About a decade or so ago, there was a resurgence of elevated horror in independent cinema, especially around the time of the founding of companies like A24 and Neon. Among those elevated horror, one of the standouts was It Follows (2015), which was David Robert Mitchell's allegory about the dangers of unprotected sex. Notably, the acts in question were heterosexual intercourse. It was also a way of riffing on the common critiques of slasher flicks that punish teenagers for being horny. Homosexuality has been historically demonized. It stems from the passage in the Bible, Leviticus 18:22. Director, Adrian Chiarella does his version of It Follows, which also demonizes homosexuality in a literal way. The film depicts homophobia, but, by the end, it also shows that being gay is also the salvation here.
Joe Bird (Wolfram and Talk to Me) stars as Naim, a high school student in Australia. He and his single mother travel to a new town or the suburban area of an industrialized city, or nearby area. His mom takes him to a church that has a rather conservative community. Naim knows to hide the fact that he's gay because the people wouldn't like it. He's in the closet. The film takes place seemingly in the present, but it doesn't really depict the Internet or social media. Yet, the opening of the film could be Naim discovering another young gay man without the help of anything digital.
Stacy Clausen (Thrash) co-stars as Ryan, the aforementioned boyfriend of Naim. He seems to be into Naim, as he sneaks off to an abandoned warehouse in order to make out with him. Unfortunately, when Ryan is outed, he has to participate in a ritual at church called a "deliverance" by a man identified as "deliverance healer." The ritual is meant to be a metaphor for conversion therapy, but one that's akin to the tone and dynamics of Curry Barker's Obsession (2026). After the ritual, Naim starts being haunted by a demonic force that follows him wherever he goes. The first gimmick is that the demon only attacks when Ryan is alone. It stops anytime Ryan is around people.
It's not long after that Naim also encounters the deliverance healer and also becomes cursed with the same demon. The second gimmick, which is also like It Follows, is that the demon is invisible to everyone else except the cursed person and the demon takes the form of someone you know. The third and final gimmick is that the demon specifically takes the form of the person whom you're sexually attracted the most. For Naim, the demon takes the form of Ryan. In It Follows, the demon didn't speak or behave in any other way than a zombie stalking you. Here, the demon can talk and can mimic the person it's impersonating perfectly, and its main tactic is to try to seduce you, so that it can get close enough to kill you.
Chiarella's conceit here is very clever. I was rather surprised that he doesn't do more with it. The narrative is rather simple. There's an obvious trick that one can imagine that Chiarella executes. It's obvious, yes, but Chiarella executes it well, buttressed mainly by the performances of his two leads. Once that trick has passed, there's not much more that Chiarella seemed interested in doing. I imagined more fun things that could be done with this premise, but Charella prefers to keep this whole thing rather short, not making it much of a thrill ride. In fact, the only true thrilling moment involves humans being violent against other humans, not anything the demon does.
Rated R for bloody violent content, language, sexual content, and teen drug use.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 28 mins.
In theaters.
