So i have a though roaming arround since was searching for lighter photos.
Both Ryan and Naim are snake and froag/toad coded:
First Is obiously Ryan's snake ring than mindway the movie pass to Naim - both are the snake.
But in the beginning of the movie we see a snake eating a toad, what Is happening at the same time? Ryan and Naim hanging out for the first time - in this case Ryan Is the snake and Naim Is the toad them metting alone Is dangerous and will wring harm to Naim. It also could be their relashionship in general and neither is the snake or toad in specific.
Lastlly when they are in class dissecting the frogs - while there no snake imagery here is very clear than Ryan Is the frog. He exposed vulnerable i a cold and not carring envirioment. And don't forget we start the scene from Naim's pov: HE open the frog, HE exposed something than should we private and now guild is eating him.
There not much of it i admit but i tink than is intentional.
i think one thing about ryan & naim escaping the town they live in is — obviously they have nowhere to go, but they have nowhere they want to go either. they come from a tiny rural hell that sits in the middle of kilometres and kilometres of scrub and nothingness. there’s no easy immediate option.
ryan mentions the bus they took out to the hospital also goes to the city, which is presumably where he and naim are heading first — but the way he says it suggests he probably hasn’t actually visited before. and naim has wanted to leave town forever, but mostly only to go back to wherever he lived before. when you’re 17 and trapped, sure, you’d do anything to get out, but you’ve probably got no fucking idea yet where you’d actually want to get out to. it’s a half-assed, near-hopeless pipe dream, until it isn’t.
how long do naim and ryan stay on that bus for?? until ryan falls asleep and the driver gets out of his seat to let naim know this is the last stop & they have to get off now?? is their first night in a brand-new place spent huddled together sleeping on a bus stop bench??
and in the city, even though they’re never alone and never apart, do you think sometimes a tall boy with blond curls surfaces in the crowd and naim reaches into his pocket preemptively? ryan is right next to him anyway, but naim’s fingers still wrap round his lighter before he can even make out a face.
- Naim always takes photos of Ryan, all the time. Some are soft/hard launch type photos, sometimes they're his face or something hes doing. He doesn't really react anymore when he hears a camera click, he just asks "was that a good one?"
- Ryan rarely falls for not Naim anymore, he usually tries to get where people, or the real Naim, are. Naim however still falls for it sometimes, especially after they fight, it's normal for couples to fight and both of them had been spending too much time together, they both needed to be alone. However, not Ryan showed up before real Ryan came back and Naim was so tired from their days of traveling that he didn't think twice about it and apologized for their fight, then of course not Ryan went for his neck but he had his lighter right next to him. When real Ryan came back after cooling down, he noticed Naim's new bruises and how he had been a bit jumpy. Ryan apologized for leaving, and they made up
is it bad that i headcanon that ryan holds a complicated relationship with his faith even after all that's happened?
because when he was young he used to love going to church, he loved how everyone in town would be gathered in that one place the same time each week and he loved the songs they sang even though he didn't quite understand them and he had felt loved in return
and obviously he no longer did, and he hated christianity and the pastors and the church and that shithole of a town and his parents and even god, especially after what they'd all done to him and naim. but one day he finds a lgbtqia+ inclusive church in the city by chance. and he and naim go in because he couldn't believe that this was even possible. and there'd be brochures on how this church is a safe and affirming place for lgbtqia+ people. and they'd just sit in one of the pews, right at the back, in the silence because there's no service going on at that moment and there's no one except for another stranger praying near the front.
and after a while ryan would start crying silently. for reasons he couldn't even begin to explain himself. and naim would just hold him.
You’re serving beautiful angel. They’re about to perform a deliverance ritual on you and you’re serving the most beautiful angel to ever walk upon the Earth.
The moment the queer kid runs away from their unaccepting family is always portrayed as a big adrenaline fuelled escape, a screaming match, a hastily packed bag. Because it's only when your throat is raw and your face is wet and your parents yell and condemn that it's deserved, right? But what if it's just another day? You and your mother are having a conversation you've already had before, and you don't know why you think you can convince her. Nothing has changed between yesterday and today. She didn't listen in the hospital as a nurse wiped blood from your face and you coughed up sticky black, but now as you walk with her, twigs and bark cracking underfoot, you try again. The crowd of never-missed-a-Sunday churchgoers move around you as they comb dry bushland for the boy they faithfully watched seize on the floor. Sulphur-crested cockatoos screech above twisted eucalyptus trees. The sky is dusky-brown, polluted with lingering smoke. You talk to her, voice shaking but true, because this time, this time she'll meet your eyes and understanding will smooth the pinch in her brow. She'll pull you into a hug and say that she believes you and she loves you and she's sorry. You wait. But someone announces they're moving on—no sign of him here—and all she does is smile. She doesn't yell, but you almost wish she would. She's never hurt you with her own hands, but you almost wish she would. We need fear Naim, she tells you, fear is how we survive. And you get in the car because you always get in the car, the day it took you away from the house your father died in and every Sunday morning since.
