31 Nights Review: THE CLEANSING HOUR

 

A man strapped to a camp bed is being yelled at by a hot young priest. The bed rises and the many-voiced man in it hurls verbal filth at the priest. Violence, blood and noise until everything works and the demon is exorcised and, except for the viewers at home, it's a wrap. The Cleansing Hour is a web show in which the actor playing the priest performs a new exorcism every episode and offloads merch while he's at it. Stream no. 1.

There's a growing irk between the star of the show and the producer which extends to the latter's fiancé who can't stand "Father Max". Well, she's soon off to a tv audition so she might not have to live with her contempt for much longer. Next ep comes along and the actor playing the possessed doesn't show (minor spoiler as to why but I don't need to reveal it) so Lane (aforementioned fiancé) steps in to play the demon haunted girl. A few minutes into it she goes off script. It's a real demon. Stream no. 2.

Right, so what we get is a play between global scale entertainment culture with its fickle, ravenous audiences and the horror of demonic possession. How does that work? Well, the demon knows all and who's lying about what and how easily that could all change with a few extortion tricks. It does happen so we also deal with what's at stake in the realm of "reality" entertainment. So far, that's a pretty good mix with something current brought to the table. Production values are high and the practical effects are superb. So why doesn't this work?

Well, because, for all those good things I just listed there are two problems that, once visible, don't go away. The first is that the mould on exorcism movies was broken way back in 1973 with The Exorcist and every single reiteration looks like that one, so however good you make it all the writhing and re-voicing are just going to come off as generic. The second problem has to do with what is done to offset the first. Whether you add comedy (all those horror parodies) or commentary  you need to make that weave in and so tightly that the two become indistinguishable. That kind of happens here but the more delving done into the characters' pasts that render them vulnerable to attack the less important it becomes that it's a demon doing it. There's another narrative crossroad but it's not addressed. What ends up happening is a choice made that blends the two streams on a level so superficial that it ends up as naïve on one hand and clunkily generic on the other.

The problem here is one of indecision as no amount of higher production values are ever going to mask writing that can't make up its mind. It's funny, it's cynical, it's scary except that it's none of those. Contrast with found footage movies made with such concentration on their missions that for all the glucky video look to them and stammered improvised lines of the actors are often far more effective than this quite lavish production. Maybe the time has come when a return to committed genre does a better job at justifying itself as cinema. Because the best of horror is always allegorical, regardless of whether its audiences acknowledge that: the theme should emerge through the horror rather than accessorise it. The demon through Regan attacks Fr Karras by sounding like his mother and getting to him through his guilt as it is his faith that is at stake. Possessed Lane sounds pretty much like lunchtime Lane ranting against Max.

Seen on Shudder