The Deliverance ending explained: What is in the basement?

The Netflix faith-based horror movie has finally landed on the platform — but what’s waiting in the basement? Here’s the full ending of The Deliverance explained.

Horror movies have come as us thick and fast in 2024, from In A Violent Nature and Longlegs to upcoming hits like Terrifier 3.

Netflix is making sure it stays in on the action too, with the streaming service dropping The Deliverance – a movie that brings both horror and religious faith together.

With an all-star cast that includes Andra Day, Mo’Nique, Caleb McLaughlin, and Glenn Close (frankly, as you’ve never seen her before), what actually happens at the end of The Deliverance? Warning: spoilers ahead!

Ebony has a troubled family life

Netflix

The Deliverance begins by introducing us to a rather troubled family. Mom Ebony (Audra Day) is struggling on her own while her kid’s dad is completely out of the picture, and it’s also hinted that she has a criminal record.

Her oldest son Nate (Caleb McLaughlin) tries his best to look out for his two younger siblings, Shante (Demi Singleton) and Andre (Anthony B. Jenkins).

To make matters more fraught at home, Ebony’s mom Berta (Glenn Close) has moved in to help her daughter out, who has found solace in the church after a difficult start to her life.

Tensions between all five of them are clearly made known, with Ebony running a strict house without accepting any criticism from others.

Her children are having a tough time at school, with neighborhood kids threatening to beat them up regularly. Ebony beats them up in return, with Shante stating she thinks her mom will end up back in prison.

Andre talks to himself constantly, but Ebony doesn’t allow him to do so. She seems out of touch with her kids while also not letting them do much on their own.

Some important context is introduced at this stage. There’s absolutely no money, and Ebony regularly struggles to make basic payments.

The kids’ dad is out of the picture serving abroad, and won’t contact Ebony directly. Berta is having chemo, which Ebony has been secretly paying for for over a year. And lastly — all the kids have mysterious bruises and lapses of memory, leading most outsiders to believe Ebony is abusing her kids.

It’s hinted that Ebony once had a huge drinking problem, making it difficult to establish if her experiences are true or not. While all this is kicking off and social services close in, the basement in the house makes its presence known.

There are constant flies, the door often finds itself open, and when Ebony believes that an intruder has broken into the house, the light is switched on. Andre is especially drawn to the basement, routinely finding dead animals in and around the outside.

Cynthia isn’t having any of it

Netflix

Where Ebony is struggling to make ends meet in The Deliverance, Nate reveals that their dad has been sending him money to help escape her house. It leads to a fight between the two and Andre tries to intervene, getting injured.

The next day Nate pays off pest control to remove a dead cat from their basement when social services agent Cynthia (Mo’Nique) arrives at their doorstep.

She reveals that the children’s dad filed legal complaints against Ebony some time ago, alleging that her household is an abusive one.

Viewers on the streaming service might think this is true – by this point, she has accidentally injured her kids to the point of bleeding multiple times. Ebony maintains that she doesn’t hit her kids, stating their dad has only complained to get full custody.

However, Cynthia isn’t having it. She tells Ebony that the local school has been complaining about the children’s ever-growing erratic behavior, with all three of them unable to explain how they got the bruises on their bodies.

She says Ebony needs to get her act together and stop drinking – with an unknown woman in a car outside taking pictures.

By the time of Shante’s birthday, it all seems as though family tension has been repaired. This soon stops when Andre is found in the basement, explaining his imaginary friend “Trey” asked him to go down there. He’s later found elsewhere at the party standing in a corner, facing the wall.

Ebony sends him back to sleep but has clearly had too much to drink. When she thinks Andre has got up for a third time, she charges into his room. Berta later finds all three kids hiding in the corner in terror while Ebony is dazed in the middle of the room.

Berta is now also convinced that Ebony is hitting the children, with Andre claiming she had them pinned against the wall.

They each go off to school, where weird things happen – Nate can’t control his laughter during a lesson about the AIDS crisis, Shante starts bleeding down her body, and Andre takes a dump in the middle of his classroom, hurling it at his teacher.

Ebony is called out of work to find all three hospitalized… though the nurses claim tests show nothing wrong. By this point, Ebony is convinced something bigger is going on, and tries to convince Cynthia of that when she makes another visit.

