Azrael: Angel of Death (2024)

 

"Seriously Decent Dialogue-Free Post Apocalypse Horror"

The latest film from director E L Katz (CHEAP THRILLS) and writer Simon Barrett (THE GUEST), and the best thing either of them have done since those movies, is getting a digital release from Signature Entertainment, with a disc release to follow.

In a grim post-apocalyptic world where pretty much nobody can speak, Samara Weaving manages to briefly make friends with a man before they are captured and taken to a miserable shanty town in the middle of the miserable forest in which the entire film takes place. She is tied to a chair, made to bleed and left as an offering for the burned anthropoid creatures that also inhabit the place. Samara escapes and someone else gets rather graphically ripped apart instead. 

She returns to the town where we slowly realise she has plans for the strange cult that exists there and in particular for its pregnant leader, leading to an eventual showdown amidst a conflagration.

There's a bit of explanatory text at the start of this that tells us we are in a post Rapture world and that some people have decided to render themselves unable to speak because they consider uttering words to be a sin. A scar on Weaving's neck suggests they have all undergone some sort of voluntary vocal cord surgery. The film doesn't actually need any of this and would quite likely be even more effective than it already is if there was less explanation rather than more, but it's there if you want it.

Otherwise AZRAEL: ANGEL OF DEATH is a surprisingly good, grim, post-apocalypse movie that goes in directions you don't expect, has some genuinely creepy and unpleasant scenes, and a climax that's just the right side of completely bonkers that must have made this one a hit on the festival circuit (it played at this year's Frightfest). Weaving, with her expressive eyes, is spot on casting for the lead and yes, apart from a few words in a foreign language, the film is essentially dialogue-free, instead relying entirely on its well put together visuals. Definitely worth catching. Time for a trailer:

AZRAEL: ANGEL OF DEATH is out on Digital from Signature Entertainment on Monday 30th September 2024 with a DVD and Blu-ray release planned for Monday 28th October 2024