LEVITICUS (2026) REVIEW: DESTINED TO HAUNT YOUR DREAMS (WRITTEN BY BEN SCANGA)

Leviticus, remaining true and respectful towards its 88 minute runtime, is an all killer no filler venture, through and through. It’s filled with mostly elaborate and smart exposition, especially within the first 10 minutes, which ensures the audience is able to pick up on essential narrative queues without feeling force-fed. It almost feels like the film itself is well aware that you’re familiar with the vanilla outline of its narrative template. This comes with its pros and cons, but it succeeds with flying colours in its stimulation-per-minute rate. 

The film can be sporadic in terms of the lightning quality of some environments, however there are a lot of scenes that feature gorgeous tracking shots, with a soundtrack that greatly compliments these moments. Throughout these unusually lit scenes, the movie finds moments of stylistic reflection. However, there are moments where these dimly lit passages can prove more off putting than aesthetically engaging.

Although the runtime is brief and the narrative beats are consistently stimulating, the intricacies of the narrative simultaneously bubble, remaining hidden at first—something like a crock-pot, until its narrative shift hits with violence and precision. The “big thing”’s initial introduction is strange and chilling, successfully locking in the viewing audience. In the same breath, this relentless build can prove slightly unbalenced in brief moments. The narrative feels like it’s in a tiny bit of a rush to get through to the third act, dramatic exposition becomes present quickly and without breathing room. It’s not constant, but there’s some pretty stylistic and subtle mise en scène that ups the tension during specific moments (most notably, the last 15 minutes)

More often than not, it’s a provocative and engaging piece of genre cinema that throws a lot of ideas at the wall, with some of them working better than others. The photo booth scene is incredible, and filled to the brim with pure tension building. The third act also features a fairly savage and gruesome ‘final showdown’ scene, one that will most likely be apart of end-of-year conversations regarding films in the genre. Writer/Director Adrian Chiarella has finger on the pulse when it comes genre-blending and ambitious scene ideas. Don't walk, run to the nearest movie theatre and feast your eyes upon your favourite horror director's new favourite horror movie.