Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: EL Katz
Starring: Samara Weaving, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Vic Carmen Sonne, Katariina Unt, Sebastian Bull
Sarning
Action/horror hybrid Azrael comes loaded with genre talent. It's directed by EL Katz (Cheap Thrills), written by Simon Barrett (The Guest), and is headlined by everyone's favourite Aussie final girl, Samara
Weaving (Ready or Not). A "special thanks" section in the end credits reads like a litany of
today's indie genre filmmakers. Two filmmakers who get a mention are
Brian Duffield and Gareth Evans, which is intriguing, as Azrael shares many similarities with Duffield's No One Will Save You and Evans' Apostle.
Like Duffield's movie, Azrael plays out its action sans dialogue, and like Evans' folk-horror,
it's set within a religious cult living a remote existence. Some opening
text tells us that the latter has been established following the
Biblical Rapture. The survivors decided that speech was a sin, and so
they now live a mute existence, removing their vocal chords and leaving
a crucifix-shaped incision on their throats.
We find the titular Azrael (Weaving) seemingly on the run from said
cult with her boyfriend Kenan (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), who
stupidly gives away their position by lighting a fire in the woods.
Azrael and Kenan are subsequently caught by members of the cult, which
seems to be headed by a matriarchal figure credited as Josephine (Katariina Unt). The two are separated and Azrael is brought to a spot in the woods
near the survivors' camp where she is strapped to a chair and offered up
for sacrifice, ala Maika Monroe in It Follows. From the woods emerges one of the blind vampiric creatures that have
presumably been terrorising the remnants of humanity since the Rapture.
These "vampires" have the charred look of the zombies from the Italian
exploitation classic Nightmare City (the credits list them as "burnt people") and seem devoid of any
sense except smell. Josephine cuts Azrael's leg to lure in the creature,
but Azrael manages to escape, fleeing into the woods.
After this compelling setup, Azrael becomes an increasingly frustrating watch as it struggles to
flesh out its narrative and its world without the aid of dialogue.
Unlike the aforementioned No One Will Save You and John Woo's misfire Silent Night, it does at least provide a valid reason why none of its characters
utter a word, and yet the conceit still feels like a gimmick.
Unlike A Quiet Place, Azrael never convinces us that we're catching up with people who have
been living in silence for any considerable amount of time before the
cameras started rolling. It's unclear exactly how long after the Rapture
all this is occurring, or how long its characters have lived this forced
mute lifestyle. Was Azrael born into this community and rendered mute
from the moment she entered the world as an infant, or was the condition
forced upon her as an adult? Is she fleeing the community having once
been part of it, or is she an outsider? Such questions rattle around our
heads throughout but are never answered, and the ambiguity gets in the
way of our ability to invest in the drama.
More confusion is added with the appearance of Vic Carmen Sonne as a pregnant priestess who oversees some sort of religious
ceremony involving wind blowing through a crack in the wall of the
commune's wooden church. Things get really murky with a Shyamalan-esque
twist halfway through that hints at the movie veering off in a new
direction, but it's quickly dispensed with and never referred to again,
as though the filmmakers are setting its implications aside for a
possible sequel. The conceit of creatures attracted solely to blood
rather than sound or sight is a novel idea but the movie is too vague in
this regard. With Azrael caked in blood throughout, we're left to wonder
why she isn't constantly menaced by the vampiric ghouls. The specific
threat that this would pose to the women of this world is never
broached; wouldn't the encampment be constantly besieged as the
creatures follow the scent of menstrual blood?
Katz isn't a natural enough visual storyteller to pull off this
concept, with action sequences here that are often confusingly rendered.
The initial lure of "Mad Max in a forest" quickly gives way when we
realise the movie is sorely lacking George Miller's gift for recreating
the thrills of silent action cinema. The decision to score a fight scene
with a tune by synthpop act International Music System takes us out of
the film's post-apocalyptic milieu to such a degree that we struggle to
find our way back in.
While it may not be visually compelling where its action is
concerned, Azrael is often beautiful to look at thanks to some ingenious
cinematography from Mart Taniel. The production invented a
new system for recreating the appearance of moonlight, which gives
Azrael's night scenes a unique look. The film's two greatest assets
however are the big expressive eyes of its leading lady. While the film
never does anything to flesh out her protagonist, Weaving sells every
emotion Azrael is experiencing in the moment. When done well, visual
storytelling always trumps a lazy reliance on dialogue and exposition,
but Azrael's jettisoning of words results in a film that struggles to say
anything with its images.
Azrael is in US cinemas from
September 27th and on UK/ROI VOD from September 30th.
