Starring: Jordan Doww, Pablo Castelblanco, Robyn Lively, Joe Chrest, David Koechner
Directors: Colby Holt, Sam Probst
Country: USA
UK Distributor: Amazon Prime
Lee (Doww) is the school’s wrestling star and the son of a prominent community leader (Chrest). His father pushes him hard to become the proper athletic Christian that he believes his son should be. But when he begins to develop a crush on his classmate, Kyle (Castelblanco), the boy is sent to a pastor (Koechner) who convinces him that the object of his affection is actually a Ganymede – a demon homosexual whose sole purpose is to recruit others to its “demonic agenda”. This leaves Lee deeply conflicted, torn between accepting or fighting these new feelings inside him.
This is the kind of film that hard-nose woke warriors would take deep offence at. Homosexuality literally appears as a deformed demon that stalks Lee throughout the film, lurking in the shadows and haunting him at his most vulnerable. However, with the narrative positioned from the perspective of a deeply religious family, the serves as a device to contrast what the family thinks being gay is against the sweetness of Kyle, showing its reality. If Kyle didn’t exist within the story, then yes, this would be deeply offensive, but because we see a perfectly rounded and affable character counterpoint to the Ganymede, there really isn’t anything to quibble over.
The director does an adequate job at building tension, but it’s clear from the outset that the Ganymede exists solely in Lee’s mind, so there’s only so much suspense you can build with that, knowing that it isn’t really there. It’s poised as a horror film, but really this is just an internal battle being given a (hideous) face. And just when you buy into the danger of the Ganymede, it undermines itself with an unintentionally comedic scene that reveals the family’s darkest secret.
While Ganymede is able to capitalise on its metaphor and run with it, it doesn’t manage to sustain suspense long enough to keep us from chuckling about how ridiculous it all is. It has something to say about Christianity’s obsession with demonic possession, but it would have been served better with a bit more ambiguity and bit less bad acting.
UK Release: Out now to stream on Amazon Prime
Comments