Publication Date: 07-14-2026

Leviticus (2026) review

Dir. Adrian Chiarella

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★

Naim (Joe Bird, Talk to Me) and Ryan (Stacy Clausen) are teens in a conservative religious enclave in Victoria. Beyond conversion camps, this area goes a step further. The local deliverance healer’s (Nicholas Hope) plan to combat homosexual youths is simple: he sends a demon after them. Not just any ol’ apparition, but one that assumes the identity of the boy’s love interest as if literally to scare them straight. So, in short, when a monster attacks Ryan, he takes the form of Naim, and vice-versa, distorting their realities and rendering them even bigger pariahs in their already tight-knit, unwelcoming town.

The feature debut of Australian director Adrian Chiarella, Leviticus garnered acclaim following its premiere at Sundance. Neon acquired the film for $5 million, and Chiarella will almost surely find himself helming another movie here sooner rather than later. It’s easy to see why Leviticus captivated the festival audience. Its premise is so fundamentally linear, and its metaphor is recognizable and, for those not bound to religious doctrine, blind ignorance, or just pure hatred, easy to understand.

But in the same way grief has become an overused narrative crutch for young horror filmmakers, this kind of metaphorical exercise assumes that if you agree with the movie’s principles, you will like the movie, as if a socially conscious, tolerant story will somehow absolve it of its shortcomings. The truth of the matter is Leviticus — which gets its title from that oft-cited Bible verse, which condemns homosexuality — doesn’t have much going for it other than its message that gay people are tormented by unaccepting forces both seen and unseen. Naim and Ryan are thin characters whose romance is credible, but whose individual personalities are nondescript.

The longer Chiarella’s story goes, the more it reveals itself to be a rehash of It Follows and Smile, two other movies with overarching ideas regarding virginity and mental illness, who at least did their part to extract pathos either through character development or plot progression. Leviticus doesn’t even have an attractive visual scheme to enhance its subject matter. It’s a messy of murky browns and inky blacks that otherwise drown out an assembly-line of familiar jump-scares. In some ways, the crowded and plentiful landscape of horror at the current moment might be to blame. 10 years ago, Leviticus might’ve been revelatory. Now, it’s simply underwhelming.

Starring: Joe Bird, Stacy Clausen, Jeremy Blewitt, and Mia Wasikowska. Directed by: Adrian Chiarella.