Naim (Joe Bird), a teenager, moves to a new town and falls in love with another teenage boy, Ryan (Stacy Clausen), in Leviticus. After reluctantly undergoing a ritual during conversion therapy, they're terrorized by a mysterious entity that takes the form of whomever the two boys desire. Set in a small religious community, the screenplay by writer/director Adrian Chiarella juggles drama, horror and romance with mixed results. The plot is pretty simple and straightforward, and the same can be said about how it uses its supernatural elements as a metaphor. Unfortunately, it's not very scary, imaginative or provocative enough whenever it veers into horror territory. There's already enough tension and conflict within the drama and romance given that Naim and Ryan live in a Christian community and experience homophobia while they try to keep their relationship a secret. Adding a supernatural element doesn't add anything that can't already be found in its natural elements.

      Fundamentally, Leviticus bites off more than it could chew and only manages to be physically gritty without enough emotional grit because it's too busy focusing on the less interesting horror/supernatural elements. What concurrently elevates and grounds the film, though, are the convincingly moving performances by Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen, both of whom manage to slightly rise above the shallow screenplay and to breathe much-needed life into their roles. At a running time of 1 hour and 28 minutes, Leviticus opens nationwide on June 19th, 2026 via NEON.