Post apocalyptic fiction, at least in films, tends to be a massive disaster generated by environmental collapse or alien invasion. Rarely does it center around the biblical Apocalypse. Azrael though is the rare film following life after The Rapture. This is a lean and mean action thriller even if it’s not particularly interested in the questions it poses.
The post-Rapture world presented in the film is an interesting one. A large portion of the population has opted to become silent. An opening title card explains that talking is considered as sin in this new world. Vocal chords are severed and people communicate mostly through gestures and embraces.
But like most worlds after a disaster, the one that follows is a cruel and violent one. In this world, a group of scavengers, possibly zealots, capture the lovers Azrael (Samara Weaving) and Kenan (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett). Their captors separate them with Azrael being offered as a sacrifice to a horrifying creature. She escapes and tries to find Kenan only for her captors to constantly hound her.
Describing the plot of Azrael is honestly a guessing game. Calling Azrael a silent film doesn’t really fit. The broad strokes are obvious in that someone is hunting Azrael. Relationships between certain characters or the hierarchy of the antagonists is easy to figure out. There are some truly horrifying monsters brought to life here. The action scenes are well handled and bloody throughout (especially the fight that happens after a car crash. Above all this both an effective horror and action movie.
The why of it all though never is exactly clear. Are Azrael and Kenan former members of the community they are chasing? Are they part of a group of nonbelievers? Is Azreal destined for something terrible? Who is the pregnant woman leading these people? What does this group of people believe? Are the creatures that consume blood and eat people demons or possessed humans?
There are far too many details in the film that director E.L. Katz and writer Simon Barrett don’t communicate or can’t work out visually outside of faux biblical intertitles. The texture of a post apocalyptic world is where things come alive. Think of how people talk about gasoline or how people dress in George Miller’s Mad Max films.
Here the lack of dialogue and the survivalist fashion tell viewers little about the world outside of a possible near future timeframe. Even the final shot, which makes at least one thing clear, frustratingly poses questions that obscure what we’ve already seen. There are clues here and there, but an initial viewing feels frustratingly vague.
This movie has something that does communicate visually really well, and it’s Samara Weaving. The Australian actress once again shows herself as one of the most compelling performers of her generation. She doesn’t say anything in this movie outside of a few grunts, but she proves capable of holding an audience’s attention. Her expressions and steel-willed determination tell the story of her character more than anything in this film. Here is an actress, working in a genre film, whose performance results in a commanding showing of her craft. This is someone whose performances in genre films put her as someone who was clearly forged from the Jamie Lee-Curtis/Sigourney Weaver mold. It can be argued she’s in the same league.
Weaving’s performance is what truly makes Azrael enjoyable. Her fighting through lunatics and monsters never gets old. You can’t look away from her throughout this film’s 85-minute run time. There’s an interesting premise here, but it’s muddled by vague execution. For all of the well-executed scares and inventive action set pieces, the plot is left to fend for itself with barely decipherable clues. Like the protagonist, the film is great in action, but has trouble communicating what it wants to say.
Azrael is currently playing in theaters.
