🎬 Leviticus

After being forced to undergo a dark, supernatural conversion therapy ritual, two teenage boys, Naim and Ryan, find themselves bonded by a terrifying curse. They are stalked and tormented by a relentless, violent entity that shapeshifts into the exact form of the person they desire most—each other. As the creature turns their growing feelings for one another into a dangerous weapon of fear, the pair must fight for survival while navigating their suppressed emotions, guilt, and the hostile community around them.

⭐ Film Evaluation & Ratings 📈

🟡 IMDb Rating: 6.4 / 10

🍅 Rotten Tomatoes: 93% Tomatometer (Critics)

🗣️ Critical Consensus: Premiering to high praise in the Midnight section at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival (where it was acquired by NEON in a major deal), Adrian Chiarella’s feature debut was widely celebrated for its inventive premise, haunting atmosphere, and emotionally grounded lead performances. Critics hailed it as a visceral, heartbreaking allegory that weaponizes horror tropes to explore the trauma and dread linked with early queer desire.

Analysis & Key Themes

Fear of Desire as Horror: Externalizes the internal panic, dread, and shame often felt by closeted queer youth by turning mutual attraction into a literal, physical threat.

Trauma of Religious Repression: Examines the lingering psychological scars and horror of religious conversion practices and dogmatic condemnation.

Doppelgänger & Shapeshifting Metaphor: Uses the entity's ability to take the form of the beloved to blur the boundaries between intimacy, fear, identity, and destruction.

Queer Coming-of-Age: Blends supernatural terror with tender, realistic teenage vulnerability and emotional awakening.

Key Scene

The Mirror Image Confrontation: A chilling sequence where the boys encounter the entity in a dark, isolated space. As the monster takes the exact likeness of one boy to seduce and attack the other, the real teenagers are forced to look beyond their fear and confess their true feelings to shatter the entity's illusion.

💡 Did You Know?

Sundance breakout: Following its premier at Sundance 2026, the film sparked a competitive bidding war, with NEON acquiring the North American rights for over $5 million.

Mia Wasikowska's Involvement: International star Mia Wasikowska not only co-stars in a supporting role as one of the adult figures in the boys' community but also served as an executive producer to help get the indie film financed.

Personal Inspiration: Writer-director Adrian Chiarella stated that the script grew out of his desire to examine why early feelings of queer attraction are so frequently entangled with feelings of dread and anxiety during adolescence.

Recommendations

Target Audience: Fans of elevated indie horror, allegorical monster cinema, intense queer coming-of-age dramas, and NEON-style atmospheric thrillers.

Similar Titles: It Follows (2014), Talk to Me (2022), I Saw the TV Glow (2024), The Babadook (2014), Climax (2018).