LEVITICUS Movie Review | Joe Bird | Stacy Clausen | Australian Horror

[00:00:00]Totally coincidentally, they look like Shane and Ilia and heated rivalry.

[00:00:04][laughter] >> It was a big hit at Sundance and now it's making its way into theaters just in time for Pride Month. The Australian queer horror film Leviticus.

[00:00:15]>> You see anything that looks like me, I'd go near it.

[00:00:25]>> Yeah, this is pretty great. Uh, I think all the buzz around it is very justified. This is the feature filmmaking debut from writer director Adrien Kiorella. It is set in kind of a middle of nowhere mill town really rich sense of place as far as like the decaying houses and there's nothing to do but there's this mill at the center of it that's also abandoned and that seems to hold a lot of uh foreboating here. Um it focuses on these these two high school kids probably about 16 17 years old. um name who is new to town played by Joe Bird and Ryan played by Stacy Clawson. And Ryan is like handsome and confident and kind of swaggering and name is a little shy, a little a little nerdy, but they start to hang out with each other and have this like undeniable chemistry with each other and then one day start making out with each other and it's just intense from there. Um, there's another kid in town who also is part of the mix of this as well. Um, there's a a very heavy sense of like like Christianity, like a very judgy kind of Christianity prevailing throughout. It's >> it's like an evangelical community, you know?

[00:01:39]>> It is. And that's almost like the only thing that's holding them together, right? Because the industry is not and there's not a lot of commerce. There's not a lot of personality to this place, but they all cling to this very insular and very judgy and very conservative kind of evangelicalism >> like like name's mom played by Mia Vasakovska moved them to town because of this church >> like and which is the only thing that would bring anybody to this place because you're right it's otherwise it's economically devastated.

[00:02:07]>> Yeah. Mia Vasakovka has been around for so long now that she's now playing other teenagers moms.

[00:02:12]>> Yes. Yes. We've reached that point in the in the earth's progress.

[00:02:17]>> Yeah. Um she gives terrible parenting advice. She's a terrible mom. [laughter] >> Yes, she is.

[00:02:24]>> I enjoyed feeling judgy and smug and superior. Never say these things to my son. Anyway, um so so it's about the two of them and how when it gets out that they are hooking up with each other and that there's another boy involved. Um, the main preacher in town, the pastor who is a father of one of these boys, brings in this guy to do this ritual on them. And it's essentially like a a conversion therapy, sort of a supernatural kind of conversion therapy with the result being that um that the person that you desire most ends up coming after you. Well, an entity comes after you and it takes the form of the person you desire most. And so, it's sort of like it's a it it it's a um what's the thing like in Clockwork Orange that blank therapy where they >> Okay.

[00:03:20]>> They make you not want a the idea is that you're you're going to reject something >> propulsion like propulsion. Something like that. Yeah.

[00:03:27]>> Yeah. And so, um and it's it's harrowing. the actual ceremony that they're forced to undergo is quite startling.

[00:03:35]>> Uh and and so it's how they navigate just being in this town, this small town where, you know, they see each other all the time, but then mistrust whether the person they're seeing is truly that other person or it's this >> enigma, this vision, whatever it is. Um and how that gets increasingly terrifying and and violent. Um, I thought this was really suspenseful and really finds a lot of avenues through its central premise here. It could have just been like one thing, but there are fascinating kind of wrinkles and and variables involved here. I never knew where it was going. Uh, both young actors are great in it individually and like very specifically drawn, but you also believe that chemistry that brings them together. Totally coincidentally, they look like Shane and Ilia and heated rivalry. [laughter] >> It's a total coincidence. I read an article.

[00:04:33]>> I see what you're saying. Yeah.

[00:04:34]>> I mean, the blonde curly hair, the more confident guy with the cheekbones and the blue eyes and the the kind of sher guy has like dark hair. Anyway, they look a lot [clears throat] >> I'll allow it. I Thank you. Daniel Motto, our good friend Daniel Mto did an article with um with Adrien Kierella and with the actors here and he happened to see heat rivalry during postp production.

