In the modern world, coming to terms with one’s sexuality as a teenager can be rough even in the best conditions. No matter how supportive one’s parents/family/friends/teachers are, there are unfortunately always people out there who are going to try and make life hard for LGBTQ+ folk. Throw overly religious and conservative parents and a deeply homophobic minister into the mix and it’s a waking nightmare. And what if there’s a demon maybe stalking you? Colby Holt and Sam Probst’s Ganymede is a haunting look at the horror of dealing with bigotry and homophobia in America, and how that lack of support for vulnerable people often has devastating consequences.
Ganymede tells the story of Lee Fletcher, a star high school wrestler and the son of a prominent local businessman. Lee becomes friends with Kyle Culper, a flamboyant out and proud queer classmate of his who has a crush on him. Lee finds himself having similar feelings for Kyle, and unfortunately his parents catch on to these feelings, leading them to subject Lee to all sorts of cruelty in the name of “curing” him. The line between reality and delusion is quickly blurred as Lee descends further down a rabbit hole of self-loathing and insanity.
The brilliance of this film is where it draws its sense of horror from. A movie about a demon haunting a queer kid could easily lean into that aspect of it. Instead, Holt and Probst use the titular demon more as a highlight than anything else. The film’s true monstrosities instead lie in those closest to Lee ignoring their love for him in the name of religion. His parents see his sexuality as something to be cured instead of something to be accepted and celebrated, something that isn’t real but is instead a deviance from normality. There is a revelation that his mother’s behavior towards his blossoming homosexuality is especially repulsive given her family history on the subject and how she herself has experienced the tragedy that results from not accepting those we love for who they are. His pastor (played in a rare non-comedic performance by David Koechner) is a classic example of someone who doth protest too much when it comes to condemning queerness, another sad example of someone driven into hate and intolerance simply because they cannot accept who they are. Thus, instead of finding safety amongst those who should help them, Lee finds only hostility and rejection and hypocrisy. He is at his most vulnerable and is rejected by those closest to him. Sure, a demon shadowing your every step is scary (and the creature design in this film is admittedly effective) but having no safety net at such a crucial point in your life is beyond terrifying, especially when those denying you such a safety net really truly ought to know better.
Koechner’s performance as Pastor Royer is honestly one of the most insidious characters I’ve seen in a horror film in a while. I’m not sure if it’s just because it was seeing the man who played Champ Kind say with a straight face that queerness isn’t real but instead a delusion inspired by the devil, but either way Koechner is deeply unsettling in this role. There’s a cruelty to the character that is more than the sum of its parts; a pastor preaching intolerance for gay folk is awful in their own right, and a pastor who knows the struggle of dealing with their sexuality preaching intolerance is even worse. Somehow, Koechner delivers a character who is even worse than that. He doesn’t bring any of the ‘love the sinner hate the sin’ bullshit that evangelical Christians love to cloth their bigotry in. Instead, Koechner gives us a character who truly revels in the suffering he is causing and doesn’t bother hiding it.
Ganymede is a film that is largely unconcerned with redemptive arcs. Sure, there are a few hints of self-realization in the film, and indications that maybe some people have changed their ways, but by and large it offers no silver bullet for homophobia. There is no truly happy ending here; all the characters are marked by what happens to them, or worse completely unphased by what they experience. For some there is no catharsis, no processing of grief and self-realization but instead a deeper sense of loss in the wake of…whatever they go through. It’s a grim reminder that sometimes things don’t work out for the better and sometimes the awfulness that thrives in the world wins. But at the same time, it’s a story about accepting who you are no matter what that world tries to force you to be.
