'Ganymede' Reviews: "A beautiful blend of Southern Gothic horror and coming-of-age drama that explores the pressures to conform and the power of love"

         On August 6, 2024, VMI Releasing released 'Ganymede', which has received predominantly positive reviews from critics, holding at 71% on Rotten Tomatoes. In the film, a athlete in a small town develops an attraction to an openly gay class member, slowly being stalked by a monster that only he can see and struggling to live up to his family's expectations. The ensemble cast includes Jordan Doww, Joe Chrest, Pablo Castelblanco, and Robyn Lively. But what did the critics say?

        Eric Langberg of Everything's Interesting says, "You could remove the horror element, and this would work very well as a tenderly-observed coming-out romance ... Add in the demonic activity, however, and Ganymede becomes something more complex than just a coming-out story." 

       Stephanie Malone of Morbidly Beautiful notes, "A beautiful blend of Southern Gothic horror and coming-of-age drama that explores the pressures to conform and the power of love." Adding, "Some scenes are beyond heartbreaking, as Gaynemede explores how fear makes even the most pious lash out at anyone perceived as different, anyone who makes them admit who they really are and threatens to disrupt their narrow perception of the world. But it’s not all bleak, and this is not a blanket condemnation of the religious South."

       Bee Delores of B-Sides & Badlands writes, "There’s no mistaking it: it’s one of the best films of 2024." Continuing, "Doww delivers a stirring and emotional performance. He navigates the nuances of such a role with agility, yet there’s a delicacy to the choices he makes and the intentions behind his words. The ensemble cast digs deep within themselves to color a terribly vicious world by taking great care to commit to the work without being melodramatic or undercooked. Ganymede makes an expert landing in every conceivable way."

       Crooked Marquee's Josh Bell was less impressed, stating, "The themes of this well-meaning supernatural drama are so thuddingly obvious that embodying them in a literal demon feels like overkill. Writer-director Colby Holt and his co-director Sam Probst deliver a more direct riff on the notorious homoeroticism of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, which used Freddy Krueger as a thinly veiled metaphor for its main character’s repressed gay desires. There’s nothing thinly veiled about the central metaphor here, with a demon stalking high school wrestling star Lee Fletcher (Jordan Doww) as he wrestles with romantic feelings for out-and-proud classmate Kyle Culper (Pablo Castelblanco). Lee’s ultra-religious parents send him to a virulently homophobic pastor (David Koechner) for “treatments” that combine prayer and electro-shock therapy. Doww and Castelblanco have an endearing dynamic that could have carried a low-key coming-of-age drama, but everything in Ganymede is pitched at such a histrionic level that it’s impossible to take seriously. At least Freddy’s Revenge was amusingly campy; Ganymede plays like the progressive version of a hysterical Christian tract."

Photo Courtesy of VMI Worldwide