Having heard what the nurses said about the children’s condition, Cynthia shares losing her own child to an accident years before. She tells Ebony that her lack of gratitude for her kids makes her “sick to her stomach,” with both Cynthia and Berta relaying Ebony needs to get things together.

The house’s history catches up with the kids

Netflix

The new movie picks up with Ebony leaving a bar, being approached by the woman she’s seen taking photos of her. Dismissing her as Cynthia’s lackey, the woman explains she knows what’s going on at the house.

Bernice (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) is a Reverend, claiming Jesus has sent her to help Ebony because of the house’s history. Bernice claims that it’s not just the basement in the house that’s causing all the issues – the entire property is haunted by demon spirits.

She tells Ebony about the people who lived here before she moved in. Like her children, theirs were routinely found acting strangely, with no doctors ever able to see anything wrong with them. Eventually, this moved from person to person, with the entire family beginning to attack one another.

The mom eventually killed them all before hanging herself. This allegedly accounts for why the house smells so bad and why so many flies stay inside. Ebony thinks it all sounds ridiculous, leaving. Bernice tells her to take her details because she’ll be needing them.

Meanwhile, Berta tries to visit authorities to share similar concerns, but they shut her down, claiming no such thing could happen. Back at home, the kids begin to turn. Nate tries to drown Andre in a bathtub before attacking Berta in the living room, killing her.

Ebony arrives to find the chaos, packing up the kids in the car and driving away when the emergency services get there. As she drives, Andre begins to tell her she’s responsible for her mother’s death, his eyes turning as black as a demon’s.

She almost crashes the car, running to a nearby vehicle to try and get help. When strangers open the car door, the kids are terrified, leading Ebony to be sectioned and the kids to be hospitalized.

Cynthia is also at the hospital, with nurses telling her Andre is spewing up colored liquid and speaking in tongues. After seeing him for herself, she manages to convince the cops not to be as harsh on Ebony, who immediately leaves to seek Bernice’s help.

Cynthia talks to Andre, who goes full Exorcist-style in the hospital room, breaking free from restraints to climb walls. She tells the doctors what she’s seen, but it’s all too late – he’s gone.

The Deliverance ends with a showdown in the basement

Netflix

The Deliverance ending reveals Ebony has taken Andre from the hospital back home, where Bernice is going to perform said deliverance on the demon. Strapping him to a chair, Bernice says Ebony must tap into the faith she once had before various assaults that took place in her childhood.

As they begin, the demon comes to the fore, turning into something resembling Berta. After some holy water throwing doesn’t completely do the trick, “Berta” escapes, running rampant across the house.

Alongside hearing Glenn Close say some things absolutely nobody saw coming, it’s a classic exorcism scene – with the other kids, now in some kind of convent school, also experiencing physical trauma.

It’s not long before the demon morphs back into Andre, but by this point Bernice has lost total control. Andre manages to pin her down and kill her – but not before she can tell Ebony she is too far in over her own head. To finish the job, it’s all down to faith, holy water, and Ebony.

Finally heading back down to the basement, Ebony and demon Andre face off once and for all. The demon tries to trick Ebony into believing it let Andre go, but also by tapping into her own insecurities, suggesting nobody loves her. In fact, it goes so far that it morphs into a version of Ebony, claiming she is the root of all their problems.

Closing her eyes, Ebony remembers Berta, stating that even if she doesn’t want to talk to her mom, she can always talk to God. Stepping into the crack of light, Ebony does exactly that, which essentially exorcises the demon completely, setting it alight.

The sun comes up and all is well, with Andre crumpled over in a corner. Nate and Shante also seem to be free from the curse.

Cynthia comes back a few days later to find a heavily scarred Ebony packing up her belongings to move out. The courts have taken her kids away, and Ebony is moving in with her aunt in Philadelphia to get herself back on track. She tells Cynthia that if it’s the Lord’s will, she’ll get her kids back.

Titles tells us she does just that six months later, cutting to a scene of Ebony and the three kids heading to their new home. En route, Ebony explains that she’s been in touch with their dad, and they’ve agreed to give things another go.

(Top tip: stick around for the credits to find out more about the true story The Deliverance is based on.)

The Deliverance is available to stream on Netflix now. For more scares, check out the best serial killer documentaries of all time, the best horror movies on Prime Video, and the best scary films from Neon. You can also find more new movies streaming this month.