'Leviticus' Costumes Make Queer Yearning Feel Vast and Gothic
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Zohie Castellano designed costumes for 'Leviticus,' writer/director Adrian Chiarella's Australian Gothic film about two gay teens (played by Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen) cursed by a Deliverance Healer — a conversion-therapy leader (Nicholas Hope) — after being 'saved.'
- Castellano pulled script images of 'frogs and snakes and spiders' into the wardrobe, working with leather, lace, and knotty knits to evoke demon textures within the Church community.
- Ryan's outfit on the day he's 'saved' becomes the look of the monster that hunts Naim, directly tying costume to the curse's supernatural mechanism.
- Naim begins in oversized clothes to hide himself, then transitions into more fitted, darker-colored layers as he wrestles with embracing who he is, while Ryan reflects him in light and dark.
- Castellano collaborated with production designer Bethany Ryan on a restrained costume palette set against more colorful sets, visually marking the boys' alienation from their community.
- The Deliverance Healer's suit is pressed incorrectly to read as shiny 'like frog skin,' while Mia Wasikowska's Arlene wears a cardigan knitted for the production alongside the early-made monster tops.
- Castellano thrifted and shopped to build out wardrobes around tailored key pieces, chasing an 'Australian Gothic' feeling through both intellectual mood-board work and intuition.
Why it matters: In 'Leviticus,' costume is load-bearing storytelling — the boys' wardrobes literally transform into the monster hunting them, and the palette decisions make queer repression visible against a colorful but toxic environment, showing how indie horror can communicate identity through what characters wear.
