DREAD CENTRAL broke the news that NEON was in heavy negotiations to land Adrian Chiarella‘s chilling Leviticus out of the ongoing Sundance Film Festival.
Today, Deadline confirms the news, reporting that NEON (Longlegs, Infinity Pool, Possessor) is closing worldwide rights on the film, which follows two star-crossed teenage boys who must escape a violent entity that takes the form of the person they desire most — each other.
Leviticus has Mia Wasikowska’s comeback after three years, and also stars Talk to Me‘s Joe Bird, as well as Stacy Clausen (Crazy Fun Park), Jeremy Blewitt (The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart), Ewen Leslie (Nightingale), David McKenzie (Silent Night), Nicholas Hope (Bad Boy Bubby) and Zhara Newman (Thirteen Lives).
The deal is in the seven-figure range and gives the distributor a well-reviewed horror film to release this year and a name to boot: the pic is produced by Talk to Me producers Samanta Jennings and Kristina Ceyton at Causeway Films and Hannah Ngo.
The film, hailing from Australia, just had its World Premiere, and we rounded up reviews from around the community.
THR writes that the horror is “a solemn and frightening acknowledgment of that reality, albeit one allegorized into supernatural horror,” while adding that “Leviticus has enough gore and jumpy moments to qualify it as a proper horror film. But its true scariness is of the forlorn kind…”
Indiewire‘s Natalie Winkelman calls it a “phenomenally entertaining horror debut that plays like an episode of Heated Rivalry ghoulishly crossed with It Follows.” She adds: “Leviticus is not a perfect horror film…But the film’s moody atmosphere — including a soundtrack full of clanks and bangs — makes it an enjoyably disquieting ride.”
NEON also made a splash this weekend, announcing 4 X 4: The Event, filmmaker Alex Ullom’s highly sought-after sophomore feature that will begin filming later this year. In the high-concept horror film, eight contestants enter an illegal sensory-assault livestream where they must kill or be killed using only what they can order online.
Watch for Leviticus release news as it comes in.
