A First Love Haunted by Shame

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MOVIE REVIEWS
Leviticus
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Genre: Horror, Romance, Thriller
Year Released: 2026
Runtime: 1h 28m
Director: Adrian Chiarella
Writer: Adrian Chiarella
Cast: Joe Bird, Stacy Clausen, Mia Wasikowska, Nicholas Hope, Tyallah Bullock, Ewen Leslie, Jeremy Blewitt, Davida McKenzie, Shannon Berry
Where to Watch: available September 8, 2026, pre-order your copy here: www.moviesunlimited.com or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen make LEVITICUS work before the horror really has a chance to. Their chemistry as Naim and Ryan is quiet, awkward, physical, and completely believable, which becomes incredibly important once writer/director Adrian Chiarella starts twisting their attraction into the very thing they’re supposed to fear.

Naim is the newcomer, a teenager who has been relocated with his mother, Arlene (Mia Wasikowska), to a conservative Australian community where fitting in already feels difficult. Ryan becomes the part of the move worth holding on to, and their attraction develops in the stolen spaces available to two boys who understand that being discovered could have consequences. Chiarella doesn’t spend much time turning their relationship into some sweeping romance because that wouldn’t fit either character; instead, he finds the nervousness of two teenagers figuring each other out while constantly wondering who might be watching.

Someone eventually is watching, and the response from the surrounding community pushes the boys into something presented as religious deliverance. What follows unleashes an entity capable of taking the form of the person its victim desires most, meaning Naim sees Ryan and Ryan sees Naim. LEVITICUS takes an already frightening supernatural idea and makes it cruel, because survival requires them to distrust the very face they most want to see.

That concept could easily have been enough for a straightforward horror movie, although Chiarella is clearly after something more personal. The fear surrounding Naim and Ryan doesn’t begin with the supernatural presence; adults have already taught them that their feelings are dangerous, wrong, or in need of correction. The entity simply gives physical form to an idea that has already been forced into their lives, turning attraction into suspicion and intimacy into another possible threat.

LEVITICUS is strongest when it understands how awful that contradiction is without overexplaining it over and over again. Ryan can appear in front of Naim and immediately create two opposing reactions. Relief because the person he cares about is there, and terror because there’s no guarantee he’s actually looking at Ryan. Chiarella repeatedly uses that uncertainty without reducing the entity to a guessing game (which may well be one of the most impressive aspects of the film), because the emotional damage matters every bit as much as figuring out whether someone is real.

Bird is excellent at carrying that anxiety. Naim is withdrawn without becoming empty, and Bird lets embarrassment, fear, anger, and desire slip through even when the character is trying desperately to keep himself contained. His performance lends the movie a vulnerability that makes the supernatural sections hit harder, particularly because Naim never seems equipped to handle the sudden cruelty surrounding him.

Clausen has a different challenge because Ryan becomes both a romantic presence and one of the movie’s primary sources of fear. The distinction isn’t created by exaggerated expressions of evil or an obvious personality switch every time the entity appears, which would have killed the uncertainty almost immediately. Clausen keeps enough of Ryan inside those moments that Naim’s confusion makes sense, forcing the audience to study behavior for something that feels just slightly off.

Their chemistry is the foundation underneath nearly everything, and LEVITICUS would have collapsed without it. There’s a tenderness between them that makes the story painful in ways the supernatural couldn’t accomplish by itself, especially when the very attraction offering them comfort becomes something they have to resist. The movie isn’t frightening because two boys desire each other; it’s frightening because people around them have decided that desire should be punished, and the supernatural consequence turns that punishment into something they can no longer escape.

Chiarella isn’t treating conversion therapy as an abstract debate or giving equal moral space to people who believe they’re helping while inflicting damage on teenagers. LEVITICUS presents the attempt to change Naim and Ryan for what it is. Abuse carried out under the claim of salvation, with Nicholas Hope’s Deliverance Healer making the ritual feel disturbingly procedural instead of visionary.

The title carries its own weight because LEVITICUS has been invoked for generations as justification for condemning same-sex relationships. Chiarella uses that history without turning the movie into a lecture, allowing religious imagery, community pressure, shame, and the supernatural threat to occupy the same space. There’s a difference between faith and the way people weaponize it, and the film is interested in the damage done when adults convince frightened teenagers that something inside them needs to be removed.

Wasikowska brings a unique dimension to that idea as Naim’s mother. Arlene isn’t reduced to a representation of acceptance or rejection, and her relationship with Naim gives the story room to explore how difficult conversations become when fear, instinct, pressure, and a teenager’s need for privacy all collide. Some of their most effective scenes work because neither person knows exactly how to reach the other.

Chiarella also knows when to make LEVITICUS genuinely frightening. The entity’s ability creates opportunities for sudden scares, though the best sequences tend to stretch out uncertainty rather than simply blasting the audience with shock. Watching someone approach from a distance can become far worse than seeing a monster because Naim and Ryan can’t immediately run from every familiar face without also cutting themselves off from each other.

Several emotional and supernatural ideas have been introduced by the film's final act, and there are moments when the story seems ready to sit with their consequences, only to move toward the next confrontation. Another ten minutes wouldn’t necessarily have improved the movie, but a little more room for Naim and Ryan to process what has happened could have given some later choices additional weight.

That doesn't weaken the reason LEVITICUS stays with you. Chiarella has found a horror concept that belongs specifically to this story rather than attaching a message to a monster that could have existed anywhere. An entity taking the form of your greatest desire is frightening on its own, yet placing that idea around two queer teenagers who have already been told to fear their attraction gives every appearance another meaning.

There’s something deeply sad about how quickly first love becomes associated with survival. Naim and Ryan should be worrying about whether the other boy likes them enough or how painfully awkward the next conversation might become. Instead, they’re forced into a reality where wanting each other can literally put them in danger, and LEVITICUS understands how monstrous it is when shame gets inserted into something that should have been allowed to develop naturally.

That’s ultimately why the film lands as it does. LEVITICUS has a memorable supernatural threat and several effective scares. Bird and Clausen make the emotional consequences difficult to shake because we believe these two teenagers want to be together long before we’re asked to fear seeing them together. Chiarella turns that contradiction into horror without losing the affection beneath it, delivering a debut with some rough edges in its mythology and final stretch while getting the part that matters most exactly right.

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[photo courtesy of MOVIES UNLIMITED, ALLIANCE HOME ENTERTAINMENT, DECAL – NEON]

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