Corpus

For the last few centuries it has been known as St John’s Eve, but in Antiquity the 24th of June had a different meaning. It was the festival of midsummer, a time for parties, a time for lovers... and a time for mischief. Sayo (Jeff Wahlberg), Vince (Brodie Townsend) and Ross (Michael Vlamis) have been invited to a remote mansion to celebrate the occasion, and there they will find a measure of each.

A dreamlike, luxuriant mood in keeping with this occasion predominates in Corrin Evans’ film, but you might not expect so from its deeply uncomfortable prologue, which is free from any distracting trappings. Distraction would be welcome as we watch a young model (Nuha Jes Izman) participate in a photoshoot in which the rules are abruptly changed on her. Her agent has told her what to expect, but this is very different. Still, she doesn’t want to lose the job or get a bad reputation. She wants to be famous. She gradually surrenders control.

Everybody wants to be famous, perhaps, until it happens. Vince used to be just another part of the crowd at the club where Sayo deals coke. Now he’s enjoying success as a movie star, and everybody wants a piece of him. He tries to be gracious and take it in his stride, but one can see it getting to him. Everything about being desired is beginning to get to him, even when it come from Sayo, who has loved him for a long time. Vince wants to ask for the kind of favours one hopes one can reasonably expect from a friend. Sayo, who knows he knows that he can’t say no, feels exploited. There is a longing in him which is both agonising and beautiful. Ross tries to ignore it all, to return to long ago days when the three of them could just hang out. Perhaps the party will be the way it used to be.

When we reach the mansion, there is Billie (Lily Coles), the photographer from the prologue. There is the girl she was photographing, introduced as Wren, covered in blood from a recently slaughtered chicken. And there is Billie’s older, ailing partner, Kata (Ching Valdes-Aran); and nobody else.

Like the girl at the start, the boys have already made a commitment, driving all the way out there. So they surrender a little of their power, let Billie take the lead. There is to be a feast. Candles are lit. Wren chants in Latin. “That’s true love,” says Ross, with due respect watching as Billie feeds Kata; and he’s right, but he has no idea how far they’ll go for it.

Gorgeously photographed by Charlie Cole, the film captures the magical quality of nights when the wine is flowing, drugs are in good supply, kisses are given liberally and anything seems possible. The easy mood is complicated, however, by Vince’s longing for platonic affection and Sayo’s longing for Vince. This buys the boys a little time. Will it be enough?

Much more tightly structured than its style might suggest, and much, much darker, Corpus, which screened as part of the 2026 Fantasia International Film festival, is full to the brim with the kind of love that overwhelms everything else, blurring boundaries, distorting vision. When Billie offers to let Sayo make use of her photographic equipment, it is perhaps because she sees something in the way he looks at Vince that reminds her of what her own eyes have beheld. Perhaps she is trying to teach him that the secret lies not in the object of the gaze, but in the act of beholding. But nothing here is what it seems, and when the mask finally comes off, you may not see quite what you expect.

Reviewed on: 31 Jul 2026