It’s the week before Christmas and all is not right. Father David performs his sermons to a largely empty church, but believes in his heart the congregation will return for the holiday. His only real friend is Rigo, a homeless kid he befriended and hired as the church pianist. As David is preparing to leave for the day, he discovers Terry sleeping in a pew. He offers Terry a ride home, but when that doesn’t pan out he takes him back to his own house in the spirit of charity. It isn’t long before the good pastor’s tolerance is tested, as Terry smokes in the house, swears like a sailor and plays heavy metal music at top volume late into the night. David is soon surprised to meet Lexi, Terry’s pushy girlfriend who shows up the next night, bags in hand thanking him for a place to stay. He doesn’t want to be rude so he accepts the second houseguest, but instead of a night or two, they ask to stay through Christmas. What follows is a battle of wills as the needy couple’s sinful ways threaten to corrupt Father David.

The Leech is something of a tricky story to discuss without giving away spoilers, as the premise is simple and the situation quickly spirals out of control. This film is marketed as a holiday horror, which in a way it is, but is more a psychological drama involving a man’s faith under siege by metaphorical demons. Terry and Lexi are not inherently evil, they are just looking for fun and don’t care the cost. Yes, they are opportunistic, manipulative assholes, but realistically David can kick them out at any time.

Watching this I was reminded of an early Saturday Night Live sketch in which John Belushi plays an annoying houseguest who doesn’t know when it’s time to go home in “The Guest That Wouldn’t Leave.” We have all suffered occasional disappointment from trying to do a good deed only to have it backfire, but this takes the scenario to the worst possible outcome. Loud music, sexual escapades and a lack of respect for personal boundaries are enough to make David even more uptight than he already is, but things really go south when he makes the ill-advised decision to play a game of Never Have I Ever with these two jerks.

Written and directed by Eric Pennycoff (Sadistic Intentions), this is a tale of head games, human nature and self-destruction that opens on a bleak note and descends into the stuff of nightmares. Pennycoff has a knack for torturing his reserved protagonist by piling on uncomfortable situations making him suffer a string of indignities. Graham Skipper (The Devil’s Dolls) stars as Father David, a man enduring a crisis of faith and tested by the worst humanity has to offer. During the drinking game, the script hints at some less-than-pious behavior in his past and it is intriguing to see how easily he is pushed outside his comfort zone. Jeremy Gardner (The Battery) and Taylor Zaudtke (After Midnight) co-star as Terry and Lexi, the couple from hell, and they share strong onscreen chemistry (the actors are a couple in real life). Watching the power dynamic shift among these three is cringe-inducing, as David is clearly out of his league. Rigo (Rigo Garay) is the voice of reason and the conscience of the story as he warns David against taking in guests. Rigo ultimately is the only truly likeable character in the film simply because he has no ulterior motives.

The Leech is not anti-religious, it just pokes at it from the edges with blasphemous behavior and a subplot concerning abortion. With its frequent cutaways to Christian iconography and readings of Father David’s sermons, the filmmakers are setting a tone that, paired with the pending Christmas holiday, is ripe for the temptations of the devilish couple. This is not your typical holiday horror and it will likely stick with you in the nights ahead. I enjoyed the picture and am eager to see what the director does next.