brother in the 1990s. Her brother used to live in the basem*nt, and he later shot himself for reasons still unknown. Soon after her visit to the haunted house some 20 years later, even Meka’s daughter, Erika, tried to commit suicide, which made Bagans believe that indeed something strange was happening with the house. Also, I feel Shante’s character in the film is loosely based on Erika. And if I forgot to mention earlier, then Rosa too was a true believer, just like her fictional counterpart, Alberta.
Zak Bagans, along with several physicians and psychoanalysts, believe that this might be a case of mass hysteria. Or maybe it was Gary’s crime rates and economic conditions that had something to do with the “demonic” activities, as these things can affect people mentally and make them more vulnerable to such incidents. Even the Netflix film pointed out from time to time that Ebony was drowning in debt and wasn’t able to provide a healthy lifestyle for her kids. She was struggling to make ends meet, and the very thought of it was eating her from within. Whatever the case might be, the only good thing that came out of the whole ordeal is that Ebony finally transformed into a better mother who was ready to bridge her differences with the kid’s father so that they could live a happy life thereafter. She even became a faithful believer in Jesus Christ. As far as the real-life Latoya is concerned, she threw her brother out for talking with Zak Bagans. On a serious note, after the entire fiasco and public backlash, Latoya decided to lead a private life, not only to protect her own mental health but also for the sake of her children. She has since then stayed out of the spotlight and isn’t active on social media either (in case you tried looking her up). I hope wherever she is now, she and her children are leading a happy and peaceful life.
