By John Corrado

The horror movie Leviticus, which serves as the feature directorial debut of Australian writer-director Adrian Chiarella, plays almost like an explicitly queer take on It Follows, David Robert Mitchell’s STD-themed indie horror flick from 2014.

This slow-burn film follows Naim (Joe Bird) and Ryan (Stacy Clausen), two closeted teen boys in rural Australia who are both exploring their sexuality. We first meet them sneaking away to the old mill to make out.

Naim’s mother (Mia Wasikowska) becomes worried about his behaviour, and takes him to see a mysterious “deliverance healer” (Nicholas Hope) who performs fundamentalist religious ceremonies in the town, and has already “cured” Ryan.

In short, a demonic entity is summoned that takes the form of whomever they most desire, which is each other. This allows tension to build in scenes between Naim and Ryan, with the two boys – and the audience – trying to figure out which one is real or the demon. While one could argue that a lot of horror is implicitly queer-coded, this one explicitly explores its LGBTQ+ themes, essentially being an allegorical take on the psychological trauma of conversion therapy.

It’s a cool concept for a horror film, but Leviticus doesn’t have nearly enough tricks up its sleeve to sustain itself, and can feel more like a short film stretched to feature length. The themes get slightly repetitive as it goes along, despite otherwise being pretty well-paced at only 88 minutes, and some of the ideas feel a little under-explored for a film with such a biblically-inspired title.

Still, Chiarella has crafted a promising feature debut that delivers several well-crafted moments on a scene by scene basis, and is carried by a pair of fine performances from Bird and Clausen. If it doesn’t do quite as much with its high concept premise as other indie horror breakouts like, say, current box office sensation Obsession, Leviticus still finds Chiarella carving out enough of his own niche. He sensitively handles the themes of repression, homophobia, and queer desire. It’s an atmospheric debut that will find an audience of sympathetic viewers for these reasons.

Film Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)

Leviticus opens exclusively in theatres in limited release on June 19th, including at TIFF Lightbox in Toronto. It’s being distributed in Canada by Elevation Pictures.