LEVITICUS Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Adrian Chiarella
Stars: Joe Bird, Stacy Clausen, Mia Wasikowska, Jeremy Blewitt, Nicholas Hope, Davida McKenzie, Shannon Berry, Tyallah Bullock, Ewen Leslie.
Horror and queer drama have often been explicitly linked through people like Frankenstein author Mary Shelley and filmmaker James Whale and Leviticus deftly taps into this rich history. Taking its title from a book of the Old Testament that condemns homosexuality, this creepy Australian horror film from writer/director Adrian Chiarella is set in a small, conservative and deeply religious rural community. Leviticus taps into potent themes of coming of age drama, the supernatural, religion, homophobia and queer identity in a secluded and repressive community.
Having recently relocated to a small town in rural Victoria with his mother, shy teenager Naim (Joe Bird, from Talk To Me, etc) is the new boy in town. He is struggling to fit in at school. He finds a kindred spirit in the handsome but enigmatic Ryan (Stacy Clausen, from tv series Crazy Fun Park, etc) and they enjoy a brief flirtatious fling in which they experiment with their sexuality. They meet in secret at an abandoned industrial site on the outskirts of town.
But when Naim catches Ryan making out with Hunter (Jeremy Blewitt), who works at the local service station, he jealously informs on them to Hunter’s father, the local pastor (Ewen Leslie). This is a deeply religious town and the bulk of the population believe that being gay is akin to evil. An intervention is arranged with a faith healer (Nicholas Hope) who performs an “exorcism” on the boys to rid Ryan and Hunter of their gayness. This unleashes something nasty, an inescapable malevolent shape shifting entity, which only Naim and Ryan can see. It assumes the shape of the person they most desire (each other) and pursues them, attacking them when they are alone.
Partly inspired by horror films like It Follows, Leviticus also touches upon the controversial practice of gay conversion therapy that was at the heart of Boy Erased. But the monster of Leviticus is also shaped by real world trauma, and the drama is shaped by the hardships faced by the LGBTQ+ community in the face of bigotry and persecution, which gives the film a deeply personal feel for first time filmmaker Chiarella. Here Chiarella exploits familiar horror tropes, albeit giving them a queer bent. Chiarella has been largely inspired by classic horror films like Friday The 13th, and he imbues the material with an increasing sense of unease and dread. He incorporates a couple of effective jump scares into the material. The film opens with a rather powerful sequence set in the local swimming pool change rooms when a lifeguard meets a horrible end.
The minimalist production design from Bethany Ryan conveys the dark heart of this rural setting. The heightened soundscape created by Emma Bortignon (who also worked on local horror films Talk To Me and Bring Her Back) is also deliberately unsettling with every boom resonating on the audience’s nerves. Jed Kurzel’s score is equally as unsettling. Cinematographer Tyson Perkins (Went Up The Hill, etc) effectively captures the small-town setting using the sparse locations to further emphasis the uneasy and at times claustrophobic mood.
After his superb turn in Talk To Me, Bird is becoming the go to person for Australian horror at the moment, and he delivers another great performance here. His performance is both empathetic and sensitive and he captures Naim’s loneliness and his quirky and uneasy personality. Clausen is also strong as Ryan and he conveys both a sense of vulnerability but also a potent air of menace. Bird and Clausen share a great physical chemistry. Mia Wasikowska makes the most of her small role as Arlene, Naim’s unforgiving and emotionally distant mother and religious zealot.
Australian filmmakers have been producing some great horror movies in recent years, and Leviticus is a fine addition to this canon that includes The Babadook, Wolf Creek, Talk To Be and Bring Her Back. This is a strong feature debut from Chiarella, and makes us keen to see what he does next.
★★★
