“Everyone is first to die” causes Andra Day a lot of trouble

It's set in a spooky house (not in Amityville, though) and suggests that every sound you hear could be something deadly.

Worse still, there's a type of disease that turns a woman's children into everything from zombies to potential murderers. Home sweet home? Oh no.

Based on the case of an Indianapolis woman who claimed her house was cursed and her children were possessed, Everyone's First to Die raises many possibilities – could the mother be abusive, alcoholic, or addicted? Were the children imitating what they thought their mother wanted them to do? Or was the house truly possessed?

Director Lee Daniels tries to give it a “Precious” feel and make the horror story less obvious, putting Andra Day (as mother Ebony Jackson) to the test and leaving others around her to speculate.

Particularly skeptical is Jackson's mother (Glenn Close in another of those over-the-top “Hillbilly Elegy” performances), who is suffering from cancer and thinks that a little more religion might do the girl some good.

One by one, experts come in (you won't recognize Oscar winner Mo'Nique as a social worker) and try to assess the situation. The moments in the examination room are terrifying (especially when a son climbs a wall backwards); the nights at home are terrifying.

And yet all signs point to a “redemption” or exorcism being needed. Daniels ramps things up considerably, having a priest (well played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) add another wrinkle.

When all options are exhausted, a lot of things are in the mother's hands. Day handles the whole mess quite well, although it's never quite clear what kind of movie “Everyone's First to Die” is trying to be. Like the recent “Exorcist” reboot, this film wants to absolve certain people of responsibility.

Close's character Alberta is definitely worth watching. She knows her daughter's weaknesses and is not afraid to talk about them. When they are not arguing about what is right, they are dealing with their mother's illness.

Moments when the children are left alone are even more terrifying. When one holds the other under water in a bathtub, “everyone is first to die” becomes frighteningly real. An abusive family and a haunted house, it must be said, do not mix.

The Exorcist is mentioned frequently here, although “salvation” is not the same thing. Racism is present here too, but Daniels makes sure that those sent to help cannot be tarred with the same brush.

Day goes through a lot of hell trying to make things right, and delivers a performance that might have been memorable if the intentions weren't so obvious.

“The Deliverance” neither answers your questions nor gives you the inner peace that comes with a solution.

However, it does indicate one thing: No matter how hard Day's family tries, they will not get the down payment on the house back.

“The Deliverance” premieres on Netflix on August 30th.