Though it works much better as a survival horror action movie than a religious horror movie, Azrael's pure thrills earn in a tepid recommendation.
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I'm a big fan of gimmick movies. Movies that give themselves an extreme limitation that requires a lot of solid filmmaking, performances or technical trickery to work correctly. Part of A Quiet Place's appeal is that central gimmick of sound being a likely death sentence. Which brings me to this post-apocalyptic action-horror movie starring our new B-movie Samara Weaving: Azrael, a movie where no one has the ability to speak.
The Setup
Set years after the Biblical Rapture, human civilization is barely hanging on and is being plagued by the Burned Ones, demonic human-like creatures that prey on humans. In the midst of this hell is a cult, that cuts out the vocal chords of its memebers, that our hero Azrael is trying to run away from. Can Azrael survive the cult's hunters and get her and her lover to safety?
I'm torn on this movie. On the one hand, I think it's a very well-directed survival-horror action movie with solid performances across the board. On the other hand, I feel like it could've said more than it does with its religiously charged premise. So let's talk about this movie with some pros and cons.
Pro: Great Visual Storytelling
You need a lot of confidence in your filmmaking abilities to take on this script. Because so much of what's going on has to be conveyed through the visuals including how this world works, everyone's relationships, and so on. Thankfully director E.L. Katz is up to the job.
My barometer for a director's competence is always the early scenes where you're doing the lion's share of the world-building. So when it looks like Azrael is being prepped for some kind of sacrifice, this should fill in a lot of blanks about how this world works.
Sure enough, we see the cult members cut Azrael, begin making a noise of some kind and here comes a flesh hungry demon. Guess they're like land sharks, that's terrifying and now that's information we can and do use moving forward.
Con: Lot of Information Left Out
Azrael's main problem is that there's a lot of world-related information that's left out. Because we're in a burnt out forrest and no one is speaking, this could be anywhere. This is where a lot of movies would hand out visual landmarks to indicate this is where we are.
Instead, the movie often presents new places or people that invite more questions than answers. For instance, you'd be forgiven for thinking that all of regular civilization is dead. But then a guy shows up in a truck, speaking a non-English language that Azrael can't understand, which invites a lot of questions. None of which are answered. He's mostly a plot device to craft a new set piece. A solid set piece. But it's mostly an extension of the movie long chase than anything else.
Instead, the movie often presents new places or people that invite more questions than answers. For instance, you'd be forgiven for thinking that all of regular civilization is dead. But then a guy shows up in a truck, speaking a non-English language that Azrael can't understand, which invites a lot of questions. None of which are answered. He's mostly a plot device to craft a new set piece. A solid set piece. But it's mostly an extension of the movie long chase than anything else.
Pro: Great Action Beats
One of the problems with movie's like this is that the underlying tension or the nature of the action can run together. Ok here's another pitched battle between two raggedy looking characters that don't have good weapons at their disposal.
Azrael avoids that problem by giving each of its big action beats a unique challenge or location. Since firearms seem to be at a premium, a foe arriving with one or taking/gaining control of said firearm becomes the focal point. Which in turn leads to a number of gruesome kills that I'd never seen before. I'd love to see what E.L. Katz could do with a zombie movie.
This goes double since the movie feels like it's happening in accelerated real-time and goes from day to night and all of the action and skirmishes are still easy to follow.
Con: Not Much to Say
If I had to sum up this movie's feelings on religion, or religion used as a method of control, it would be "religious extremism bad." Why is it bad? It hurts people. Ok yes, but why is that so insidious? And then we break for a long pause before we finally get "because that can lead to evil things?"
So the cult that Azrael is running from are some kind of Christian religious nuts. They operate through fear and control and don't like people escaping. Why don't they like that? Again not clear. We've even got a false prophet and her main lackey that run religious services that the cult all attend together.
So the cult that Azrael is running from are some kind of Christian religious nuts. They operate through fear and control and don't like people escaping. Why don't they like that? Again not clear. We've even got a false prophet and her main lackey that run religious services that the cult all attend together.
Which is wild to me considering the Biblical implications of Azrael's name, all of the Christian iconography, and that we've got actual demons on earth. My guess is that a lot of the backstory and lore got filtered out by the gimmick. You can't have too many people monologue about how they operate or what everything means when folks have damaged vocal chords.
However, it does mean when all of the religious themes kick into overdrive towards the film's end and it's clearly trying to be like "mind-blowing right?" it doesn't hit that hard. It's not like what's happening was foreshadowed for an entire movie. We've seen about 2-3 insert shots. That it. And with a movie that's not even 90 minutes, it feels like there was time.
The Verdict: A Passable Once Over
Though it works much better as a survival horror action movie than a religious horror movie, Azrael's pure thrills earn in a tepid recommendation. 6/10
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