But then your mother pulls into the station to fill the tank, and when she walks out to pay, you open the passenger door and climb out with the banality of a dead leaf tearing free from its branch. You have nothing but the clothes on your back and a lighter in your pocket, but you head to the bus stop with no detours. You're in the wind now, and a dead leaf can't reattach to its tree. Bus brakes screech and hiss. The boy you thought they would find bloody and cold in the never-ending dry grass is standing there. He sees you. Relief is not a big enough word. He's the first you ever shared this feeling with, the feeling you've been scared of since you were too young to even know what it was. And when you see him standing at the bus stop you think he might also be your last. He has his roots in you, this boy, he follows you into your dreams and is your waking nightmare. You reached for the demon that wore his face believing it might be your final act, and even now, when you still can't be sure it's really him, your throat still bruised and cuts still healing, you cross the road.
There is no dramatic kiss, once he confirms it's you, no loud proclamation of love for everyone to overhear. The two of you are quiet, when you step onto the bus and find a seat. As the bus begins its journey, you see his mirror image outside on the grass watching you leave. But when you turn to your right, he's soundlessly resting, finally able to. The ending feels undeserved because it's not the ending. You smile, rest your head in the crook of his neck, and let the music play.
can we talk about how tender leviticus was despite being a horror film? like yes the homophobia the isolation the haunting of the entity itself were all terrifying and the fear naim and ryan were feeling throughout the film was extremely palpable, but i feel like there was also this steady stream of tenderness bolstering it all?
it's in ryan's protectiveness towards naim that shines through even when he's hurt himself, it's in the way naim lets his guard down with the entity because he wants to be seen and to be loved in a town where nobody seems to (not even his mother), it's in the way ryan tells naim "it will never be me" but still makes sure he gets home safe, and then the way he looks so relieved when he realised it's the real naim (his naim) at the bus stop when he was ready to just leave town all alone---which, might i add, was probably an idea that naim gave him in the first place.
these two boys' love for each other makes me sick and i want nothing but the best for them.
someone said "ryan wanting to do cute shit with naim like take photobooth pics" and i'm now realising that the interaction ryan had with the entity that naim witnessed was ryan just thinking his crush wanted to take him out to a cute date. someone will see us. are you sure? even though everybody knows about me? you want to go anyway? ok :) FUCKING KILL ME
just finished watching leviticus and went straight to ao3 of course.
The amount of Ethel Cain fics i've seen is INSANE. and they're all from different creators. like every other scroll (without filtering) is one. Like someone doesn't want me to sleep ever because WTF???
so much to love in this scene, of course the iconic “nothing” and their smoky kiss but more than that i adore the complete change in ryan’s demeanour here. this is such a contrast from ryan with hunter and ryan at the beginning—throwing stones, teasing, shoving, wrestling. all of this violence, as if making it hurt enough justifies what they’re about to do. pain is the price of intimacy, of desire, of giving in to himself. even the way he and hunter kiss is violent, it’s all grabbing hands and teeth and wrestling with ribs still aching from the force of their throws. the stones are punishment to these boys, a kind of self-flagellatory ritual they’ve devised together. i don’t believe their kiss under the hills hoist is their first one. i think they’ve just built this pattern, because it’s the only way they know how to live with this thing between them that they shouldn’t have. hurt me, and i’ll hurt you. kiss me, and i’ll kiss you. make me ache and you’ll make it better, and then when we walk away from one another we’ll have the bruises to prove it.
then we get this stillness with naim. gentle hands passing the joint back and forth, touching with his lips the place where naim’s were a moment ago, brushing fingers as it moves between them. it’s this quiet intimacy, the openness of their bodies, the way naim rambles about his mum and apologises for it, and ryan doesn’t comment or try to make him feel small. soft smiles, soft gazes, so there’s really nothing you like about this place? what about me? am i alone in this? are you here with me? is this okay? do you really not want to hurt me?
