Leviticus Review: A Fearful Coming-of-Age Horror!
What if you weren’t allowed to be with the person you loved most? Love, being one of the strongest and most valuable feelings a person can have, has been examined through stories, cinema, and plays for centuries.
Oftentimes when we think of the concept of being separated from a “true love” a story like Romeo and Juliet comes to mind, showing adults keeping young people apart because of social status, familial differences, or economic status. People in the queer and gay community oftentimes have felt this to their core, but instead society and family being two strong forces keeping them from loving who they want. As time has passed and it is harder for institutions to keep gay and queer people at arms length, they often face social barriers from family, religion, and “old school” values that inhabit our everyday life.
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Leviticus, written and directed by Adrian Chiarella, is a directorial debut from a rising talent to watch. It is a horror film that also resembles a coming-of-age story balancing the troubles of being a teenager in a small town and a gay man where religion dictates the bounds of love. Leviticus is a standout for its heartbreaking and heartwrenching look at love between Ryan and Naim behind a spine tingling backdrop.
Naim (Joe Bird) has just moved to a Christian town in Victoria, Australia with his mother (Mia Wasikowska). He meets Ryan (Stacy Clausen), who asks him to hang out after school one day, only to discover that the two have a strong attraction towards one another. What begins with an innocent tussle is followed by a first kiss that sparks an intense longing for each other as days and weeks progress.
When the town’s church leaders discover both boys’ relationships (with each other and with other boys in town) a ritual is performed with congregational members present. This is to show both the members what will happen if Christian values are broken and to show the boys the consequences of their “immoral” actions. What follows is a devastating series of events that evoke deep fear from Naim and Ryan regarding each other and the unimaginable loss of their ability to be with one another.
Leviticus understands the connection between desire, temptation, and fear as it relates to two gay men being pulled away from each other just as their sexual awakening is being explored. Seeing the levels of fear and desire for one another playing in tandem as the story progresses is able to highlight how being afraid of the strong feelings one possesses for another can manifest into its own destructive monster. The movie chooses to incorporate fighting between boys that becomes inherently sexual and how it relates to men’s nature of hiding strong feelings behind physicality. In these scenes the audience can see how fear is being manifested physically to then be turned into physical longing for each other.
Chiarella’s first feature film is as haunting as it is horrifying as it gets under our skin, evoking the strongest emotions from our hearts. Leviticus opts for terror out in the open by forcing the entity in the film to be present throughout, never hiding itself from Naim or Ryan. Where jump scares are horror techniques often used to scare us temporarily, the film creates an atmosphere that has the audience looking in all plains of the scene for what is often so visible to the eye in our own society.
Where the entity both boys see of what they desire most is a metaphor for homophobia lurking around in the most open of places, the film does an amazing job of the boys experiencing the fear of the “monster” while also being willing to take a risk for one another even if it means being broken. Leviticus knows how to frighten by allowing fear to be present and easily seen in the most mundane of places. The way the film presents religion and its Christian leaders differs from the common idea of them hating queer individuals for their “sins,” Chiarella has developed a script that examines how indoctrinated values often blind people from the simplest of truths.
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Those who see Naim and Ryan’s love as unnatural truly believe that their rituals will reform the boys and bring them a deeper sense of peace and faith. This idea is even more frightening than hate because of how strongly it has taken hold of the leaders’ minds and hearts where they can never see love outside of their secular definition of it. What they think will bring peace and a stronger relationship with God only causes the boys so much more pain and suffering as they are denied the most real and passionate gift we as humans can feel.
The film clearly illustrates how tearing the boys away from each other only makes their bond stronger and more powerful, but also more terrifying. The monster they are so afraid of is also their greatest desire. Leviticus is a masterclass in coming-of-age horror that gets under our skin through its heightened tension both in the genre and between its lead characters.
‘Leviticus’ Rating – 4.5/5
Follow Steph (the Author) on IG – @cinemasteph_7
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