"Leviticus" - Outback Mountain

Naim (Joe Bird) and his mother (Mia Wasikowska, I hate that she's now playing mothers, what IS time?!) move to a small community in Australia to be closer to the latter's church. When he falls for local scallywag Ryan (Stacy Clausen), the two end up at the hands of a local "faith healer" (Nicholas Hope, the titular "Bad Boy Bubby": I have watched way too many movies, and there are maybe about 6 actors in Australia) purged of their sins; only for both to to begin seeing a monstrous, murderous being which takes on the most terrifying form imaginable: each other.

(Credit: The Hollywood Reporter)
Reminiscent of "It Follows" in its wide shots and stylings, with the added touch of run down buildings and urban decay (as civilisation scars the landscape, uncaring of its natural beauty, out of place here and rotting despite its supposed familiarity and normalcy) reminding me of "Snowtown" and "Hounds of Love" in parts; the film has a bleak atmosphere and feels rather good. The two leads are excellent (Bird is on something of a tear between this and "Talk to Me"), and it does a good job conveying the premise and idea of forbidden love and tearing apart people with paranoia and driving a wedge between them. It maybe didn't need the clunky "it wants to drive a wedge between us!" from Clausen, but I'll let it slide as it's a debut. Honestly, after the monster arrives and the horror movie angle kicks in, it's not as good. It's fairly effective still (and Hope is always welcome), and the makers of the film have some fun with the paranoia angle, but the scares never really landed for me. It has neat touches of cinematography (like the brewing, ever evolving industry in the gorgeous background shots) but honestly worked better in execution as an insidious, nasty, skin crawling drama and horror of the kitchen sink variety at the start the Aussies do so well. It's still solid, with great performances and a phenomenally simple idea.