The Leech

There are echoes of the Jean Renoir classic Boudu Saved From Drowning in Eric Pennycoff’s filmic fable about a sanctimonious priest who welcomes a homeless man into his house only to lose control of the situation. It lacks the master’s style but its narrative crudity, whilst it may seem more extreme, is very much the modern equivalent. Though clearly made on a shoestring, it’s an entertaining effort and a natural fit for a Frightfest crowd.

It opens with a sermon in which Father David (prolific genre actor Graham Skipper) tells his parishioners, in the run-up to Christmas, that they should always be ready to help strangers because one never knows, they could be Jesus in disguise. The absence of true altruism in this argument echoes throughout the film, with David’s superficially kindly gestures providing scant cover for a selfish and even totalitarian agenda. There’s a hint that this may stem from panic over how severely church attendance his declining, but we only have his loyal assistant Rigo (Rigo Garay), himself a formerly homeless person who now raps for God, to bear witness, and the extent to which Rigo feels free to say what he really thinks is unclear.

In contrast to this, the behaviour of David’s guest, Terry (played by Jeremy Gardner, who sports a Boudu-like beard) is cartoonishly outlandish. Not only does he outstay his welcome, but he moves in his girlfriend Lexi (Taylor Zaudtke) without asking, plays loud music at all hours, casually blasphemes in front of his devout host, and talks loudly about his masturbation habits. He even manages to insult David’s mother, a stony-faced woman from whom the house was inherited.

Pennycoff works hard to keep audience sympathies shifting between the two of them. Much of Terry’s behaviour might be redeemed by his big heart and the fact that, whilst he may sometimes be deliberately provocative, a lot of his offensiveness is accidental. A scene in which he and Lexy persuade the mostly teetotal David to get drunk with them, however, raises serious issues about boundaries and consent. David’s subsequent response is tainted by misogyny and reveals his inner need to try and manage his own demons by strictly controlling everybody else.

Mixed into this are little hints at the supernatural which encourage viewers to keep that line about disguise in mind, though Pennycoff is smart enough not to try and flesh this out. The film is playfully grotesque, its comedy veering between the juvenile and the very dark, and of course there’s a fair degree of satire about hypocrisy within the Church. Ultimately it doesn’t have much depth and the production is of the rough and ready variety, but it’s still likely to win Pennycoff some fans.