As people grow up, they seem to forget what a difficult time high school was. In a melting pot of burgeoning hormones and opinions, most teenagers want to be left alone. In the instance of Ganymede’s Lee Fletcher (Jordan Doww), it could be that life is a prison, and maybe his time served ends when he finally gets to college. Married directors Colby Holt and Sam Probst return us to cusping adulthood life in a small town, with Lee desperately using all of his energy to suppress the demonic forces he’s been told are building up inside him. He struggles with more than just his gay identity, growing up in a house that doesn’t allow him to be himself, and the psychological impact creates a riveting and emotional movie experience.

Lee’s existence is rather austere. The rigid schedule he maintains helps his parents keep up neighborhood appearances. He goes to school in the morning and takes an afternoon run, and on non-running days, he volunteers, but he must be home at an exact time so the family isn’t late for church. His life is predisposed to the sense of pride he can instill in his parents. Of course, everyone wants to be proud of their kids, but for Lee, the notion comes with strict guidelines that don’t allow for his budding sexual preferences. His parents are highly regarded members of their extreme, fire-and-brimstone-spouting Christian church. So, when Lee begins to form feelings for his openly gay classmate, Kyle (Pablo Castelblanco), even the mere idea of Lee being seen with him sends his parents into a tizzy and gets the town talking.

An interesting comparison forms in watching Lee struggle at home to be who he is in Ganymede. Not only is he certain his parents would reject him, but he begins seeing nightmarish creatures whenever his thoughts turn to Kyle in a sexual capacity. The unholy element manifests itself, wreaking havoc on Lee psychologically. The combination of his religious and “Father knows best” upbringing conditions him to avoid and suppress these thoughts, but seeing Kyle’s unapologetic authenticity moves Lee to begin his self-exploration. Kyle’s home life is the opposite of Lee’s. His mother (Marissa Reyes) doesn’t care that her son’s gay so long as he’s happy. This promotes healthy honesty in their household as we watch them openly talk about Kyle’s feelings for Lee while Lee suffers in silence by contrast. There’s never any outright physical abuse to Lee from his father, but the idea seems inferred in the psychology.

As his parents feel embarrassment creeping up into their finely tuned, uptight lives, they reach out to their parish’s leader, Pastor Royer (Anchorman’s David Koechner in an undeniably fantastic villainous turn). Royer introduces the family to the compelling thought that their perfect son must be possessed by a demon, the titular Ganymede, and convinces them to try aversion/conversion therapy tactics.

The drama is deep in Ganymede, but the horror elements are felt in the tightening claustrophobia of Lee’s upended world. Ganymede offers a Southern gothic approach based on the politics of the bible belt, places where dogmatic practices are often asserted above LGBTQ+ rights. Here, you’re either a committed member of what the group considers “normal” or a threat to its existence.

While Holt and Probst have the opportunity to dismantle Lee’s world by allowing it to cave in on all sides, school acts as the only place where Lee is allowed to catch his breath in his otherwise asphyxiated home life. The intricacies of Holt and Probst’s film encompass the enormity of the issue, starting with the hypocrites in his church and his classroom and finding no safe space in the ardent and heavy-handed intolerance he experiences at home.

Ganymede is tense and contemplative, genuinely putting you in the shoes of someone who’s suppressed their authentic self for too long, causing it to verge into a mental health crisis. The film becomes terrifying in every sense, especially when considering the numbers. Outreach, an LGBTQ Catholic safe space, says nearly 90% of the 10,000 young people who’ve worked through the doors of the Ali Forney Center say they’ve been rejected due to their parents’ religious beliefs. According to data from The Trevor Project website, LGBTQ+ adolescents are over four times more likely to attempt suicide than their cisgender counterparts. In a 2023 national survey, an overwhelming 41% have seriously considered suicide, which includes almost half of transgender and nonbinary youth. By their estimation, 1.8 million LGBTQ+ youth aged 13-24 seriously consider suicide each year, and there’s an attempt every 45 seconds.

Ganymede will likely retain a spot on my list of favorite horror films of the year, hitting me in a way I didn’t see coming. The iron grip of Lee Sr.’s character (and a gripping performance by Stranger Things’ Joe Chrest), combined with the surrealness of growing up in a similarly repressed household, hit me hard. It was as if writer Colby Holt was pulling that angry, moored character of Lee Sr. from my past, making it easy to connect with Lee Jr. and reminding me how a living presence can haunt a house.