As a seasoned horror girlie, it takes a lot for me to lose sleep over scary scenes. However, this time around, Adrian Chiarella‘s Leviticus has stuck with me for its brutal, yet very real, exploration of homophobia.
This article contains Leviticus spoilers. You’ve been warned.
Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, Leviticus, starring Talk To Me‘s Joe Bird, Australian icon Mia Wasikowska and rising star Stacy Clausen, is a queer horror movie that follows two teenage boys who form a beautiful connection.
However, their strong bond draws the attention of their community, resulting in a ritual that unleashes a violent, deceiving entity that takes the form of the victim’s beloved — in the case of Niam (Joe) and Ryan (Stacy), it’s each other.
It’s eerie. The performances are remarkable. The soundtrack is *chef’s kiss*. But, unfortunately, the underlying message is a true reflection of how the LGBTQIA+ are perceived nowadays.
Speaking to PEDESTRIAN.TV, Chiarella said Leviticus was inspired by observations he’s made in everyday life, where it appears that society is regressing in acceptance of the queer community.
“I grew up in a time as a young gay man where we saw a lot of progress being made, and that all built towards a time when I was able to marry my husband. But then, I think things sort of shifted in the last five to 10 years,” Chiarella shared.
“We started to regress a little bit on that, and suddenly there was a little bit more homophobic language being used in public and in political speech, and little bits of microaggressions in day-to-day life.
“I wanted to do something that kind of explored that, but not in a way we’d seen before 30 years ago.”
The hardest scene to film in Leviticus
While the dangerous consequences of homophobia are explored through religion, the ritual and the entity, the literal danger of hate was also portrayed through a group who attempted to bash Stacy and Niam.
For Chiarella, this scene was the “hardest” to film.
“I guess the hardest scene for me was probably the scene in the car park where the guys come to beat them up, because I think it was the one moment in the film where we really kind of let loose on kind of real-world homophobic violence,” he shared.
“The rest of the film, we’re dealing with this metaphor of this monster, right? But I knew we had to have something very real about what this looks like in day-to-day life emerge at some point.
“So not only was that scene really technically difficult to shoot with stunts and cars and all that sort of stuff, but there was something for me that emotionally was quite challenging to tap into.”
Although some viewers may perceive the ending as quite open — with Niam reuniting with Ryan before discovering he failed to destroy the Entity — it kinda gave me a sense of hope.
Not only was the closing scene paired with Frank Ocean‘s “Self Control” (my comfort artist), but Niam resting his head after on Ryan’s shoulder after seeing the Entity one last time gave me a sense of acceptance and peace.
But the fact that they were also forced to leave their hometowns and their families also evokes this lack of belonging, which, unfortunately, is a reality for many members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Per ABC News, Police have recorded nearly over 200 incidents of anti-LGBTQIA+ violence in NSW since 2023. In 36 cases, young offenders lured victims through dating apps.
Roy Morgan observed that from 2024 to 2025, about 21 per cent of Australians believed homosexuality is immoral, which was an increase from previous years.
Leviticus is an ugly, brutal reflection of society’s treatment of the LGBTQIA+ community, which, in my opinion, is quite bloody frightening.
Leviticus drops June 18 in Australian cinemas.
Help is available.
If you’re in distress, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or chat online. If it’s an emergency, please call 000.
Under 25? You can reach Kids Helpline at 1800 55 1800 or chat online.
You can also call the QLife LGBTI peer support hotline on 1800 184 527 or chat online.
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