COLLECTOR'S CRYPT - THE LEECH (ARROW BLU RAY)
No matter what religious belief(s) you may or may not subscribe to, a fundamental component of each is a set of imposed rules. These rules are often created with “good” intentions and at the same time can be used to exploit members'/followers' faith. This has happened across various sects so it’s fair to say it’s not unique to one or another, and they all can use these values/rules to create a sense of responsibility to one’s self and others. One of the more common is about housing the homeless. Almost all non-secular religions speak about the need to house those who have no homes, and in doing so you are appeasing your chosen God(s). It’s an idea that isn’t bound by religion, but it’s preached far more in religious audiences than it is in the secular world, for better or worse. This obligation to house the unhoused is central to ARROW VIDEO’s newest BLU RAY, THE LEECH. Is this a movie you should give permanent residence to in your collection, or should this be a short-term rental?
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
Father David, a Catholic priest struggling to fill the pews in his church, allows a homeless man, Terry, into his home to escape the December chill. But this simple act of kindness has unforeseen consequences when Terry's pregnant girlfriend, Lexi, also decides to crash at the parochial house. Determined to save the warring couple through the healing power of God's love, David's ordered existence quickly unravels as he succumbs to the wicked ways of the parasitic pair. Will he pass this apparent test of faith or resort to blood-soaked, Old Testament justice?
HOW IS IT?
THE LEECH is a mixed bag of a film through and through. Taking cues from older and more obscure films like “THE VAGRANT” and even “WHAT ABOUT BOB?’, while layering on commentary about religion and the role it plays in dictating our lives THE LEECH is at times funny, sad, silly, gross, weird, and juggling a lot of themes all at once. Much like a carnival knife or fire juggler, the spectacle of all these themes at once can be impressive, just so long as no knife or fire is dropped.
To call THE LEECH a straight-up horror movie wouldn’t be doing it justice. It’s more of a dark comedy wearing a horror costume since you never know how seriously to take it. From the start, things are pretty straightforward with Father David (the outstanding GRAHAM SKIPPER). He is a priest with a fledging following and serious delusions of grandeur until he has the opportunity to prove his faith as a good steward of the Catholic by unexpectedly inviting a couple in to stay with him. What starts as a harmless, but concerning series of escalating awkward moments David eventually begins to lose it. Since we don’t go into spoilers here in the crypt I’ll leave things there, but if you’ve seen other such uninvited guest films you can imagine what happens next…or maybe not?
THE LEECH starts off with a silly “homeless houseguest” premise and in the back half becomes a full-fledged fever dream of overt themes and commentary on everything from LGBTQIA+ acceptance and abortion rights. There are so many of these conversational landmines throughout the film that it’s hard to know if there is anything behind it except just shock by volume. It’s not that these themes aren’t interesting, there are just so many that aren’t given much more than a few minutes of dialogue before moving on. It ultimately makes what happens in the last 20 minutes somewhat hollow, even if it’s a lot of fun to watch this proverbial shit hit the fan. Even though it’s an uneven film, it’s highly entertaining and the kind of thing that you will either love or hate depending on how long you can bear with the absurdity. For those that do, there is a messy and zany film to be seen that has a lot to say in only 82 short minutes.
HOW DOES IT LOOK?
ARROW VIDEO is known for its solid A/V restoration work, and much of that was not needed here for THE LEECH given it’s a relatively recent film shot in 2020. Still, the presentation is as good as you would expect from the aficionados of boutique blu ray quality and it comes in 1080p HD with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The film is quite dark considering most of the scenes happen indoors with low lighting, but it’s not too distracting. You can see screenshots of this release throughout the review below:
HOW DOES IT SOUND?
ARROW VIDEO provides two audio tracks for THE LEECH. Both are lossless and one is DTS-HD 5.1 Surround Sound track alongside a 2.0 Stereo option as well. For this review, I used the 5.1 audio track and found it to be perfect for the kind of film this is. While there are quite a few moments of intense action, there aren’t a lot of large-scale scenes so the surround sound is mostly used to provide a disarming effect during the more lucid sequences.
ANYTHING SPECIAL?
As is par for the course with ARROW VIDEO, THE LEECH is packed with special features including two separate commentaries and a bevy of interviews from various festivals and more. The first feature I took in was the Virtual Q&A with director Eric Pennycoff and the cast at the 2022 Chattanooga Film Festival. This was an informal interview conducted virtually with members of the cast as well as the writer/director. Overall, this was a fun conversation that covers familiar ground such as filming during COVID, how the idea came to be and how some of the cast got involved. The main thread is that they were all at some point involved with GLASS EYE PIX, LARRY FESSENDEN’s NYC indie studio.
Arrow produced a separate interview, The Voice of Reason – a brand new video interview with Pennycoff and actor Graham Skipper, which covered some of the same ground as the above interview but spoke more to how the story came to be. Not surprising that writer/director ERIC PENNYCOFF was inspired by the squatters' rights laws in California, and they even address the commonality the film has with an early 90s thriller, PACIFIC HEIGHTS. The additional elements about pre-production and story creation gave this a slight edge for me as far as the features I watched. A full list of the special features from this release is listed below.
Audio commentary with writer/producer/director Eric Pennycoff and producer Scott Smith
Live Chattanooga Film Festival audio commentary
Virtual Q&A with director Eric Pennycoff and the cast at the 2022 Chattanooga Film Festival
Preaching to the Void – a brand new visual essay exploring The Leech and Pennycoff’s earlier films by critic Anton Bitel
The Voice of Reason – a brand new video interview with Pennycoff and actor Graham Skipper
Introduction and Q&A from the film’s international premiere at FrightFest 2022
Exclusive introductions to the film by Pennycoff and Skipper
The Making of The Leech – behind-the-scenes footage from the film set
Rigo’s music video
Unfortunate, The Pod and Phase II – three early short films by Pennycoff
Trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork by Haunt Love
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Julieann Stipidis
LAST RITES
THE LEECH is a fun and fast independent horror film that takes on religion and some of the most absurd houseguests you’d never want in your own home. While it doesn’t land on every topic it tries to cover, the overall experience is a darkly funny and occasionally gross foray into madness that most horror fans will find themselves returning to more than once.
THE GORY DETAILS
Thank you to our fine friends at MVD ENTERTAINMENT for providing a review copy for the crypt. THE LEECH is available NOW and can be purchased via MVD DIRECT or ARROW DIRECT!
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