Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, looks to Dec. 06 for the Blu-ray debut of writer/director Eric Pennycoff’s latest film, The Leech, a Christmas-season dark-in-tone comedy with a horror twist.
We are introduced to Father David (Graham Skipper — Automation, Dementia: Part II, Bad Apples), a devout priest, who soldiers on in his mission to a mainly empty church. It is following his latest service that he finds the homeless Terry (Jeremy Gardner — as Stu in Pennycoff’s Sadistic Intentions) curled up in one of the pews — a place to crash, with very little thought to his surroundings.
It is the Christmas season and certainly Father David can’t leave this poor soul alone in the church, so he does the decent thing and invites him to come home with him. He will come to regret that.
In quick order, we discover that Father David is living in his recently-passed mother’s home — her presence is certainly there, which is eerie — rules that he gives Terry as to what he expects from his house guest (common courtesy) are blown off and Father David’s homeless guest has an equally homeless partner, Lexi (Taylor Zaudtke — After Midnight … and as Chloe in Pennycoff’s Sadistic Intentions), who soon arrives.
Terry is exactly as he seems. A worthless lout, beyond rude … and in keeping in the Christmas spirit, a man-child elf with a penchant for drugs and loud music. Father David, as we also learn, knows a little something about Lexi, and is sympathetic to her plight … but how far can that be stretched?
Pennycoff cleverly scatters clues as to where this dark comedy is headed. Pay close attention to Father David’s brief interactions with the church’s organ player, Rigo (Rigo Garay), the portrait of Father David’s mother still hanging on the wall and the little ticks (maybe that’s too much to give away) that the good priest gives off as the film progresses.
Eventually, Terry pushes Father David into playing a stupid game … “Never Have I Ever” … and you can only imagine how that is going to set the tone for the evening’s festivities.
The Leech, on Blu-ray from Arrow Video on Dec. 22, comes loaded with extras. Up front is commentary from filmmaker with Eric Pennycoff (Sadistic Intentions, ABCs of Death 2.5), who is joined by producer Scott Smith, a trio of featurettes — “The Making of The Leech,” “Preaching to the Void” and “The Voice of Reason” — three short films from Pennycoff — Unfortunate, The Pod and Phase II — a Q&A session with Pennycoff from the 2022 Chattanooga Film Festival and a music video.
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