After several festival dates in 2023, Simon Barrett and E.L. Katz’s Azrael seemed to fall off the face of the Earth. Given the current state of the industry, with steamers and corporations dumping fully completed projects for tax breaks, there was genuine concern that Azrael would go the way of Batgirl or Coyote Vs Acme. Thankfully, this legal quagmire seems to have been resolved, with the film now set to be released courtesy of IFC Films and Shudder. Genre fans rejoice, as Azrael is an absolute blast, a brutal bit of post-apocalyptic survival horror featuring a remarkable performance by Samara Weaving. The bold gambit here is that (almost) every character in the film is mute, and therefore there is virtually no dialogue in the entire movie. Plot is simply suggested via actions, character relationships and the dramas detailed only through gestures, looks, and who kills who.
The film begins with text: the Rapture has happened, and survivors have rendered themselves mute in penance for their perceived sins. It’s unclear how literally viewers are supposed to take this, or how far in the future the narrative is supposedly taking place in. If we don’t get details, Barrett’s screenplay works well enough in the broad sense that everything makes sense on a scene-by-scene basis. Weaving’s Azrael and her romantic companion Nathan Stewart-Jarrett on the run from forces unknown. He starts a fire and she frantically puts it out, gesticulating wildly at him for his dangerous faux pas. He looks sheepish, and she reassures him with a loving embrace. But soon, some unsavory types catch up, kidnap them, and tie Azrael up. Someone cuts her leg, the sudden emergence of blood summoning strange figures from the woods. Are they zombies? Demons? Mutated humans that have devolved? It’s unclear, but their skin is a deep, charred black, they move in strange, halting lurches, and they crave human flesh.
Much of the film, then, plays out as a cat-and-mouse scenario, with Azrael evading both these ravenous creatures and the people trying desperately to catch her, but the filmmakers also expand their scenario in intriguing ways. Eventually, we are introduced to the community that Azrael has escaped from, a small ramshackle collection of tents and a church. There’s a woman who appears to be a priestess of some sort, and elaborate drawings on the church walls suggest a prophecy in which Azrael plays some part. At one point, Azrael is given a ride by a man who can speak, driving a fully equipped truck complete with working radio. He’s speaking a foreign language, and there are no subtitles for the audience, but his words are less important than the fact that he can say them aloud. For all the intimations of a larger story that viewers can’t quite grasp — the lack of exposition here is truly thrilling rather than being utilized as mere gimmick — Azrael is ultimately a triumph of unrelenting, propulsive action. Weaving has proven herself an adept physical performer in a series of fairly extreme genre films, like Mayhem, Guns Akimbo, and Ready or Not, and she’s remarkable in this wordless role; using her expressive face and especially eyes to convey all manner of emotions, she gives a fully realized performance in utter silence. Azrael is perhaps a little too offbeat to be a big mainstream hit — surely its original studio seemed to decide it wasn’t worth bothering. Let’s hope IFC gives it a better shot to win over audiences receptive to its idiosyncrasies. It’s quite simply a great time at the movies.
Published as part of Fantasia Fest 2024 — Dispatch 5.
