Sundance Film Festival 2026 – Adrian Chiarella’s Leviticus lands as one of the best horror films of the year and easily the best horror flick to screen at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. This tight, 88-minute thriller boasts a crackling story, fine performances, jolting jump scares, and a poignant message.
Niam (Joe Bird) lives with his mother in an intimate neighborhood that is intertwined with a tight religious community. In the shadow of an industrial plant that billows smoke into the air, Niam and his mother (Mia Wasikowska) live a quiet life of strict religious conformity and submission. As the film opens, we meet Niam and his high school friend Ryan (Stacy Clausen) as they sneak into one of the many abandoned warehouses in the area. Initially the two begin roughhousing. That quickly evolves into a forbidden make out session. The two have a secret that, if discovered, would lead to their social ruin and rejection. Keeping their attraction with each other from the people at church and the kids at school is key to their survival.
Then Niam discovers Ryan making out with another closeted boy in town and is heartbroken. So much so that he goes nuclear and outs Ryan to his family. Soon after Niam is discovered as well and the church calls on a Deliverance Preacher (Nicholas Hope) to heal the boys. But this is no healing. It turns out that it’s more of a curse that makes whatever the boys desire into worst nightmare. For Naim, this entity takes the form of Ryan. As Niam attends a get together later in the film he sees a silent, pensive Ryan and sneaks off with him. After almost getting strangled, Niam flees the scene screaming, though no one else can see it. It turns out that the real Ryan is seeing something that looks like Niam only barely escaping with his life as well. The two boys must either stay away from anything that looks like one another in order to survive.
Like a sort of queer It Follows, Chiarella’s script conceives a monster that fiendishly mimics the cruelty of dogmatic religion for those who don’t fit the mold. Driven by oppression, violence, and fear, Niam and Ryan must suppress their true feelings in order to stay alive. It’s such an ingenious creation. So diabolically simple, and undeniably effective. Self hatred and denial are the only ways to survive. Of course the set up allows for a few wonderful scenes of suspense. In one scene Niam is left alone at home overnight. Ryan shows up begging to be let into the house, and we watch, practically squirming, hoping that Niam doesn’t fall for it. The only way the boys can survive is to stay together or never see one another again.
Bird is a wonderful, unexpected lead as the meek Niam. Additionally Clausen’s Ryan is a glib, butch punk that you can’t help but feel for. Still, it is Chiarella’s sharp, efficient script that quickly sets up the stakes, and introduces us to a terrifying world, and drags you through hell and back. Leviticus is easily one of the most satisfying horror movies that I have seen in years. A banger of horror movie that will change the way you see things.
