The Deliverance true story: What happened to Latoya Ammons?

Wondering what the true story is behind The Deliverance, who the real-life family were and what happened to them?

Read on for everything you need to know.

Is The Deliverance based on a true story?

Yes, the new thriller is a dramatisation of the alleged haunting of the Ammons family, with Andra Day starring as Ebony Jackson, a fictionalised version of Latoya Ammons, Glenn Close starring as her mother and Caleb McLaughlin, Demi Singleton and Andre B Jenkins appearing as her children.

While viewers might be quick to assume certain details in the horror film have been embellished for dramatic purposes – such as the wall-scaling and demonic possession – this isn’t actually the case, at least according to Ammons.

Many of the supernatural events in the film are depicted largely as Ammons described them in a 2014 piece published by the Indianapolis Star.

As detailed in the article, Ammons moved to a new rental home in Gary, Indiana, in November 2011, alongside her mother, Rose Campbell, and her three children, aged seven, nine and 12.

However, things soon took a turn for the worse, with black flies swarming their porch and returning again and again, even after the family believed they’d killed them.

In the Indianapolis Star article, the family also recalled hearing footsteps ascending the basement stairs, and the door between the basement and kitchen creaking open.

One night, Campbell recalled waking to see the shadowy figure of a man pacing her living room and, upon investigating, found large, wet bootprints.

Ammons also described finding her 12-year-old daughter levitating above the girl’s bed one night, an event which prompted her to contact the local churches.

While most refused to help, one church official agreed to visit them and recommended cleaning the house with bleach and ammonia to eradicate the spirits, as well as using oil on the three children's hands and feet and smearing it in the shape of crosses on their foreheads.

Also, on a clairvoyant’s advice, they burned sulphur and sage throughout the house and set up an altar in the basement, with an opened Bible on Psalm 91.

Ammons said these measures kept the possessions at bay for three days but that, after that, things got much, much worse.

She said her children’s eyes bulged, their faces contorted into evil smiles and their voices deepened unnaturally.

These events occurred even when outside the home, with both boys speaking in "demonic" voices on one occasion and passing out in the presence of their family doctor.

Both the boys were then hospitalised, at which point, according to Ammons and Campbell, the nine-year-old walked backwards up a wall up to the ceiling.

This bizarre claim was corroborated by a nurse and a representative of the Indiana Department of Child Services, The Star reported.

Shortly after, Indiana's Department of Child Services (DCS) took emergency custody of the children without a court order following an anonymous complaint.

What happened to Latoya Ammons and where is she now?

It's around this time that an agent from DCS also started an investigation for possible child abuse or neglect.

According to the DCS report (via the Indianapolis Star), hospital employees examined Ammons and her children but couldn’t find a medical explanation for their behaviour while supposedly possessed.

A hospital psychiatrist evaluated Ammons and declared she was of "sound mind".

Ammons eventually sought the help of a local priest, Reverend Michael Maginot, who, after an investigation into the case, performed three exorcisms in June 2012, and blessed her new home in Indianapolis.

After moving to her new house, Ammons regained custody of her children in November 2012, six months after they’d been taken away by the DCS. She told the Indianapolis Star in 2014 that they now live "without fear".

Where is the house in The Deliverance?

If you’re wondering where the real Carolina Street house is located, it has been destroyed.

Zak Bagans, host of Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel, bought it in 2014 and decided to demolish it just two years later.

Speaking to IndyStar, Zak said: "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 added: "There was something there that was very dark yet highly intelligent and powerful."

In the film, the location of the house has been moved to Pittsburgh.

How much of The Deliverance is true?

While many of the supernatural events in the film are portrayed as Ammons described them in the 2014 Indiana Star article, director Lee Daniels did take some liberties with the facts of the story, especially when it comes to the exorcism part.

The film alters the setting and nature of the ritual that took place, changing it from an exorcism at a church to a so-called deliverance.

Day told the Boston Herald that a deliverance is "less about just exorcising a demon from someone".

"It’s more about the whole deliverance of the person," she added. "Not just getting rid of the demon, but actually ushering them into a relationship with God. Or with Christ. It’s a whole transformation thing."

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Daniels said he was approaching the film as a "faith-based thriller".

"We had never seen this story, through this lens of this African American woman, on screen, and I just felt we’re in such dark times, and I don’t think people really know how dark of times we are in. And I felt like I needed to get reconnected to my higher power," he said.

"I’m scaring you to Jesus — for me. It could be scaring you to Allah, it could be scaring you to Buddha, it could be scaring you to whomever it is that you have faith in, but it’s scaring you to a faith."

Speaking about Ammons, he added that he had chatted with her "once or twice" at the beginning of the process.

"It’s my interpretation of her life story. I purposely didn’t want to meet her because I was nervous," he said.

"But I spoke to her... And she’s lovely. She was at peace."

Speaking about specific changes the film makes to the true story, he added: "What I’ve changed a little bit is I made her mother white because I have so many mixed-race friends and [I wanted to talk about] what it’s like to have a white mother and live in a Black girl’s body.

"And the deliverance person was actually a guy and not a girl, [like Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor's Rev Bernice James in the movie]. But there are so many women that do this work too, that don’t get recognised, so I changed that a little bit.

"And of course, their names and such."

The Deliverance is streaming now on Netflix – sign up from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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