Azrael
Azrael
Starring Samara Weaving, Vic Carmen Sonne, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Katariina Unt
Directed by E.L. Katz
After the Rapture, people still living have subjected themselves to having their larynx removed so they're unable to speak, considering it a sin. Azrael (Samara Weaving) and her lover Kenan (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) are on the run from her commune who hunt her through the woods, led by the ruthless Josephine (Katariina Unt). They're set to be sacrificed to the Burned Ones - creatures who roam the land and are drawn to blood. After escaping, Azrael is separated from Kenan and goes on a frantic search to find him, landing her back at the commune where their leader Miriam (Vic Carmen Sonne) is about to give birth, ushering in a new age - unless Azrael can get her revenge and prevent it from happening.
I'm a big fan of movies that don't tell you everything in a spoon-fed fashion, but I'm also a fan of movies where I understand motives and reasoning behind the characters' actions. "Azrael" falls frustratingly on the latter end, a movie that doesn't seem to have a reason to exist, because the story it tells is as nonexistent as its existence.
The film plays on religious fears of the Rapture - a Christian belief that Christ will return and take His select to heaven while leaving non-believers on earth to suffer the wrath of the Antichrist. However, if you weren't indoctrinated into that faith, you'd really have no clue what the Rapture was or its importance. Much like "Rosemary's Baby," the main villain in the film is pregnant with a child of unknown origin, and possibly could be the actual Antichrist, but we're not really sure throughout most of the film of Miriam's pregnancy or her significance, or why everyone else worships her like the Virgin Mary. Then there's our main character named Azrael (although it's never spoken, as the entire film has no speaking roles), whose name means angel of death in Islam. Why she's called Azrael is a mystery, as is the whole of the film, but not in a way that allows you to piece things together. Essentially we have a thousand piece puzzle with no image to go off of.
Samara Weaving is the glue that tries to hold it all together, and is one of this generation's biggest scream queens, appearing in horror films "Scream VI," "The Babysitter," and "Ready or Not," and here she re-visits the survivalist character trope she portrayed in "Ready or Not" as she endures so much pain to go back and extract revenge against those who wronged her. She's a fierce fighter and although she doesn't speak, she is still a fascinating character even though her facial expressions only show fear and anger. She's a one-woman force of nature that is fun once she fully unleashes, but is rather dull until then.
The movie faces several battles in its storytelling, such as why she was supposed to be sacrificed in the first place - is it that she's a virgin? Did she find out something about the commune she was a part of? Was it just a "Hunger Games" style luck of the draw? Who knows. The same goes with the Burned Ones, who look and act like zombies from "The Walking Dead" - shambling around aimlessly in the woods, drawn to the smell of blood. Why do they exist, what do they ultimately want, and why are their mannerisms so disjointed? We never know. Much like most of the film, we never know what it tries to say.
The gore in the film is quite impressive at least, but not even that can save it from all its inconsistencies and lack of cohesive narrative structure, leaving Samara Weaving criminally underutilized.
The Score: D+
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