A creepy horror movie about homophobia on a different level.
“Leviticus” is another one of those movies set in a religious community and another one to deal with a tough subject as homophobia. Unfortunately, that is still going on, especially since the title is inspired by the Book of Leviticus, which has religious conservatives seeing as evidence of divine prohibition of homosexuality. And as an Australian queer social horror movie, this one deals with that, but on a different level. The kind where you have to be smart to know who’s who, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
We meet Naim (Joe Bird from “Talk to Me”), who moves into a homophobia religious community with his mother (Mia Wasikowska, also an executive producer here), but has an affair with another boy named Ryan (Stacy Clausen, who was last seen, unfortunately, in “Thrash”). One day, he catches Ryan making out with another boy named Hunter (Jeremy Blewitt) making out and they both have to deal with the preachings of the deliverance healer (Nicholas Hope), who puts them in a trance that looks like they’re having some kind of seizure. That sure would perplex people, especially the main protagonist. I’m perplexed myself as I’m watching this movie.
And soon, Naim finds out something strange is going on. It’s the kind that nobody-neither the police nor his mother-would believe and assume it’s a manifestation of the homophobia within the area. I’ll try to clarify. Ryan looks like he’s making out with an imaginary friend, but it’s actually a Naim entity attacking him. The real Naim sees the invisible being throwing Ryan around, and he tries to help, but to no avail. And soon, Naim seems to be making out with Ryan, but the Ryan entity attacks him. Now, these two need to find the source of their otherworldly problems.
“Leviticus” is the feature debut for filmmaker Adrian Chiarella, whose background includes short films: “Touch,” “Black Lip,” and “Dwarf Planet.” And as a gay man dealing with personal experiences, he represents the horrors of homophobia in his own vision with echos from “It Follows” and “The Witch.” And he sees the two young men who want their romance, but are threatened by something nobody else can see. And it’s enough for people to assume one of them is crazy, especially when he feels safe with more people around him. That’s one of the ways the entity can’t hurt him. As clichéd as it gets in that notion, it still feels consistent, especially when we have the “Smile” movies dealing with heroines threatened by supernatural beings killing them with smiles.
The score by Jed Kurzel (“The Babadook,” “Alien: Covenant”) and cinematography by Tyson Perkins really enhances the tone and creepiness. And there are times when I do have to cover my ears, or when it’s too late for me to do so. We get nightmares and invisible attacks that come out of nowhere. That’s how hooked we are to this movie.
Bird and Clausen both display the right kind of emotions and fears in such circumstances as these, and I guess they’re both no strangers to horror movies. Like I said, you have to be smart to know who’s who. I think we can agree that if one of them is standing in the horizon without saying “Hi, how are you doing,” then it’s the demonic force trying to reel one another in. And sitting in a theater with anticipation is enough to acknowledge and question if Ryan is really at Naim’s house or not. Either way, Naim better know what to do.
