Perhaps it’s to be entirely expected that the number of social media-related horrors continue to grow and grow. Alongside the likes of Tragedy Girls, Assassination Nation and Making Monsters, we can now count The Cleansing Hour, though quite unlike those others, this most recent film melds the premise of a successful social media channel with something altogether more occult. The resulting film is a very physical, often gory project, with elements which are eminently recognisable alongside the rather newer horrors of live feeds and ratings – things are kept fairly light-touch, though the film suffers somewhat by just how much it strives to do during its touch-over ninety minute running time.
The title of the film is also the title of a successful, but plateauing ‘live stream exorcism’ channel, hosted by an allegedly real priest – Father Max (Ryan Guzman). It’s no great spoiler to say that we’re soon shown he’s nothing of the sort, but he’s good on camera and alongside his friend and partner Drew (Kyle Gallner) they shift a fair amount of Vatican-blessed merchandise. Again, you can probably guess how legitimate that all is. Things are ticking away pretty well but Drew is getting antsy about expanding the brand; he wants to branch out, do something a little different – seances, maybe. Max isn’t so sure. He’s happy with how things are, rocking up with minutes to go but turning in a reliable performance. He promises Drew he needs to book a friend of his, a drag queen who is willing to take part in the rite; sadly, this friend doesn’t show so Drew asks his girlfriend Lane (Alix Angelis) to step in, read the prompts and gnash her teeth a bit. Very reluctantly, she agrees. It’s time for the show to begin.
Thing is, this time, it seems as if it could be for real. Lane is doing more than just ad lib here; Drew and Max, after adjusting to their sense of justified shock, are instructed by the mystery demon now inhabiting Lane to unpick the reasons why it has manifested right here, right now…
The Cleansing Hour deserves credit for appreciating the need for comedy here, as despite the internet framing device, a lot of the other elements it needs to play through during its time are very familiar by now. Demonic possession, in all its gravel-voiced, gurning glory has been with us for a while; this film opts to run with the Evil Dead-style of possession, all wisecracking and grim physical manifestations (if I remember rightly, there’s even a pencil). This works, showing a sense of legacy whilst also not delving too far into the kind of drama which would not be such a good fit.
That said, the friendship between Max and Drew feels very genuine, and their backstory is explored in just the right amount of depth to sustain interest in what will happen to them. The only moment which felt truly strained to me occurs when the demon forces a revelation regarding a prior romance which affects these two; I guess the filmmaker/writer Damien LeVeck didn’t want to tarnish a character by suggesting adultery, but the way in which this was otherwise approached, well, it didn’t seem like too much of a thing to get upset about to me. However, overall I did feel on side with Max and Drew, and Max in particular gradually gets humanised by his brush with a real entity. This is a very physical film, too, with every actor put through their paces. There might be a girl tied to a chair, but she still manages a physical performance. There are lots of practical effects, which match the overall OTT tone and style of the film.
There are also some good, if again quite light-touch comments on the nature of live streaming; the people watching all of this unfold, many of whom – we can infer – believe utterly in the notion of demonic possession do nothing but pour scorn on what they’re seeing; you get to watch the comments stack up, and most of them are of the ‘never read the bottom half of the internet’ standard. (During one of these scenes, by the by, I got to see my first example of Welsh used during the weekend, though not the last. One of the comments read, ‘Cymru Am Byth’!) A serious appraisal of online behaviour this ain’t, but it does provide a very plausible addition to proceedings, even if the film’s skit on ‘going viral’ perhaps feels like a bridge too far, given the onslaught which brings us up to this point.
And that’s my only real criticism of this film, as it’s otherwise good fun and in earnest; it crams in so much, it almost feels as though LeVeck wanted to get everything he ever wanted to put on-screen, into this one movie. As the film broadens out beyond its otherwise confined set and small cast, it perhaps goes further than it ever needed to. But, hey, if ambition and a burning desire to push one’s ideas as far as you feasibly think they can go is a crime, then it’s by far and away not the worst crime out there in indie cinema. The Cleansing Hour overall has a good sense of its own strengths, has fun with its subject matter and keeps things entertainingly gory, splicing its occult theme with some well-realised gore.
The Cleansing Hour played at Glasgow Frightfest on Friday, 6th March 2020.