The Cleansing Hour

Directed by Damien LeVeck, The Cleansing Hour follows the host (Ryan Guzman’s Father Max) and director (Kyle Gallner’s Drew) of a popular internet exorcism series as they find themselves under attack by an actual demon during a run-of-the-mill broadcast. It’s an intriguing setup that admittedly does put a rather innovative spin on an exceedingly well-worn genre, as filmmaker LeVeck, working from a script written with Aaron Horwitz, does an effective job of establishing the appealing central characters and the less-than-authentic program on which they’ve made their names. It’s only as the picture moves into its well-made yet decidedly familiar midsection that’s one’s interest begins to flag and wane, with LeVeck’s decision to stress a series of somewhat tedious set-pieces paving the way for a hit-and-miss vibe that’s increasingly more the latter than the former. The progressively lackluster atmosphere is especially disappointing given a sporadic emphasis on decidedly attention-grabbing interludes, including a jaw-dropper of a final few minutes, and the end result is a lamentable misfire that probably, one would assume, worked much better as a 19 minute short.

** out of ****

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