Leviticus
An Australian horror film in which two teenage boys try to escape a violent entity that takes the form of the person they long for most: each other.
Writer-director Adrian Chiarella’s Leviticus is a gut-wrenching teen romance aptly titled after the book in the Bible that features what some interpret as a condemnation of homosexuality. Balancing blood-curdling horror with trenchant social commentary, it epitomizes the famous expression attributed to Charles Bukowski: Find what you love and let it kill you.
Newcomer Niam and his mom have just moved to a dull industrial town where the fundamentalist-leaning parent has found a like-minded community. There, the clumsy Niam befriends Ryan, a cheeky classmate, and the two catch on like a house on fire. But after being exposed to violent conversion therapy, each boy finds his nature (and what, or rather whom, he most desires) at odds with the supernatural.
Adrian Chiarella wields horror in defence of queer love, urging us to seriously consider what may be released when humans foolishly try to manipulate that which cannot be tamed. (source: New Horizons Film Festival, adapted)