Lee Daniels’ The Deliverance can’t pray away the demons in new trailer

Though director Lee Daniels isn’t exactly new to horror, the first trailer for Netflix’s The Deliverance makes it seem like he’s hitting his stride with the genre.

Inspired by the 2011 reports of a haunting in Gary, Indiana, The Deliverance tells the story of Ebony Jackson (Andra Day), a woman from Pennsylvania whose life is upended as her sons Andre (Anthony B. Jenkins) and Nate (Caleb McLaughlin) are tormented by a malevolent entity. 

While it’s obvious that Ebony’s at her wits end as she brings in Reverend Bernice James (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) in to exorcize her sons, it’s also clear that others — like social worker Cynthia Henry (Mo’Nique) and churchgoer Alberta (Glenn Close) — aren’t sure what to make of the mother’s situation. The trailer’s unsettling shots of Andre guzzling milk and being drowned in a tub by his brother both read as signs of them being under the influence of a supernatural force. But it also feels like The Deliverance will try to leave some question as to whether what’s happening to the Jenkins family is actually otherworldly, and how much of it might just be a religiously-fueled delusion.

The Deliverance is slated to hit Netflix on August 30th.