The Cleansing Hour: DVD Review

Arriving on DVD this week is writer/director Damien LeVeck’s supernatural horror film, The Cleansing Hour, which was adapted from his 2016 short-film of the same name. LeVeck successfully delivers a new twist on the exorcism sub-genre.

Max (Ryan Guzman) and Drew (Kyle Gallner) have been best friends since childhood. They grew up Catholic and though nether of them became members of the Church as adults, they had no problem profiting off-of-it. Drew produces a live-stream exorcism series called The Cleansing Hour and Max is the star, playing a priest who performs fake exorcisms to a growing fanbase. They also sell a line of items like cloths and holy water which they claim is “Vatican Approved”.

When the guest of their current episode of the show doesn’t show up on set (because she was killed by a demon outside), Drew convinces his fiancée Lane (Alix Angelis) to fill in. After all, she did study acting. Unfortunately for her, an actual demon decided to crash this episode and it picked Lane as its’ host.  Now Max and Drew must figure out how to perform a real exorcism before the demon kills everyone on set.

The Cleansing Hour doesn’t show us much we haven’t seen before but it has a great deal of energy and a brisk pace which isn’t very common in exorcism films. The cast is also good here. I was a big fan of Gallner in the upcoming Dinner in America and he continues to bring to life interesting characters. Angelis is also quite good as Lane, especially when she goes all out while possessed. Much of the film’s 94-minute runtime takes place within the single warehouse set location with focus on the three main characters, and thankfully the cast help make them fun to watch. This is LeVeck’s feature film directorial debut and I look forward to see what he comes with next.

By: Marc Ferman