There definitely seems to be this new wave of horror coming out of Australia over the past few years. Maybe it can be traced back to Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook, which came out (are you sitting down?) 14 years ago. Since then, there have been many younger Aussie horror filmmakers breaking out in Hollywood, including the Phillipou Brothers of Talk to Me and Bring Her Back.
Adrian Chiarella’s feature debut, Leviticus, has something in common with Talk to Me, since it stars that film’s breakout actor Joe Bird, playing Naim, a teenage lad who has moved to a rural part of Australia with his very religious mother (Mia Wasikowska), where he begins to explore his sexuality via interactions with a classmate Ryan (Stacy Clausen). Naim learns that Ryan has been having similar interactions with the son of the preacher at his mother’s church, not realizing their respective parents would take the boys to a “deliverance preacher” (Nicholas Hope), who uses mystical means to “exorcise” the boys’ homosexual leanings. What happens instead is that those who go through this process, wind up encountering a murderous demon that disguises itself as the one they desire.
Leviticus premiered at Sundance back in January, and after playing a few other festivals, it’s finally hitting theaters nationwide this Friday, June 19.
The Weekend Warrior Show was thrilled to have Chiarella and Bird on to talk about various aspects of Leviticus, a fun and informative interview, despite being plagued by a few technical issues, so apologies for those in advance.
