The Cleanse Blu Ray Review (Sony)

The Cleanse is a 2016 dark comedy written and directed by Bobby Miller (Critters Attack!, That Movie Show, and Holiday Road). It was produced by Jason Cloth (Child’s Play, Capone, The Mule, Assassination Nation, Monkey Man, The Man from Toronto, The Green Knight, Candyman, Bombshell, The Kitchen, and Joker). Paul Berger (played by: Johnny Galecki from Suicide Kings, The Big Bang Theory, Roseanne, Bookies, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Hancock, Rings, and I Know What You Did Last Summer) is extremely depressed with his life so he attends a selection seminar for “Let’s Get Pure” created by Ken Roberts (played by: Oliver Platt from Lake Placid, Executive Decision, Flatliners, 2012, The Ice Harvest, A Time to Kill, Working Girl, and Chicago Med). Paul starts to focus on fellow applicant Maggie Jameson (played by: Anna Friel from Pushing Daisies, Timeline, Land of the Lost, Monarch, and Limitless). Paul is invited to a retreat. Paul meets Fredericks (played by: Kevin J. O’Connor from Lord of Illusions, Color of Night, No Escape, Deep Rising, Van Helsing, G.I. Joe, and The Mummy), Eric (played by: Kyle Gallner from Smile, Scream, Outsiders, American Sniper, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Jennifer’s Body, Veronica Mars, and Red State), Laurie (played by: Diana Bang from The Interview, Resident Alien, The Flash, and Bates Motel) and Maggie is there which is the main motivation to be there. Lily (played by: Anjelica Huston from The Addams Family franchise, The Grifters, The Witches, Prizzi’s Honor, This is Spinal Tap, Phoenix, The Royal Tenenbaums, and John Wick Chapter 3) conducts the program. They are all given four personally-formulated cleanse drinks to finish before the day is over. The next day, a small creature emerges from the sink’s drainpipe. The creature keeps getting bigger as time goes on. Paul takes care of his creature trying to understand the experiment. Everything starts getting really weird at the camp. Tragic events begin to happen as the participants struggle to keep their sanity. Paul is just trying make his life better but it’s slowly turning into a living nightmare. Can this group escape their dreaded past????The Cleanse feels like A24 before A24 happened. It’s a very weird and unique dark comedy from director Bobby Miller. It’s about a bunch of people trying to start over and experience something new with this creative program. Johnny Galecki is mainly known as a television actor but every full length feature film that I’ve seen him in has always impressed me. He usually steals the show in most of them, that’s with some very talented co-stars. He’s a great lead here as Paul. You generally feel bad for the guy and you are rooting for him to get his life back on track after so much bad luck. Anna Friel grabs your attention as Maggie. She’s the real reason why our main character Paul got into this mess. Just something about her that makes you curious and want to explore more. It has an amazing supporting cast with skilled character actors such as Oliver Platt, Kevin J. O’Connor, Anjelica Huston, and Kyle Gallner. The Cleanse has a nice atmosphere, slick cinematography, quality production design, and some excellent music. It’s a overall high quality science fiction, comedy, and drama hybrid. The Cleanse gets weirder and weirder as it dives deep into it’s isolated little world. It’s definitely not for everybody but I really appreciate how original it was. It’s something different for cinema and I find that refreshing. It’s worth checking out sometime, give it a shot!!!!Let’s discuss this high definition presentation and special features from Sony Pictures! This 1080p (1.85:1) looks amazing on blu ray for this home video release. The cinematography, production design, and locations all shine here. This is real nice upgrade compared to it’s original DVD release. It has an English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. All of the dialogue is crisp, the weirdness is boosted, and the music is elevated here. It has English, English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles. It has an “Audio Commentary” with director Bobby Miller. He gets very personal and technical on his solo track. He has some nice stories and provides all kinds of information about The Cleanse here. He chats about casting the main characters and he goes over the actors from the production especially Anna Friel. He takes you through all the scenes, he mentions stuff changed, and added to it before it was finished. It has an additional “Audio Commentary” with director Bobby Miller, actors Johnny Galecki, and Kyle Gallner. This commentary is more entertaining with all the interaction between these guys. They all do their tracks from different locations while watching it together. Miller makes it completely different than the other commentary which is nice to have other options when it comes to these. They dive deep into how they got involved. They share some interesting stories and moments during the movie. They show their appreciation for old school tactics like practical fx and puppeteering. They break down working relationships and collaborations between everyone here. “Making The Cleanse” is almost 16 minutes. It has interviews with director Bobby Miller, actors Johnny Galecki, Anna Friel, Anjelica Huston, and producer Aaron L. Gilbert. They chat about the origins of it and the overall plot for the feature. They talk about their characters and their experiences. It’s a nice little overview of the production. It has a little over 15 minutes of “Deleted Scenes”. It has a “Proof of Concept Teaser” which is almost 3 minutes. This has early footage that they used to kick the entire production into full gear. It has “Creature Tests” is a little over 2 minutes. It’s a cool behind the scenes look into the practical fx. It has “Kyle Gallner Audition” is a little over 2 minutes. It shows early screen test of the young character actor testing his role for this. It has a “Creature Gallery” is a little over 4 minutes. There’s drawings, early concepts, and behind the scenes footage for the creatures in The Cleanse. It has “Animatics” is almost 8 minutes. The director introduces his drawings and storyboards for the film. It has two different “Short Films by Director Bobby Miller”. Which includes the little over 9 minute “End Times” from 2018 and the little over 12 minute “Tub” from 2010. The interesting shorts includes actors Eric M. Levy (Surrogate Valentine), Megan Raye Manzi (Love Sick Love), Robert Longstreet (Halloween Kills), Karin Collison (Lethal Weapon), Vincent Washington (Bad Times at the El Royale), and Erik Gratton (Grimm). It has a “Trailer” for The Cleanse. This has lots of bonus material for the feature which is always nice to have when it comes to a brand new home video release. It’s available everywhere right now including MovieZyng.com, CHECK IT OUT!!!!