Deliverance

Deliverance rightly caused a great stir when it premiered more than twenty years ago. It is a harsh and grim story about four men who go on a rafting trip in the wilderness. What starts as a relaxing, de-stressing holiday develops into a pure survival trip, or rather a veritable nightmare in which both physical and mental strength are put to the test. One man does not survive the ordeal.

In a small, isolated backwater, where the friends Ed, Lewis, Bobby and Drew are looking for a couple of men to drive their cars to the spot where the canoe trip is to end, the menace begins to take shape in some strange human figures. Drew plays a guitar duet with a musical boy, an inarticulate freak produced by inbreeding.

The nightmare only really begins, however, when Ed and Bobby are caught by two of the locals, who show a very peculiar form of hospitality. One of them rapes Bobby, but before it is Ed's turn, Lewis and Drew have come to their rescue. Murder, mysterious death and a struggle against nature – that is how the holiday continues. Three come out of the nightmare alive – or do they?

Deliverance is an unpleasant but also very exciting film that manages to create chills with simple means and just the right atmosphere.