Samara Weaving in a High-Concept Horror Flick

‘Azrael’

Courtesy of C2 Movement Image Group / Mossbank

Take elements from profitable post-apocalyptic narratives like The Final of Us and A Quiet Place, toss them right into a cauldron, add some obscure references to Devil, pour in a number of buckets of blood, boil at a excessive temperature whereas stirring steadily, and also you’ll wind up with a wierd brew that tastes like the brand new high-concept horror flick, Azrael.

Picked up by Paramount World’s resurrected distribution arm, Republic Photos — which as soon as launched motion pictures like Orson Welles’ Macbeth and John Ford’s The Quiet Man — this acquainted if well-executed style programmer dishes out sufficient gory thrills to draw some eyeballs on streaming. It premieres in SXSW’s Midnighters sidebar.

Directed by E.L. Katz (Small Crimes) from a script by Simon Barrett (You’re Subsequent), two vets of the horror recreation, the movie checks all of the requisite packing containers — a phenomenal heroine on the run, flesh-eating zombies (or zombie-like creatures), twisted Biblical symbolism, a number of decapitations — with out essentially bringing something new to the desk. The film’s one main innovation, which is that not one of the characters communicate, has already been a staple of the style for years, with franchises like A Quiet Place and Don’t Breathe exploiting the idea to the max.

That doesn’t imply Azrael isn’t enjoyable to observe at occasions, particularly when you like your horror motion pictures to be gory, muddy and devoid of any deeper which means. Katz and Barrett know find out how to ship nonstop motion: Their movie hits the bottom operating and doesn’t let up for a compact 85 minutes marked by a couple of standout set items, particularly a nighttime trip in a jeep that shortly goes south. However with out a lot of a narrative, and with characters of zero-to-little substance, the bloodshed turns into tedious earlier than we even get to the massive ultimate twist.

To justify the movie’s wordless narrative, a gap title card explains that speech has been outlawed ever because the “Rapture,” which we assume to be some sort of apocalypse, occurred a few years earlier. People have been left to wander a darkish forest populated by bloodsucking humanoids who, because the title suggests, have some connection to the angel of dying from Christian lore — a principle compounded by the primitive frescoes we see painted inside an previous church run by a creepy priestess (Vic Carmen Sonne).

Attempting to remain alive amid all of the mayhem is the titular heroine, Azrael (Samara Weaving), whom we first meet frolicking with a type of boyfriend (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) within the woods. They’re instantly hunted down by a pack of monk-like henchmen who tie the woman up and attempt to sacrifice her to one of many forest’s hemoglobin-drinking monsters.

However Azrael manages to flee — which she does in almost each scene — making her approach to a small group that lives in Mad Max-style abandon amongst barbed wire and rusted previous cars (additionally they in some way have entry to rechargeable LED lanterns). These of us are all out to get Azrael as nicely, prompting the poor woman to maintain escaping till she will escape no extra.

Since no person ever mutters a phrase (aside from one sequence the place a man immediately speaks Esperanto) you by no means study a lot about Azrael or anybody else, which suggests you don’t essentially care when the zombies often rip their heads off and suck the blood out of them, like they’re gulping down Slurpees. Silence is each the movie’s essential asset and its principal limitation, creating moments of suspense but in addition leaving us at midnight, to the purpose that it feels extra like a gimmick than something substantial.

Katz has a expertise for staging combat and chase sequences, which is mainly all that occurs right here, teaming up with Estonian DP Mart Taniel (Captain Volkonogov Escaped) to get loads of visible mileage out of a $12-million finances. The forest setting nonetheless feels a tad redundant — not in contrast to the plot itself — and Azrael might have benefited from extra selection throughout, though the rating by Toti Gudnason (Lamb) and the Blair brothers (The Poisonous Avenger) manages to maintain the vibe pulsing.

Weaving offers an intense and taxing bodily efficiency that requires her to run round rather a lot, or else to scream her lungs out with out making any noise in any way. It appears completely exhausting, and by the point the film ends and Azrael lastly comes into her personal, we’re fairly exhausted as nicely.