Azrael, E.L. Katz, Eero Milonoff, Elvira Erli, horror, Johhan Rosenberg, Katariina Unt, movies, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Peter Christoffersen, Phong Giang, Rea Lest, reviews, Samara Weaving, Sebastian Bull Sarning, Vic Carmen Sonne
November 9, 2024
by Carla Hay
Directed by E.L. Katz
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed part of Earth, the horror film “Azrael” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people and Asians) who are all connected in some way to a cult-like community.
Culture Clash: A woman from this community tries to escape, with varying results.
Culture Audience: “Azrael” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of star Samara Weaving and who don’t mind watching a horror film that has almost no one speaking and a very flimsy plot.
“Azrael” has adequate acting, but the screenplay is too weak, nonsensical and repetitive in this horror movie about a woman trying to escape from a cult in the woods. The movie’s gimmick of having almost no speaking gets tiresome very quickly. Even if “Azrael” had been a short film, the movie’s vague and sloppy storytelling prevent it from being an impactful horror film.
Directed by E.L. Katz and written by Simon Barrett, “Azrael” goes on a repeat loop of the movie’s title character Azrael (played by Samara Weaving) being captured by the cult, escaping in the woods, and then going back to where the cult lives, only to be captured again and possibly escaping again. Viewers will learn nothing about where this movie takes place, how this cult community was formed, or even how this protagonist ended up in the cult. (“Azrael” was actually filmed in Estonia.)
The only clue about why all of this is going on is in the beginning of the movie, when there’s a caption that says, “Many years after the Rapture, among the survivors, some are driven to renounce their sin of speech.” There is no other information about this apocalypse, which has caused the survivors to live in these woods in ramshackle living quarters, such as cluttered outdoor camps. The church where they worship is in a run-down shed, but somehow in this desolate apocalypse, they have enough lighted candles in the church to make Pottery Barn proud.
The characters in this movie have names, but these names are never revealed to viewers in the actual story because almost all of characters in the movie don’t talk. There’s also nothing in the movie that shows their names, unless viewers watch the end credits and see that the characters actually have names. The only character in “Azrael” who talks is truck driver named Demian (played by Peter Christoffersen), who speaks in a fabricated language that sounds like it has elements of Spanish and Portuguese. There are no subtitles when Demian speaks.
“Azrael” begins by showing Azrael and her lover Kenan (played by Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) by themselves in the woods. Kenan has made a fire, but Azrael quickly puts out the fire. Why? It’s soon revealed that Azrael and Kenan have run away from the cult, which has cult members looking for these runaways.
Even though Azrael extinguished Kenan’s fire because the fire’s smoke would probably attract attention, it’s too late. Cult members quickly descend on the hiding place and capture Kenan and Azrael. Kenan’s fate is shown early in the movie, which has Azrael mostly on her own after she’s forcibly separated from Kenan.
These captors are a bunch of generically menacing people, such as Anton (played by Johhan Rosenberg), Luther (played by Eero Milonoff), Liesl (played by Rea Lest), Isaac (played by Sebastian Bull Sarning) and Sevrin (played by Phong Giang). They have weapons, such as guns and knives, but oddly don’t always use these weapons when you think they should. Don’t expect to learn anything about the cult members who chase and hunt down Azrael in the woods.
The biggest horror elements in “Azrael” have to do with mysterious creatures that lurk in the woods and can only be described how they’re described in the movie’s end credits: Burnt People. The cult members in the story go into hyperventilating trances to summon these Burnt People, who like to eat humans. Expect to see several scenes of people’s faces, necks and other body parts getting torn off and devoured. Don’t expect to find out anything about the origins of the Burnt People, who are both feared and worshipped by the cult members.
There’s also a muddled subplot about a pregnant cult member named Miriam (played by Vic Carmen Sonne); her concerned mother Josefine (played by Katariina Unt, who is one of the leaders of the hunt to find Azrael; and Josefine’s dying mother (played by Elvira Erli). And when there’s a pregnant woman in a horror movie with mysterious demonic creatures running around, you can easily figure out why there’s pregnant woman in the movie, and you can almost do a countdown to the scene where she gives birth.
Every time Azrael escapes, she willingly goes back to the cult’s encampment by herself to spy on the cult members. The first time it happens, it looks strange and counterproductive to her goal to escape from the cult. After it happens again and again, that’s when you lose all hope that this movie is going to be any good.
Azrael keeps going back to her tormenters because it should come as no surprise that “Azrael” is one of those “one person against several others” revenge movies with shootouts and gruesome murders. All the horror elements in “Azrael” are just gory and superficial ways to dress up what amounts to a “victim-turned-vigilante” movie with “woman in peril” stereotypes in the scenes involving chases and captivity. Unfortunately, “Azrael” is such a poorly constructed story with hollow characters, there’s very little to care about once this monotonous film reaches its predictable end.
IFC Films released “Azrael” in select U.S. cinemas on September 27, 2024. Shudder premiered the movie on October 25, 2024.