TV Talk: Director Lee Daniels exorcises demons in Netflix’s filmed-in-Pittsburgh ‘The Deliverance’

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.

Director Lee Daniels approached his filmed-and-set-in-Pittsburgh exorcism thriller “The Deliverance,” streaming Friday on Netflix, not simply as a horror film but also an exploration of a dysfunctional family damaged by intergenerational trauma. And his goal wasn’t just to create jump scares when the film’s demon-­possessed children start walking up walls.

“We’re in dark times right now, and, you know, a nuclear war could take us out in a second,” Daniels said in a Zoom interview this month. “For me, it was about scaring you to your higher power, be it Jesus, be it Allah, be it Buddha, be it yourself, be it someone that you know. Tomorrow isn’t promised. How do I scare you — in a very grounded way — to your higher power?”

“The Deliverance,” written by David Coggeshall (“The Family Plan”) and Elijah Bynum (filmed-in-Pittsburgh “One Dollar”), stars Andra Day (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”) as Ebony Jackson, a single mother who’s just moved from Philadelphia — hence all the Philly sports team pennants around her new Pittsburgh home. Jackson’s mother, Alberta (Glenn Close), lives with her, but Ebony, who appears to have an alcohol dependency, resents how her mother treated her, which is reflected in how Ebony treats her own children.

“What defines abuse, because she was hitting the kids, right?” Daniels said. “But what defines actual abuse? Oftentimes social services take children that are not abused, so that was really important to tell.”

Mo’Nique, who starred in Daniels’ 2009 film “Precious,” plays social worker Cynthia Henry, who’s suspicious about the children’s injuries, some the result of fights with their mother and others due to demonic possession.

But the demon’s influence — and the arrival of an exorcist (Aunjanue Ellis-­Taylor) — doesn’t become super-clear until an hour into the 110-minute film.

The film’s first hour focuses on Ebony and her relationship with her mother and her children, including her oldest son, played by Caleb McLaughlin, one of the stars of Netflix’s “Stranger Things.”

“Generational trauma is passed down, and we don’t even know it,” Daniels said. “Ebony is her mother’s daughter. She’s Black but her mother’s white, and Ebony is her biological daughter and we simply don’t see this in cinema. It’s one of the reasons I was so excited about (the film).”

“The Deliverance” is inspired by the actual case of Latoya Ammons, who claimed her children were possessed by demons in their Gary, Ind., rental home between 2011 and 2012. The events were covered in the 2018 documentary “Demon House” from Zak Baggans, star of Travel Channel’s “Ghost Adventures.”

“I don’t believe it’s a hoax,” Daniels said of Ammons’ experience. “I was going to do this (movie) a while ago, right after my film ‘Precious,’ and I didn’t do it because my mother told me that she knows I’m open and I’m a portal when I’m working, and she just didn’t want any evil spirits jumping on me.”

Daniels wanted to avoid too many comparisons to the events that inspired “The Deliverance,” which is in part how the film came to be set in Pittsburgh.

“I didn’t want anything to do with where it took place, right? Because I really believe in this. My mother has me convinced that this stuff is real,” Daniels said.

“I don’t know whether you know (Pittsburgh Film Office director) Dawn (Keezer), but she made me an offer where I couldn’t refuse, and I was able to make the dollar stretch in a way that I couldn’t do it anywhere (else),” Daniels continued, referencing Pennsylvania’s Film Tax Credit program. “Also, the crew and the people were so wonderful to work with. I can’t wait to do my next film (in Pittsburgh) — as long as it’s in the summer. It was such an enchanting little city and the crew was happy, and where do you find a happy crew?”

“The Deliverance” made its production home in Pittsburgh at the now-shuttered Churchill Crossings at the old Westinghouse Churchill site. There, the crew built the interior of Ebony Jackson’s home — the exterior is in East Pittsburgh — and some interior hospital sets.

“The Deliverance” also filmed at AHN Suburban Hospital in Bellevue, East Liberty Presbyterian Church, Hidy’s Café in Braddock, NXStage Kidney Care in Monroeville, Taylor Motel in North Versailles, Trinity AME Zion Church in Sheraden and Wilkinsburg High School.

“I thought it was going to be so much like Philadelphia, but it has its own unique charm,” Daniels said of Pittsburgh. “I put on 10 pounds, and I was like, ‘I’ve got to get out of here.’ ”

Daniels developed a Sammy Davis Jr. bio-series with Hulu that he intended to film in Pittsburgh until Hulu scuttled it. Why did Hulu drop the project?

“They ain’t smart, how about that?” Daniels said after a long pause. “We didn’t see eye to eye creatively on the story.”

Daniels said he continues to shop that limited series to other outlets.

“I’m in talks with two different companies,” he said.

And if not the Sammy Davis Jr. project, Daniels insists he’ll be back with something else: “I intend on working in Pittsburgh again.”