One of the best movies I caught at the Sundance Film Festival this year was Leviticus. A romantic horror thriller, it has a pretty ingenious gimmick. What if a parasitic demon looked just like the person you love the most, and there was no way for you to tell it apart from the real deal? This is the concept used in Adrian Chiarella’s film, with it taking place in a remote Australian village where religious parents have summoned a demonic presence in a supernatural take on conversion therapy. Joe Bird, who broke out in Talk to Me, and Stacy Clausen play our leads, two gay teenagers whose parents have made it so that whenever they give in to their impulses, they are lured into violent attacks by a demonic force—with the inevitable result that it will someday kill them.
Perhaps hoping they have another It Follows on their hands (although it’s a little less stylized), Neon snapped up Leviticusfor a summer release, with it bowing in theaters on June 19th. The full trailer drops tomorrow—but first, here are two new posters spotlighting the movie’s leads and concept:
You can read my review HERE (or check out the video version embedded below), but Leviticus was really solid, with it probably being the best horror movie I saw at the fest this year. It also played really well at SXSW a few months later and seems bound to strike a chord, notably with LGBTQ audiences. That said, even if you are not part of that community, the movie’s premise is pretty universal, so it should cross over—it has real potential to become Neon’s next sleeper horror hit. The indie distributor actually has a packed summer, with them also delivering Hokum (which was also great) next week, as well as Boots Riley’s provocative I Love Boosters in late May.
Will you be seeing Leviticus? Let us know in the comments.
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