'The Deliverance' is inspired by 'true events' about real-life exorcisms. What to know
“The Deliverance” joins the pantheon of movies about demonic possessions supposedly based on events people experiences, like “The Exorcist” and “The Amityville Horror.”
The movie begins with a title card that reads, “The following story is inspired by true events.”
Directed by Lee Daniels and starring Andra Day and Glenn Close, “The Deliverance” re-envisions what Latoya Ammons, her three children, aged 12 through 8, and her mother Rosa Campbell allegedly went through in Indiana in 2011.
Speaking to TODAY.com, Day confirmed she did not speak to Ammons to prepare for the role, but says Daniels did.
"Lee was specific in the beginning that he did not want me to. He wanted this character to have her own layers. He wanted her to be her own person," Day says, adding that's why Daniels changed the character's name from Latoya to Ebony.
Day, however, did read "as much as she could" about Ammons and her family.
The Indianapolis Star reported out the story, featuring quotes from witnesses, including Ammons and Campbell, the late Gary police Capt. Charles Austin and a Department of Child Services (DSC) manager who visited the house. The article also quoted multiple DSC filings, including a preliminary report and a more detailed investigation, both filed in April 2012.
"I gleaned everything I could about the story, the priest, the police officer who also witnessed it, the facility they had the kids in — and the house," Day says.
After her research, Day has no doubts about what Ammons and her family experienced — which is why she's made peace with not speaking to Ammons for the part.
"She truly went through these things. It wasn’t an easy thing to do. You want to honor the person's life but you don't want to reintroduce the same trauma. I wanted to be careful with her as a living human, whose story we're telling," she says.
Here’s what to know about the real events behind "The Deliverance."
Is ‘The Deliverance’ based on a true story?
According to The Indianapolis Star and filings from DSC, Ammons moved to a rental home in Gary, Indiana in November 2011 along with her mother and three children.
By April of the next year, Ammons’ three children were taken Ito custody due to “safety considerations,” per a filing by the DCS.
What happened between that time? Over the next eight months, the family — and multiple witnesses, including law enforcement officers — reported the children levitating, the children’s behavior and appearance changing, children speaking to invisible people in the house and more.
The DCS report quotes medical staff interviewed at Northlake Hospital, where the family was sent after Ammons took her children to their primary care physician.
Excerpts from the DCS report include:
One of the children made “growling noises and his eyes rolled into the back of his head.”
Medical staff observed one of the children “to be lifted and thrown into the wall with nobody touching him.” Another incident, witnessed by a psych counselor and a DCS worker, said a child “became aggressive and walked up the wall as if he was walking on the floor and did a flip over the grandmother.”
One of Ammons’ sons said “ghosts attack him and his brother.”
Ammons’ daughter said “unnatural events take place in the home during the evening time” and recalled “being thrown across the room.”
The document concluded that the children were “in need of services, “ and that Ammons was “unable to ensure the children’s safety.” Ammons could have supervised visitation with them. The DCS also recommended the home be inspected for carbon monoxide poisoning, and that Ammons find more suitable housing.
Ammons’ older son and daughter were sent to St. Joseph’s Carmelite Home in East Chicago. Her youngest son was sent to Christian Haven in Wheatfield for a psychiatric evaluation.
In the interview with The Indiana Star, Ammons recalled the pain of their separation.
“We’d already been through so much and fought so hard for our lives,” she said. “It was obvious we were a team, and we were beating it — whatever we were fighting. We made it through together as a team, and they separated us."
After her children were taken, Ammons contacted Father Mike Maginot, per a report sent to Bishop Dale Melczek, and uploaded by the Indiana Star
Following his first visit on April 22, Maginot performed an exorcism on Ammons, per the Indiana Star, witnessed by two police officers and Samantha Ilic, the DCS family case manager. He performed other exorcisms between April and June.
What happened to Ammons and her children?
While her children were in the custody of the state, Ammons and her mother relocated to Indianapolis, Indiana.
Ammons reunited with her children in November 2012, per a request for dismissal of wardship filed by the DCS in January 2013. According to the report, she and her children participated in home-based therapy, and have ”made progress.”
The report said the family “have not experienced any issues with demonic presences or spirits in their home … in Indianapolis.” They are “moving on from that point in their lives.”
“The family continues to attend church regularly on Sunday, but the family is no longer fixated solely on religion to explain or cope with the children’s behavior issues,” the report read. It added that Ammons’ mother praised her “for being a good mother, for stepping up and doing what she needed to do to ensure the children’s safety.”
A 2014 article in The Indianapolis Star, published days after the original one, gave an update from Ammons, who was responding to the article’s virality.
“I figured ... that I would get uproar from ... my hometown, but I never imagined that it would go viral,” Ammons said.
The article said the house’s current tenant called the landlord to complain about reporters and photographers. The tenant at the time did not indicate if he or she was experiencing demonic activity.
Where is the house now?
Four days after The Indianapolis Star published its expose, host and executive producer of Travel Channel’s “Ghost Adventures,” Zak Bagans, purchased the Gary, Indiana home for $35,000, the Indianapolis Star published.
Bagans had the house demolished in 2016, per The Indianapolis Star. “Something was inside that house that had the ability to do things that I have never seen before — things that others carrying the highest forms of credibility couldn’t explain either,” he told IndyStar via email. “There was something there that was very dark yet highly intelligent and powerful.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
