LEVITICUS Review

Leviticus follows two gay teens, unaccepted for who they are by the people around them, as they see an entity that's trying to harm them after being subjected to a religious conversion ritual. The entity takes the shape of the person they're most into, in this case each other. Only they can see it, making it impossible to prove to anyone else around them.

The two main performances are where this movie shines. Joe Bird plays the protagonist, Naim, and we follow him through a wide range emotions. Whether it's seeing him develop feelings for Ryan (Stacy Clausen), seeing the pain when he realizes he might not be the only guy Ryan is into, experiencing regret, fear, longing, being terrified of what's happening around him or begging people to believe him, he has so much to do in such a short runtime and every emotion lands. Stacy Clausen has a similar task of range of emotions but is also tasked with a double role, as the audience only ever sees the entity take the form of Ryan, given we see it through Naim's eyes. These performances take you on a never-ending ride that you never want to look away from. They also work perfectly together, establishing a chemistry from the jump that already had me locked in.

The themes of homophobia are very prevalent and tackled more directly than a lot of films tend to do. Seeing how people in the town let this ritual happen and weren't immediately turned off by seeing these teenage boys physical reactions was very hard to watch, but in a way that services the point of the film. The movie doesn't try to redeem these people, and it shouldn't. What's even more revealing, however, is how our lead character weaponizes the town's homophobia when he isn't getting his way. Telling the parents of another gay boy, knowing the parents will be against it, just to get him in trouble but without fully thinking through the consequences shows the dangers of this type of bigoted society existing in the first place. Even the people who should be different aren't innocent from falling into it. While the specific plot points here are dramaticized, it ultimately rings very true.

While the horror is more secondary to the romance and themes of homophobia, those aspects are weaved in perfectly. The entity is a consequence of this ritual the boys were put through, something they have to be afraid of through no real fault of their own. It makes them question whether being together is really worth it in the long run, despite it feeling like a lose-lose situation. The fear goes far beyond the entity itself. The moments when Naim had to fight off the entity that looks exactly like Ryan, or question which one of them he was even seeing, were terrifying in just the right way.

The short runtime mostly works. The film knows how to move along from plot point to plot point which kept it engaging all the way through. It doesn't sit in parts of the story where there's not enough to justify it. The only time the short runtime works against it is in how abrupt the ending felt.

The final act is driven by something that complicates the situation even further, a thing that needs to be resolved, and that resolution is rushed to a point that feels unsatisfying. Only seeing the movie through Naim's eyes doesn't entirely help, as we're missing out on any emotional substance from Ryan's end that would have helped the ending land more authentically. It's not how it ends that's the issue, but the lack of build up to get there.

The unsatisfying ending doesn't take away from the 80 minutes of resonance that shines through before it. The movie locked me into these characters and made me feel things in a way I wasn't expecting. It's not always the easiest watch, but it's one that is very worth it.

🍿 SCORE = 80 / 100