Review: Samara Weaving Kicks Unholy Ass In 'Azrael'

By Jason Adams | Film | September 27, 2024 |

By Jason Adams | Film | September 27, 2024 |

I hope no confused families thinking they’re going to see the origin story of Gargamel’s cat stumble into Azrael, the scattershot but super brutal post-apocalyptic folk-horror flick from Cheap Thrills director E.L. Katz that’s hitting theaters this weekend. Because that’d sure make for some traumatized kiddos—“Why are the Smurfs all burned up and chewing on that man’s throat, mommy???” Hello nightmares for life.

Written by Simon Barrett of You’re Next and The Guest fame and starring Ready or Not phenom Samara Weaving, this is very much the hyper-violent amalgamation of those titles I just listed—a non-stop actioner that pushes Weaving’s spindly limbs to their limit, Azrael is dripping with black blood and blacker intentions. It’s also frustratingly dripping from one too many self-inflicted wounds of its own vagueness. It summons a dark and unique spell, yes, but when you’ve left the theater there too many nagging questions nipping at your heels.

But that might just be the price we pay for the near total wordlessness that’s on hand. Yup, Azrael is basically a silent movie. As we figure out within the first five minutes Azrael (Weaving) and her fire-building bestie beloved Kenan (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett from Candyman and Femme) aren’t not speaking to one another because they’re in a tiff; nor is it because A Quiet Place’s sound-sniffing monsters have wandered over into their movie. No, a quick shot of the cross-shaped scars on their throats tells us enough—namely that, much like Ariel the mermaid before them, their voices have been snatched.

Whether this was by choice or by force we’re left uncertain—indeed Azrael likes to leave things uncertain. Which is usually fine by me. Admirable even. Don’t spell everything out too much! But up to a point. And sometimes Azrael stumbles past that point, feeling like there might be an entire sequel sitting on Barrett’s laptop that’s primed to address some big mysteries that this movie, as stands, steadfastly refuses to. And that’s not such a cute realization. There are hints of an entire world operating outside of this story, outside of the small circle of forest it takes place in, that in the end feel more annoying than they do tantalizing. For one they often undo the sense of suffocating confinement the movie keeps going for—if you’re going to have all of your characters keep returning to the exact same spot over and over and over again, I’m going to need some real answers as to why. What ends up a red herring isn’t gonna cut it. Quite frankly Azrael needs to put up or shut up.

Anyway for a moment there at the start Azrael and her boy Kenan are having a perfectly nice time not talking, gathering flowers and being lovey-dovey. But since this is a movie and not a Massengil commercial a plot erupts, and they’re suddenly on the run from a pack of hooded figures who hunt them down whilst communicating via creepy bird-song. Eventually the twosome are caught, split up, shoved into car trunks, and taken off to separate locations. We follow our title character natch, and the next thing Azrael knows she’s outta that trunk and being tied to a chair in the middle of nowhere, stabbed, and left to sit there bleeding until something even worse sniffs her out.

They might not be the Quiet Place monsters but Azrael does indeed traffic in supernatural beasties—with flesh blackened like bad barbecue and a mean taste for human meat, there be zombie-types lurking about. And it would appear that Azrael’s the top of their menu. But Azrael turns out to be a crafty one, not one for being eaten. And from here on out this movie turns into an extended chase that pushes her to the limit, then past the limit, then ten times around the globe around that limit and back three more. This movie is basically a marathon of pain for the actress and the character, pushing Samara as Azrael well past brutalized, and she proves more than up to the task of action star. But then we already knew this, thanks to Ready or Not. Yes it is true, Samara Weaving is a bonafide movie star, and this movie is yet more definitive proof of that. Even as its scattered and repetitive antics grow increasingly frustrating, Weaving drags us semi-happily along for the ride, time and time again finding ourselves awestruck by her infinite fierceness.

Where Azrael the movie wanders off to plot-wise from this point I think it’s best left to the viewer’s discovery. There are snips and snails of The Village and Rosemary’s Baby, and on a scene by scene basis, as Azrael finds herself backed into literal corners by the barrage of awful people and things that have it out for her, there’s a lot of pleasure to be drawn from watching just how she’ll get out of each impossible sitch. On the whole, I’d argue it all doesn’t add up in the slightest—there are plot holes yawning open as fervently as the maws of the movie’s nightmare beasts. But it’s fun enough and brutal enough and well-shot enough. And Weaving, total pro, makes us a meal out of her every moment. Samara Weaving, ass-kicker supreme. I’ll certainly savor it every time it’s served.