[00:04:54]>> Ah >> so he was like done >> totally totally coincidental. Um, I've seen the comparison that it's like it follows meets heated rivalry and that feels like an oversimplification because it's not quite the it follows formula, but there is like a supernatural kind of connection that binds people in horrifying ways. So, I thought this was so well done. Rich sense of place. Mia Vashkoska is um is totally annoying in this movie, which is the thing she's supposed to be.

[00:05:26]>> Yeah, she's she she understood the part.

[00:05:28]Um, yeah. I mean, I I think the it follows uh uh comparison is is a valid one because that movie is also sort of about metaphors about sexuality, you know, and about, you know, what horror very often will use like the monster to substitute for, you know, this social crisis or this, you know, whatever it is, you know, that they're making the movie about. And so I I think the way that this movie terrorizes its characters by putting them through essentially what is conversion therapy is a valid very valid metaphor because conversion therapy, you know, can and will [ __ ] you up. Like it it's it's it is it is, you know, reckless and and and you know, terrible.

[00:06:13]And so, you know, I think that's a great idea to to build a movie from that. But you're right, it's not just the central idea. It is the sort of granular stuff about these characters, about this town.

[00:06:27]There's an oddly funny moment where like one of them realizes he'll be safe if he's not alone. And so he goes to like the one sort of dinery place in town and the woman behind the counter is like, "We're closing in 10 minutes." Like [laughter] she's just could not be more bored, you know, and he's freaking out.

[00:06:48]And then she's like, "We're closing in nine minutes." You know, >> I love that scene. Her delivery is perfect. So dead pan.

[00:06:54]>> So they find a lot of different kind of tones to play with among all of that.

[00:06:58]And um yeah, I I think this movie is great. And uh you know that it's good and it's effective because a bunch of [ __ ] have come out of the woodwork to give it one ratings on IMDb when I'm sure they haven't seen it.

[00:07:12]>> Yes.

[00:07:13]>> What are they afraid of?

[00:07:14]>> Exactly. So [laughter] yeah. No, I think this movie is great and it is fitting into a lot of cool sort of horror traditions or not traditions but waves that are happening right now. It is a film I think along the lines of back rooms in terms of not going full boore on the you know gore or the whatever but it's it's about the mood and the tone and the sort of subtle stuff that you find that that that kind of >> like there's a there's a moment in this movie that should be sweetly romantic and but you keep waiting for it to turn into something else and so it's just tense you know >> you're on edge. Yeah. And then of course also like you know Joe Bird was in um Talk to Me you know and so this is yet another kind of cool you know the new australian wave of horror films that's happening right now as well. So yeah I I hope people check this out. It is um it's a great horror movie. It's a great queer film and it's a great coming of age movie.

[00:08:13]>> Yeah because a lot of it is like them figuring out who they are.

[00:08:16]>> Yeah. and they have to figure out who they are within the the challenge and the threat of this entity, you know, >> curse has been placed upon them.

[00:08:26]>> There's that much more going on. And so, um, yeah, and and and Karella really sets the tone efficiently off the top with the opening scene, what happens there, which gives you a little kind of like mysterious taste of what's to come and and in a great kind of, you know, very traditional horror movie fashion, the way that he like pushes in to show you, but not totally show you what is happening here. So, that was really well done from the top.

[00:08:50]>> It it's it is horrifying, but there is also hope for these characters. So I I I appreciated that a lot.

[00:08:56]>> And moments of beauty, you know, like within the squalor of this place, there are moments where like the light is streaking through the broken windows of this abandoned mill while they're having a a quiet moment together. Like it's not all doom and gloom. There's moment as say moments of hope and beauty here, too.

[00:09:14]>> Yeah, absolutely.

[00:09:15]>> Cool. What's your number on Leviticus?

[00:09:17]>> I'll say a nine. I I really enjoyed this a lot.

[00:09:20]>> We'll say 8.5. It's really good. So, Leviticus is out there in theaters.

[00:09:25]You've got a lot of choices for queer films this weekend. Uh, but this would be a good one.