The Cleansing Hour (2020)

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This was fun and apologetically so. Some of it is ludicrous but unashamed to go full-out crazy starting with the pretty simple premise of a faux-exorcists confronted with the real deal. On the possession front, there’s absolutely nothing new presented, pretty much every possession trope is regurgitated along with the filmmakers working out some deep entrenched issues with catholicism. But most everything clicks, the cast has excellent charisma together, and the script is lean and fairly streamlined. They manage to pull off one or two effective plot moments, and they achieve quite a bit character-wise in a limited runtime.  While the movie has crazy epic global ambitions, the sets and effects are kept fairly restricted and mostly practical to the film’s benefit. All of the practical effects and wizardry look great, the CG looks ridiculous in comparison. There are heavy echoes of John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness, unafraid to let budget stand in the way of ambition. There are a large number of cringe moments involving body horror, and one or two jump scares, but nothing particularly chilling or particularly frightening.  In fact, I’d argue this film has one of the more hilariously genuine reaction moments of any character confronted with potential horrors. On the whole, entertaining and fast-paced, with excellent practical effects, an efficient script and committed to taking the premise to a fun last act.

B