Leviticus was a mystery horror screening that I was convinced was the new Insidious movie and I have to say that I was relieved that it wasn't. This is an Australian film which sees Naim (Joe Bird) fall for his classmate Ryan (Stacy Clausen) and when Ryan is subjected to a gay exorcism he and eventually Naim are stalked by a figure that takes the form of the person you have feelings for in an attempt to kill you.
The film works because of the main two performances. Both Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen give very strong performances as people falling in love when people around them will try their best to stamp it out. Yes, Naim effectively starts it when he grasses Ryan up just because he was jealous that he was kissing another guy but they do work well together. There is something about Mia Wasikowska’s performance (in a good way). She doesn't support Naim in the way that she should really and almost seems to be against him just by not being around.
I thought that the end was quite good. It would probably have been a cop out if they had managed to completely defeat it but the fact that Naim sees it as the coach he and Ryan are on and dismisses it shows that in a way they have defeated it by seemingly accepting it. Not sure if everyone else would see the ending in a good way but for me it worked and it did not undo all the good will that the film had generated over the previous 80 minutes or so.
I actually enjoyed this film. It reminded me a bit of Get Out in the sense that it has a serious theme but horror is used in a creative and effective way. The story is quite good although I could have used a better exposition scene but aside from that I thought it was a good horror film. There is something about Australian horror that is under-appreciated. This is the sort of film that I would probably have waited until it came out on streaming so I think that this was a good choice for a mystery screening and to the best of knowledge there were no walkouts which is the first time that has happened in a long time.
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