If you thought your teenage dating life was an absolute nightmare, the new supernatural horror thriller Levitcus is here to make your awkward locker room memories feel like a peaceful walk in the park.
After causing a massive stir at the Sundance Film Festival, this queer social horror film is officially setting theater screens ablaze. Forget the quiet, slow-burning dread of standard indie flicks. This is a visceral, mercilessly upsetting descent into backcountry religious fanaticism that refuses to pull its punches.
Isolated Terror
Set in an isolated, dreary Australian town where the primary local pastime seems to be repressive religious zealotry, the narrative follows two star-crossed teenagers, Naim and Ryan. When the god-fearing locals inevitably discover their budding, secret romance, a botched attempt at an exorcism-style conversion ritual goes horribly wrong. Instead of cleansing the boys, the ceremony accidentally unleashes a violent, stalking demonic entity.
This psychological setup transforms everyday intimacy into a lethal threat. Ryan’s cRyan’sg warning to Naim—“If you see anything that looks like me… don’t go, don’t it”—sets the stage for a claustrophobic game of cat and mouse where a stolen kiss can instantly turn into an attempted strangulation. By centering the monster on the boys’ muboys’attraction, the film delivers a poignant, terrifying allegory for how communal hatred can twist the things we love into something unrecognizable.
Writer-director Adrian Chiarella makes a fierce feature debut here, assembling a stellar creative coven to bring this nightmare to life. Joe Bird (Talk to Me) and Stacy Clausen provide the tender, magnetic chemistry that keeps the emotional stakes grounded even when the body-snatching chaos begins.
Meanwhile, Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland) makes a haunting return to the screen, delivering a chilling portrayal of parental complicity that adds immense dramatic weight to the ensemble. Backed by a thick, suffocating score by Jed Kurzel (The Babadook), the atmosphere is engineered to make you squirm.
Another Hit For NEON
NEON—the golden-touch studio behind modern horror hits like Parasite and Longlegs—clearly recognized the special, subversive energy in ChiarellChiarella’s Boasting a near-perfect 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, the critical buzz around this 86-minute thrill ride is loud, with widespread praise for its total refusal to lean on easy sentimentality. Alongside Curry Barker’s Obsession and Kane Parsons’ Backrooms, Leviticus has cemented that the summer of 2026 is a phenomenal season for boundary-pushing genre cinema. Grab your tickets now!
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