The Cleansing seems to have arrived in a wave of moody folk-horrors rushed out following the success of The Witch (Robert Eggers; 2015)
The plot is fairly solid. A young girl is a accused of being a witch and its up to the village "cleanser" to determine whether she is and cleanse her of her curse.
The film is a slow burn through the first two-thirds, but picks up pace in the final act.
It's atmospheric and well shot, with a decent score that underpins the mood, but doesn't show much variation. At times, this score is a bit too much and there are definitely moments which would benefit from either no background score or something more subtle.
The acting in the most part, and across the lead roles, is solid. The dialogue, on the other hand, has some questionable moments which feel clumsy and insincere.
As the film reaches its finale, the pace rapidly picks up, but at the same time some of the performances take a nose dive. There is at least one death which strongly channels Hot Fuzz 'am-dram' Romeo & Juliet, but unironically.
Overall, it's a film built on a neat story, which takes its time to build a decent atmosphere, but is ultimately let down by some inconsistent performances. Still worth a watch if you have the time.
The plot is fairly solid. A young girl is a accused of being a witch and its up to the village "cleanser" to determine whether she is and cleanse her of her curse.
The film is a slow burn through the first two-thirds, but picks up pace in the final act.
It's atmospheric and well shot, with a decent score that underpins the mood, but doesn't show much variation. At times, this score is a bit too much and there are definitely moments which would benefit from either no background score or something more subtle.
The acting in the most part, and across the lead roles, is solid. The dialogue, on the other hand, has some questionable moments which feel clumsy and insincere.
As the film reaches its finale, the pace rapidly picks up, but at the same time some of the performances take a nose dive. There is at least one death which strongly channels Hot Fuzz 'am-dram' Romeo & Juliet, but unironically.
Overall, it's a film built on a neat story, which takes its time to build a decent atmosphere, but is ultimately let down by some inconsistent performances. Still worth a watch if you have the time.