Azrael

Would have made a great short which seems to be the case for alot of these features these days. This film is massively padded out with dross that needs editing out. Found my eyes closing at a couple of moments during the film which is never a good sign, same was said for A Violent Nature. There's a reason no one has told the slasher story like that before and it's because it's a snooze fest.

This looks great on paper and like I said would make a great short but there is nothing in this feature that was new or unique. Mute cults... um sure, Valhalla Rising did this masterfully. Also I did not buy it. These people have supposed to be mute for a very long time yet they exhibit no real form of other communication. It all felt staged. A world not earned or lived in.

I think my biggest gripe is that this film lacks so much clarity. It presents a bunch of questions and answers none.

Some nice gory bits in it but that's about it.

In a world in which no one speaks, a devout female-led community hunts down a young woman who has escaped her imprisonment. Recaptured by its ruthless leaders, Azrael is due to be sacrificed to pacify an ancient evil deep within the surrounding wilderness - but she'll stop at nothing to ensure her own survival. Azrael makes a savage bid for freedom as her escape accelerates towards a vicious, revenge-fueled showdown.

And what a showdown it is. Being hunted through the forest, captured, escaped, recaptured, re-escaped, captured again, Azrael is one unlucky woman the way she is hunted and captured over and over. However she thinks she has found the key to survival toward the end, but everything turns to gore filled carnage. And not a single word of dialogue the entire film. So the meaning of it depends on the actors acting ability, and our perception. What does the end mean? Well, your guess is as good as Azrael's... The acting isn't great, but the mood and the story are fabulous. It's well executed and paced well despite there being no dialogue and long shots of actors just staring at each other or into the distance. I really enjoyed it and gave it a solid 6 for gore entertainment.

I got what the film was going for by the end of the film but, seriously, would've been a lot less frustrating had the film actually told us a bit about what was happening before they decided to hit is over the head with it.

The only thing told from the beginning is that everyone is mute, because of the apocalypse and their sins of speech or something like that. That's all you get. Other than that, it's up to the audience to piece together the, once you figure it out, incredibly simple storyline. And it is just that, a simple film. Nothing note-worthy here. Just some decently staged gory moments, and some decent acting. The ending is incredibly predicable, to the point of you knowing what's going to happen long before you get there. It's pretty run of the mill horror here.

Overall, I couldn't recommend spending money on it. It was watchable and kept my interest, but if I had paid for it, I would've been pretty disappointed. It'll be on Shudder for free in no time, just wait for it til then.

2 relious cults out of 5.

I would like to describe how frustrating it is to watch a film like this but ... there are no words.

It's some post appocalyptic scenario (maybe) and there are people in the woods who seem to (maybe) worship some force of evil, embodied by zombie-like demons that lurk in the woods.

People run around in the woods and there are some fights between the maybe good and maybe bad guys until eventually it draws to a somewhat unambiguous ending.

There are some awesome gore effects and the movie is expertly made but why they wanted to go the silent route is bizarre. It is tedious and you just don't care about any of the no-name characters and the things they don't say.

I'm sure some will rave about this movie but for me it did not work.

There is only one positive thing about this film. The cinematography, but only a quarter of it. They reallly get you in the first act with this Resident Evil 4 aesthetic. After that, it's like they only had budget for a n00b of a camera operator.

However, the more we get into the story, if that's what you want to call it, the more comically ridiculous it gets.

For example, the whistling. That's really the next best way to communicate? There have been movies that I'm use sign language but it feels unnecessary to the narrative. But in this film, it is the perfect time to use some sign, and yet we are stuck with these idiots whistling at each other like some choo choo trains.