Johnny Galecki from ‘The Big Bang Theory’ Stars in New Horror Comedy
Johnny Galecki might be famous for playing the decade-long role of Leonard Hofstadter in The Big Bang Theory, a sitcom so divisive that it should consider a partnership with Marmite, but we will get to see him star in a very different production next month – a horror comedy called The Cleanse. Here’s how Galecki described the movie to Entertainment Weekly:
“A group of people… are unhappy in their lives. They go on one of these kind of trendy retreats that are quite the fad now, not really knowing what to expect, and not really knowing what they hope to be the result, but they want, and probably need, change in their lives. And so, they are given a cleanse on their first day at this retreat, and what the cleanse does is expels all the toxins from your body. What they don’t know, and what they soon learn, is that those toxins form into your own personal demon, your own personal pain in an embodied form — literally.”
Ana Friel and Johnny Galecki in The Cleanse (2018)
Galecki also described The Cleanse as being reminiscent of films like Gremlins, Rosemary’s Baby and David Cronenberg’s The Brood. Sounds pretty colourful, right? The official trailer has just dropped and we have to say, we’re getting some pretty strong 80s nostalgia from the monster designs – many of which appear to be real models with minimal CGI. This could be fun.
Director Bobby Miller, who has recently directed digital content at Buzzfeed, takes the helm of this enterprise. Miller is described by IMDb as a “filmmaker known for making genre-bending comedies”. His only previous work of note is TUB, which was shown at over 30 renowned film festivals, beginning in 2010 at Sundance. This 12-minute horror centres on a lonely bachelor who manages to get his bathtub pregnant. Read that sentence again and digest the absurdity of it all. Got it? Okay, moving on.
The general premise of The Cleanse sounds intriguing and original, with plenty of throwbacks to hits from the 80s. It’s also a treat to see someone from The Big Bang Theory cast doing something else with their time. We’ll certainly be looking forward to its theatrical and VOD release next month.