The Cleansing Hour | Film Review

 

I've only been subscribed to Shudder since the middle of December, and it is already one of my favourite subscription services. They have a great range of both original and well-known horror movies, and this is one of the originals.

Max (Ryan Guzman) and Drew (Kyle Gallner) live-stream exorcisms on the internet. The catch? All of their exorcisms are fake. That is, until Drew's fiancée Lane (Alix Angelis) stands in for a missing actor. Suddenly, Max and Drew's fake exorcism becomes real, as Lane is possessed by a demon. But can they save Lane, and themselves, before it's too late?

I remember being really excited and intrigued by the premise of the film. So overall I'm really disappointed with the end result.

As I've said, I found the premise really enticing. There were so many chances to flip the 'demonic possession' genre on its head and do something completely different.

Because these characters are knowingly putting themselves into this situation, you find yourself unable to feel sorry for them. In a way, this makes the premise even more intriguing, because it's not usual for a story like this.

The characters are deplorable, but you can't help but like them. We know who they are, and never have to pretend that they're something they're not. 

Once the film gets going, about 15 minutes in, it starts to get entertaining. However, this entertainment quickly fades away.

My problem with this film is how original it could have been. If you're a horror fan, you've seen an exorcism done in film. You've probably seen 10. This film offers nothing different to any of the other exorcism movies you've already seen.

Once the actual possession takes place, the film gets a bit boring. It quickly stops being unusual and becomes a run-of-the-mill horror. And in addition, a lot of the scares in the film feel really comedic, but the film isn't really portrayed as a comedy-horror, so the comedic elements feel a bit out of place. 

The ending of the film was one of the most interesting parts, but it didn't add anything to what had already been a boring film. We stopped caring long before the credits started rolling.

Overall, this was an original idea, executed in an unoriginal way. It was fine, but it could have been great.

4/10