Damien LeVeck’s THE CLEANSING HOUR opens on an exorcism and I thought to myself, “You’ve seen one exorcism, you’ve seen them all.” An hour and a half later I realized I’d finally seen a new one. Well played, Mr. LeVeck, well played.

(I’ll note that the exorcist sub-genre is particularly aimed at people of faith, especially Catholics, so depending on your background, you’re going to come into this movie with certain expectations and life baggage. Personally, I am militantly agnostic. I can take or leave exorcist movies; they don’t affect me on that level.)

The titular The Cleansing Hour is a live-streaming web series that follows Father Max (Ryan Guzman) as he performs various exorcisms. The film cuts back and forth between traditional footage and the show-within-a-show. The web show is a moderate success, with a decent fan base, but co-creator Drew (Kyle Gallner) is worried that the program has plateaued. He wants to branch away from strictly acting out fake exorcisms, like faking seances, but Max won’t hear any of it. It’s clear from early on that the true drama in the film is between Max and Drew.

It’s refreshing to have a horror movie that’s centered around the friendship between two straight men that never queer baits viewers or makes any no homo “jokes.” Max and Drew have been best friends since they were altar boys twenty years ago. They work together, they party together, they’re lives are entirely entwined. But now Drew is engaged to make-up artist Lane (Alix Angelis), who voices concerns about their toxic co-dependency while Drew pushes to expand their brand and Max is only concerned with his own image.

In 2016, LeVeck made a twenty-minute short (also titled The Cleansing Hour) with a similar plot and characters. It’s not surprising then that after working on the story for years and fleshing it out that he was able to create such strong character dynamics.

LeVeck has primarily been a film editor and is well experienced behind the camera, so much so that I was surprised to find this is his first feature. His talents also lend realism to the film set that Father Max and Drew work on.

These three main characters are a powder keg waiting to go off, and that’s before the supernatural scares start. It’s fairly early on when we realize that the next fake exorcism that’s going to be streamed live is going to turn into a real possession. It’s fun to see those pieces come into place and how the story fits together. While the tension between Max and Drew feels intimate, it’s projected on a worldwide stage that create much grander stakes.

I was unfamiliar with both Ryan Guzman and Alix Angelis, but both turned in believable, strong performances. I’ve been a big fan of Kyle Gallner’s for a decade and he is as relatable and human as ever.

Since this is GaylyDreadful, I should note that a drag queen is hired to play the possessed victim, but he shows up for one scene and is promptly killed off. I don’t love when there’s one queer character in a film and said character has a couple lines then dies, but no one is safe here and he doesn’t die because he’s a drag queen but because he’s an actor. It also helped make me like narcissistic Max early on knowing he was giving his drag queen friend a role. Contextually it didn’t really bother me, but I’m sure some viewers will be.

Speaking of queer, Glee fans take note: Heather Morris, who co-starred as Brittany, played the possessed victim in the 2016 short. Here, she plays a small role throughout the feature as one of the worldwide audience members.

Troy’s Takeaway: The Cleansing Hour holds nothing back. The practical effects are fantastic (the CGI is not fantastic but not terrible), no one is safe, and nothing is sacred. If you’re a fan of exorcism movies, this is a must. If you’re lukewarm to them, like I am, there’s still plenty of other material here to engage with. The Cleansing Hour is now streaming on Shudder.