Sometimes an act of kindness can have serious consequences. At least that’s what you might take from The Leech (2022), a Christmas horror comedy that is chaotic, but not enough to stay etched in your memory.

Father David (Graham Skipper) has dedicated his life to preaching the word of the lord for a long time, but this has not been enough to maintain a congregation full of parishioners who attend mass every Sunday. A few days before celebrating Christmas, the priest finds a homeless man named Terry (Jeremy Gardner) sleeping on the church benches, and decides to give him shelter to prevent him from getting cold living under a bridge. What Terry doesn’t know is that this decision, which might seem like an act of charity to anyone close to Christmas Eve, will turn into his worst nightmare when the stranger starts messing up his life, his home, and his own faith in humanity and God.

The Leech brings a short and predictable story from start to finish. The key moments that could be defined as twists are more exposed than a confession spread to the four winds. This doesn’t mean there are flaws in the logic of the plot, but rather a weak attempt to give it a touch of mystery. It lives up to its title by bringing in problematic characters that consume energy, time, and what little the priest has, but there are still loose ends left open to the viewer’s interpretation, such as the sudden energy blackouts or the vivid hallucinations of the main character– if those small details had not been included, the story could work the same. Instead, we get time-and-space consuming elements that don’t enrich the plot. It’s a little ironic how these same elements could be considered leeches of the film’s runtime.

Despite having a main character, it’s the supporting characters Terry and Lexi, played by Jeremy Gardner and Taylor Zaudtke, who really grab the spotlight– you can also catch them in 2019’s horror/comedy Fingers (review available here). They both have interesting on-screen chemistry which goes a long way in creating the intimacy, from love to hate, between their characters.

In the end, The Leech tries to test a person’s faith, and although it becomes funny at times, it seems to lack a message that deepens the intentions and questions for the priest’s faith. It’s a moral compass play where you just turn the arrow to see which direction it points to without heading towards the suggestion.

7 OUT OF 10 PARISHIONERS