MY CALL: This film spans various subgenres and encapsulates a lot of intensity. It’s very violent, very graphic, and goes very unexplained. I thought it was great and, frankly, a noble step up for the writer and director involved. PS—don’t trust the trailer. It doesn’t represent the movie well. MOVIES LIKE Azrael:. For more horror films that make good use of silence, try The Descent (2005), A Quiet Place (2018), or The Silence (2019).
“Many years after the Rapture… among the survivors, some are driven to renounce their sin of speech.”
For reasons unknown to us, Azrael (Samara Weaving; Mayhem, The Babysitter, Ready or Not) is captured by her mute fellow locals as if she were a criminal. She is bound and left to be sacrificed to a bloodthirsty forest demon that is summoned by ritualistic, trance-like, heavy-breathing. This demon seems to be drawn to blood, and may very well be blind (I wasn’t sure at first)—hence the mute behavior.
Early on, I’m feeling some Mad Max(1979-2024) meets The Village (204) vibes. Everyone’s clothes are ragged, patched and discolored, encampments are rough and salvaged, guns and vehicles are few; but the setting is in woods where nature is in charge, and the people are steeped in superstition. While not so dialogueless, I’m especially reminded of The Shrine (2010), a film which leaves its protagonists (and we the audience) in the dark as all around them speak another language which is not subtitled for the audience. As such, the motives of their antagonists are unclear, leaving a lot to the imagination.
Azrael escapes her ritual sacrifice and is now hunted like an escaped convict, sought after by the villagers and the elders (including Vic Carmen Sonne). Some of these encounters get brutal, with sufficient gore and graphic violence. Likewise, the zombie mob-like gore and biting and flesh-rending of our Rapture demons is very stereotypical—but not in any unsatisfying way. Hehe. These demons behave much like those flesh-eating troglodytes from The Descent (2005). This essentially shifts from folk horror to a bloody zombie movie to folk horror again… with a dash of very bloody post-apocalyptic action movie and religious horror in there. The long finale action sequence is dire upon mean upon dire!
This film, with not one word of comprehensible dialogue, leaves a lot to the imagination both in terms of the villagers’ beliefs, their reasons for pursuing Azrael, and the harrowing ending. Those of you who like explanations may be bothered by this; whereas those who appreciate the occasional mystique of being left in the dark will likely celebrate this. I fall among those pleased with this film. Director E. L. Katz (Cheap Thrills, ABCs of Death 2, Teacup) and writer Simon Barrett (Dead Birds, You’re Next, V/H/S 1-2 & 94, Blair Witch) have moved up a weight class in my opinion. This is a beautifully shot, atmospheric, intense, very cool film!