by Lisa Nystrom
Worth: $15.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Samara Weaving, Vic Carmen Sonne, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Katariina Unt, Eero Milonoff
Intro:
… the stakes are high enough to keep hearts pounding and eyes glued to the screen.
Set in a world post-Rapture, when the faithful have ascended and only the non-believers are left behind, laws are meaningless and being a survivor means being willing to be brutal.
Samara Weaving plays Azrael, a woman tasting freedom for the first time after escaping from a cult who worship at the altar of the enigmatic Miriam, a Virgin Mary figure who believes silence is next to godliness, so much so that the vocal cords of each and every follower have been severed. Azrael’s escape is not without consequences, however. Miriam’s worshippers hunt her down with ruthless determination, not to bring her back into the fold, but for something much, much more sinister.
Weaving has more than earned her Final Girl stripes after 2019’s Ready or Not, and she’s solidifying that reputation with Azrael. Following in the footsteps of A Quiet Place, director E.L. Katz and screenwriter Simon Barrett have made the bold choice to tell their story with next to no dialogue, by no means an easy feat, but one that’s made possible thanks to Weaving’s particular talent for portraying both tenacious determination and terrified desperation, all while having to stay silent and avoid being caught.
Naturally, no dialogue means exposition is something of a hurdle, with Azrael’s own history with the cult revealed to us in fits and starts. Unfortunately, not everything can be conveyed through eye contact and a furrowed brow, so any deeper understanding of Barrett and Katz’s world building, or the reasoning behind the cult’s single-mindedness in making Azrael their sacrifice tends to get waylaid.
Still, with the events playing out in real time, broken up by seemingly innocuous quotes from Deuteronomy that feel more and more oppressive as the story unfolds, the pacing is tight, refusing to slow down or leave an opening for audiences to start questioning the whys and hows. There are one or two stumbles with the repetitive nature of the hunter vs. hunted plotline, but with well-choreographed fights and chilling confrontations with the re-animated charred husks of those who didn’t survive the fire and brimstone part of the Rapture, the stakes are high enough to keep hearts pounding and eyes glued to the screen.