getting to see how different ryan is with hunter vs naim was sooooo buzzy oh my god.. he and hunter throwing rocks and punches, yelling until eventually they're drawn together and get the sexual contact they actually want. ryan justifying to himself that he can have sex with boys as long as pain precedes it, him using masculine rough housing as a flirting method, and that shaping how he approaches naim initally. He insults him for being afraid of the snake, of heights. Insults him for being weak, wrestles him to the floor, gets physical, throws verbal punch after punch. And then, finally, violent foreplay out of the way, now he can kiss him. But naim isn't hunter. He's shy and tender and kisses back like he wants ryan not just the thrill of taking what he shouldn't want. And seeing ryan take that in, process it, and have his demeanor towards naim change completely throughout the rest of their intial romance is so endearing. The next time theyre in the abandoned mill, there's no wrestling or insults, no necessary precursor of violence. Just lying side by side, welcoming naim's vulnerability and returning it with his own. There's nothing you like about this place? Meaning: do you like me the way I like you? Then not a kiss he takes, one they both give each other, slowly meeting in the middle.
ryan throwing a glance at naim over his shoulder in the corridor at school, beckoning, begging, helpless. follow me, he's screaming, come with me, be with me. in the crowded halls where he knows that naim is really naim, where he can watch the flow of people part around him like waves breaking on the shore—affected and interrupted and undeniably real.
ryan sickeningly relieved at turning around to see naim behind him, just in time to watch his form slipping past the tiny crack of the rapidly-closing bathroom door. ryan reaching for him with a tenderness so alien it feels like gold molten in his fingertips. naim meeting him there without pause.
fingers twined in hair. hands on waists. feet stumbling backward, dragging them toward a stall before anyone can see. whispered promises against skin warmed by skin. i know it's you, ryan's breathing against naim's neck, eyes closed against the tide of affection that threatens to sweep him out into depths so blue and dark they make him feel bare. i know, naim's throaty whisper against his ear, it's me. and it's everything ryan is himself too scared to say out loud. ryan dizzy with how brave naim suddenly seems, and holding him a little tighter.
pain being the last thing he feels. hearing the wet tear of cartilage. feeling the hot rush of blood down his neck. feeling his body wrench itself backward. watching his own hands shove naim back. then, like an afterthought, an agony so precise it's nearly blinding.
it's me, naim saying again, and ryan's sob is a guttural thing made by an animal trying to claw its way out of him. ryan rushing for the door, hand slipping in his own blood instead of stemming the flow of it, and bursting out into the corridor with heaven on his tail, yelling for help.
ryan tumbling to the cold linoleum. his arms and legs feeling suddenly thin and frail. his hand falls away. a girl is screaming.
naim's eyes, dark and wide and brimming with horror.
I wrote down my thoughts as soon as I could after watching because I wanted to ramble about this movie very badly in here. These are some of them:
- The fact that this entity works so well because the teenagers can’t even tell “trusted adults” about it. Religion has a hold of this community, everyone knows everyone, you’re effectively trapped in a nightmare and you can’t talk about it because then they’ll find out that who you desire most is another boy. Naim tells someone and the lady not only doesn’t believe him, she immediately betrays his trust. He tries multiple times to get his mom’s help but she refuses to listen and the twist being that Naim’s own mother knew all along and let it happen? I was flabbergasted. She kept saying how fear is something you need. Live your life in fear, who in this community hasn’t heard that one before. It was absolutely revolting to watch. No adult actually cares, they seem to know about this practice and allow it. Even if they didn’t know, as long as the “cure” worked I don’t think they would mind. Would the police even care? It’s wild.
- It works like a chain of outing. One kid tells on someone and then another kid tells on someone else and it keeps going and going. When your church rewards you for exposing your peers, either because you were raised homophobic as hell or you’re trying very hard not to give yourself away, I can imagine how terrifyingly effective that ends up being. Izzie appears to be on their side only to lead them into being hate-crimed ffs 😭
- Naim in NO WAY knew that a whole ass demonic entity would end up cursing them just because he snitched on Ryan and Hunter, please give that boy so much grace. He’s like 17 or something? At most he thought they would make them stop seeing each other! Which is what his impulsive teenage self wanted because he felt hurt! Not even Hunter and Ryan were too worried when they brought them to the church for the ritual, thinking it was going to be some bullshit spectacle. Naim also clearly doesn’t have experience with living in a place like this before and it’s so apparent. Small towns make you turn on each other by design, I won’t stand for anyone calling Naim a villain when the clear villains are right there! Like the Deliverance Healer and all the adults? I know there will inevitably be some people who dislike Naim for outing them, I understand it as your first emotional reaction, but that in no way should be what you come out of the movie with. Hopefully I’m fighting ghosts and no one hates my boy 🙏
- Hunter talks about how the ritual actually worked for a couple of people, who ended up having kids and living the “normal” life. I was gagged again by how the concept of conversion therapy via demonic entity works so well. The entity makes you afraid of the person you desire most, it drives a wedge between you, tainting your love. Naim licks Ryan’s ear in one scene and as the audience your heart is fluttering, but then on the very next scene the entity bites Ryan’s ear in the exact same spot, leaving him bleeding and terrified, and your heart breaks for these two who can’t have one good thing. The entity uses that growing affection to learn how to best manipulate you. It gets better at imitating touch the more time you spend with the person, like the girl said. Eventually the only way to save yourself is to cut the other person off and that is so viscerally tragic.
