Summary

Horror fans will enjoy Azrael’s immersive experience with chilling sound design and tense atmosphere.
The repetitive pacing and lack of narrative progression hinder the film’s potential.
Samara Weaving’s captivating performance elevates Azrael, but the lack of character development heavily weakens the story.

Azrael, the latest horror starring scream queen Samara Weaving, hails from the minds of director E.L. Katz and screenwriter Simon Barrett. The movie follows a relatively simple premise: a young woman is hunted by a frightening cult and demonic creatures in a post-rapture world. Their sinister plan for her is unclear, but one thing’s for sure — she will survive at any cost.

The premise is one that many horror fans will recognize, as it’s the basis of many classic horror films. The Rapture and its consequences have been a playground for science fiction and horror creatives for some time now, and with the popularity of dialogue-free horror on the rise, Azrael comes to us as the child of these topic intersecting.

Many years following the apocalypse, a devout cult of mute zealots hunts down a young woman, Azrael, who has escaped her imprisonment. Recaptured by its ruthless leaders, Azrael is to be sacrificed to pacify an ancient evil that resides deep within the surrounding wilderness – yet she will stop at nothing to ensure her own survival. In what follows, Azrael makes a savage bid for freedom as her escape accelerates towards a vicious, revenge-fueled showdown.

Those who enjoy the community experience of watching horror will be thrilled by Azrael. It is designed to latch onto our senses and drag them into a bloody, heart-pounding experience. The sound design alone is enough to shock or induce nausea. Without words to convey the dark and disturbed atmosphere, the use of tense and intentional breathing, the sound of nature, and the creepy screeches from our seemingly non-human predators are greatly amplified and perfectly executed.

Katz is aware that for a film that sets its foundation on no dialogue, the sound design and overall filmmaking technique need to compensate tenfold. Taking cues from the massive success of A Quiet Place, Azrael certainly earns its spot in this niche corner of horror, but it has its fair share of shortcomings.

Azrael Spins Its Wheels Until It Hits An Inevitable Dead End

A frustrating aspect of the film is the repetitive nature of the pacing and story structure. Our protagonist is on the run. She gets caught, demonic creatures come after her, she survives, there are casualties, and then the cycle continues. There is a gradual building of stakes as the character gets closer to the heart of her issues, an ominous Mary-like figure who resides at the church in the cult’s encampment.

There is a lot to suggest that the ones who survived the Rapture are the God-fearing type, but the forces they placate to suggest a more sinister route these repented fools have taken post-Rapture. The finale kind of clears up the situation, but the vagueness of the story is just enhanced by the lack of narrative progression and character-building.

Azrael
is unable to build its story around its central character, the cult after her, and the demonic creatures that chase her down

There is nothing learned or gained by the horror film’s situational repetition, nor the ambiguity of our protagonist’s role. Is there something specific about her that draws the cult to her? And what is a civilization like beyond the forest? It’s hard to imagine anyone evoking M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village in any situation, but Azrael, unfortunately, has some narrative familiarity that illuminates what Shyamalan did right when crafting this suspicious society that is pocketed within our world.

In Azrael, the story feels so tiny and poorly established, with the creatives too hung up on the shtick of having a dialogue-free movie. The who, what, when, where, and why are actually valid aspects that the film fails to answer efficiently or effectively.

Samara Weaving’s Rage-Filled Performance Elevates Azrael
Azrael loses much of its appeal without Samara Weaving. The recently anointed scream queen became popular because of her blood-curdling cries and star-making performance in Ready or Not. Azrael takes full advantage of the appeal Weaving has in the horror space; however, she is mute here. It is an intriguing choice for someone whose vocal prowess has been praised in the past, but the choice doesn’t diminish Weaving’s overwhelming talent for acting in a physically demanding role. Her character’s palpable fear, anxiety, heartache, and rage are so purely defined through her facial movements, entrancing eyes, and an overall impressive commitment.

Azrael (2024) Director E.L. Katz Release Date March 11, 2024 Writers Simon Barrett Cast Samara Weaving , Nathan Stewart-Jarrett , Sebastian Bull , Eero Milonoff , Vic Carmen Sonne , Vincent Willestrand , Peter Christoffersen , Rea Lest Runtime 85 Minutes

The film falls short when it fails to build the story out beyond the obvious details. Arguably, Azrael would have been better as a short film rather than a feature. Aside from Weaving’s evolving performance as her unnamed heroine pivots from desperate survival mode to judgment-seeking revenge mode, the film itself keeps turning out the same scenarios and predicaments. This causes the film to lose steam when Weaving’s character loses something dear to her, and the shift from victim to predator is activated. The film relies so much on Weaving that it forgets to build her up with a concrete story and background.

Unlike a film like A Quiet Place, where the premise also relies on the actors not speaking, Azrael is unable to build its story around its central character, the cult after her, and the demonic creatures that chase her down. The film forgets a fundamental question: Why should we care about her? The lack of specificity around the situation and the underbaked character development reduces Azrael to being nothing more than a horror with an interesting premise.

Azrael
premiered at the 2024 SXSW Film & TV Festival.