Ceris' 31 Days of Horror Challenge: The Cleansing Hour

This is one I’ve not seen before but I’m not sure I’m going to particularly enjoy it as ghosts and exorcisms aren’t really my thing.

Two friends, Max and Drew, live-stream staged exorcisms on the internet. Things go south when Drew's fiance, Lane, is possessed by a real demon who starts threatening the nature of their relationship.

Friends Mike and Drew host a livestream show, during which, Father Max (played by Max) performs an exorcism on a possessed person. What viewers don’t know is that the show is fake with each episode being scripted and produced to entice viewers to watch their videos and buy their merchandise. Max’s dream is to draw as big a crowd as possible – who wouldn’t if you have stuff to sell. Drew’s fiancé Lane isn’t a fan of the livestream; however she is supportive and even steps in to play the possessed person when the actor due to play the role for their current episode doesn’t show.

The livestream starts, but it quickly becomes clear that Lane has actually been possessed – something to do with the scraping fingernails on the chair and the headbutt to Max gives it away - much to the horror of the team. The demon kills the crew members one by one until it is only Drew and Max left in the land of the living, and she forces them to reveal their deepest, darkest secrets. Max confesses that the livestream is fake – which I think most people know – but that starts telling everyone that he accidentally murdered a nun when he was in school. Its revealed and he and Drew attended the same Catholic school together but were frequently beaten by a nun for reasons she often made up. Max killed her during one beating to protect Drew, but the experience has haunted him ever since. He also confesses that he was once a priest but left as he couldn’t accept the abuse that goes on within the church that doesn’t get answered.

The livestream is still ongoing, and the viewer count is climbing with Drew realises that the demon is using the livestream for its own purpose, so he cuts the feed as he thinks the demon is trying to humiliate the church. Considering Lane is tied to the chair the whole time, it’s impressive the amount of chaos she manages to cause. Drew realises that the demon is Aamon – a prince of demons. Aamon in a final cruel twist, forces one more confession, that Max and Lane slept together before she met Drew. This causes their friendship to breakdown – in fairness I can’t say I’m surprised – and almost causes them to forget the have a demon to exorcise, but it’s okay, they remember in time.. Lane is demon free, but Max & Drew are NOT friends, but they think the horror is over ……… but defo not. The demon reappears in front of them and tells them he tricked them, and he is in fact Lucifer himself. Sadly, for Lane, she ends up possessed again, and this time there is no stopping the demon as he takes over the live stream causing the viewing numbers to rocket to 17 million. The viewers are all possessed and start attacking everyone around then – including the President whose son happens to be watching the live stream.

Despite a few moments, overall I found this film a bit shit and not my cup of tea at all – not on my ‘to watch again’ list.