- Ryan said “I want it to look like you” and I knew this was a true horror-romance. They choose each other at the end, they choose loving and staying together in spite of everything. It’s not like all their problems have been solved now, because sure they have lighters to defend themselves with and they may develop some countermeasures, but the entity remains. They will have to keep living with some modicum of fear for the rest of their lives and work through the feelings of hurt and betrayal between them. And yet! And yet they have each other. They have that sweet, sweet love that no one can take away from them anymore. Their entities will keep looking like them as yet another symbol of their affection. Those people didn’t succeed in making them give up their love and that is so important to me.
- The entity actually stopped when Naim caressed it? Can I hear everyone’s theory about this? Because it’s probably the thing I’m most curious about. Can it… feel affection? Does it have a need for it? I don’t even know man.
- The way Hunter and Ryan can only communicate through aggression is such a contrast to Naim and Ryan’s relationship. Their repression manifests as hurting each other, while Naim and Ryan are hesitant but they don’t want to hurt each other. They want to explore and be soft and sometimes playfully rough, and it’s clear enough that their relationship is just instantly deeper and stronger. I’m sorry Hunter 😔 Ryan was already seeing the entity as Naim, who I’m sure he met fairly recently compared to you (I think they may have grown together?)
- The tragedy of Hunter is very obvious to me however. Being the pastor’s son in a church like that? Yeah I would also develop some psychosexual tendencies. They didn’t need to show me his head ugh
- I love how they made a point of Naim being constantly scared. He’s scared of the snake, he’s scared of heights, and he’s scared of letting Ryan give him a handjob, jolting as soon as he looks at his reflection while in the middle of the act. Fear is a central theme of the movie, “they wanted us to be scared”. Naim has to overcome so much to reach that moment in which he is able to confront the entity head-on, and a big part of that journey is thanks to Ryan and how much Naim cares for him. It’s what leds him to investigate the situation in the first place, to confess his involvement in the whole thing and to try to save Ryan. He’s able to finally let go and offer himself to the pleasure at Ryan’s hands in that bus scene, growing a little with each experience. At last, he confronts the entity and we see him look completely at peace on that final scene, heading to who knows where with Ryan’s head in his shoulder.
- Frank Ocean needle drop was perfection 💯
- Sustained long shots are one of my favorite filmmaking techniques and that’s basically 60% of this movie so I was delighted by the cinematography.
- Maybe I’ve gotten better at horror than I thought because I wasn’t really scared, I was just sad and appalled all the time lol. I think part of it is that I had already spoiled myself on all entity Ryan appearances except for one (which did get me to jump a little).
- I need so many post-canon fics cuz I’m pretty sure they won’t be making a sequel for this (fingers crossed though) and I’d like to read Ryanaim live as happily ever after as they can after all that.
- The one scene the five people at my screening laughed at was Naim asking the cashier to stay with him while looking completely out of his mind, tbh I also chuckled a little and I think that was the intention with the comedic cashier dialogue, even if I felt really bad after he actually was left alone.
- Ryan is such a fascinating character, I really thought for a second he might leave Naim to be beaten after that revelation, but he didn’t. Everything is told from Naim’s perspective so Ryan remains a little mysterious throughout it. I wish this was adapted from a book so I could just go and read all his inner monologues.
- It could’ve done with a longer runtime and a bigger climax but I understand budgeting and it’s incredible this was made in the first place. I loved it all the same. Unlike some reviews I’ve seen, I don’t think I needed the entity to be explained more than it was. A final appearance from the Deliverance Healer is what I felt missing but tbf that only makes it creepier, the idea that he’s still out there, just cursing more gay people oh god
- it’s not quite like It Follows, now that I think about it. In It Follows the entity has to walk the distance and it shows up regardless of if you’re alone or not.
- Joe Bird’s talent truly is shedding tears while still looking pretty af, Stacy’s talent is looking fantastic while covered in blood <3
- Naim’s name being from the actual Leviticus is such a neat detail that I need everyone to know.
Okay, at this point I’m just rambling, I have so many more thoughts to write down but I seriously need to do a second viewing first! Please give me all your analysis and essays too, I’m so excited now that everyone in the U.S will be able to watch it soon
blakekathryn
tangentwithtanner
andulkaphoto
jacobvanloon
turnnoffyourmind
snowghoul
