A quietly affecting teen LGBTQ+ romance crossed with vicious horror, Australian-born Adrian Chiarella's stark, disquieting, feature debut Leviticus is a sharp indictment of Bible-backed homophobia.
Naim (Joe Bird) is a lonely teen living in a dismal Australian town with his mother (Mia Wasikowska), following the death of Naim's father. He's invited to hang out with handsome Ryan (Stacy Clausen) in an abandoned building. After messing around and throwing some stuff, the boys wind up kissing. Naim is happy, until he discovers Ryan kissing another teen, Hunter (Jeremy Blewitt), who also happens to be the son of the local pastor.
Hurt, Naim outs the boys. Ryan and Hunter are taken to a strange ceremony with a sinister "Deliverance Healer" (Nicholas Hope) to rid them of their "indecent" desires. He performs a ritual that leaves the boys screaming in pain. Shortly thereafter, Naim witnesses Ryan talking to… no one. But he also witnesses that "no one" trying to choke Ryan. He will learn more about this malevolent force when Naim's mother decides that Naim needs the same ritual.
Named after the Book of Leviticus in the Old Testament and the Torah — of which the passages 18:22 and 20:13 are frequently used in arguments against LGBTQ+ rights — Leviticus has its own version of the cruel practice known as "conversion therapy." In this, teen boys who express a preference for other teen boys are cursed with a monster that can appear like whoever one desires the most. Just when their guard is down, the monster strikes, violently and horribly.
It's a perfect metaphor for the awful converting of queer pride into shame. (Although, as in life, the sinister method can also backfire; the monster can only come when a person is alone, so if the lovers stay together, the monster can't attack.)
Yet that's not the most affecting part of the movie. Rather, it's the relationship between Naim and Ryan that is most potent. Almost total opposites, they compliment one another nicely, and they have a lovely tenderness toward one another, after, that is, their initial rough-and-tumble that leads to the first kiss.
With its critical message on one end, and the romance at the other, the scary stuff in Leviticus almost doesn't even matter. But it still works. This is a unique horror movie that will hopefully inspire discussion.
