Director: E.L. Katz
Release date: 2024
Contains spoilers
In a post-apocalyptic setting, Azrael is a film that has attracted some mixed reviews and was one I hadn’t got around to – but when I did, I was both impressed and realised there were vampiric monsters in it that might be read as vampires, perhaps zompires. Credited as the “burnt” on IMDb (for they are burnt) the film itself doesn’t tell us as the film is, for the most part, silent – with a touch of untranslated Esperanto at one particular point in the film.
Set years after the Rapture has happened, within woods. There are little oddities throughout, but it aims mostly at a sect or cult where they have taken a vow of silence to the furthest degree by cutting the voice boxes (leaving scars in a cross shape on the throat). We first meet Azrael (Samara Weaving) – interestingly, of course, named for the Angel of Death. She is making a bracelet of twigs and berries.
She sees a campfire burning and goes to it, urgently putting it out and hitting Kenan (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Dracula) for doing something that can draw attention. She quickly forgives him and gives him the bracelet. Whistles in the trees indicate they are being hunted and they run, separated but both quickly captured. The hunters are from the silent cult and, it is implied (given their scars), Azrael and Kenan had run away and so are apostate.
We see Azrael taken deeper into the woods and strapped to a chair. One of her captors, Josefine (Katariina Unt), pulls Azrael’s trouser leg up and slashes her flesh with a blade and the wind seems to pick up through the trees. The three cultists stand away, backs turned and begin to make ritualistic heavy breaths as a creature approaches. This is one of the burnt, spindly creatures, flesh charred and moving almost zombie-like.
Azrael struggles and manages to break the arm of the chair, pulling away a shard of wood still strapped to her arm. One of the cultists has looked back and sees this and so goes to intervene and Azrael manages to stab him in the neck. The burnt can be rather nippy and agile and it grabs the cultist, ripping into the wound and lapping blood. Azrael manages to unbuckle herself from the chair and get away. When the other cultists eventually turn the burnt is dragging the corpse of their compatriot into the trees.
So, Azrael binds her wound (the burnt can smell blood it seems, attracted to it like sharks) and heads to the cultist camp to try and rescue Kenan and we get a back and forth of being captured and escaping with a dose of the revenge flick, which is the majority of the film. I mentioned oddities. This includes automobiles. The cult have a couple of beat up cars that they used when capturing the pair. Later Azrael is almost knocked down by a truck driven by a man who speaks Esperanto and which exudes bright illumination. One might question where the fuel is coming from (and indeed where the Esperanto man is from and where he is going to).
The cult have a heavily pregnant priestess, Miriam (Vic Carmen Sonne), who seems to listen to the murmur of wind through a hole in their wooden church’s wall. As for the burnt – the wind connects them and Miriam (in that it picks up when Azrael is cut, and it seems indicative of some higher power) and at one point Azrael has some of Miriam’s blood on her and a burnt backs away from her. What they are – dammed souls following the rapture, demons, vampires or zombies – is not answered, but Azrael manages to hang one so they can be killed. Of course, the burnts' look gives a feel of a vampire that’s been in the sun (though there doesn’t seem to be an issue with daylight) but it is their attraction to blood – one licking it from a surface – that makes them vampiric enough for me.
This film excels in tension, the back and forth to the camp and the handy positioning of people in the vast woods, so that the story moves on, might seem contrived but, when taken in the context of the denouement of the film (which I won’t spoil) actually reads more fated or even supernaturally manipulated. For a film with virtually no dialogue – from what I can ascertain the Esperanto is mostly general concern – it manages to tell a lot of story but, of course, leaves much to the imagination and interpretation of the viewer. 6 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US
On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK
 |
| after the Rapture |
Set years after the Rapture has happened, within woods. There are little oddities throughout, but it aims mostly at a sect or cult where they have taken a vow of silence to the furthest degree by cutting the voice boxes (leaving scars in a cross shape on the throat). We first meet Azrael (Samara Weaving) – interestingly, of course, named for the Angel of Death. She is making a bracelet of twigs and berries.
 |
| Azrael and Kenan |
She sees a campfire burning and goes to it, urgently putting it out and hitting Kenan (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Dracula) for doing something that can draw attention. She quickly forgives him and gives him the bracelet. Whistles in the trees indicate they are being hunted and they run, separated but both quickly captured. The hunters are from the silent cult and, it is implied (given their scars), Azrael and Kenan had run away and so are apostate.
 |
| sacrifice |
We see Azrael taken deeper into the woods and strapped to a chair. One of her captors, Josefine (Katariina Unt), pulls Azrael’s trouser leg up and slashes her flesh with a blade and the wind seems to pick up through the trees. The three cultists stand away, backs turned and begin to make ritualistic heavy breaths as a creature approaches. This is one of the burnt, spindly creatures, flesh charred and moving almost zombie-like.
 |
| attacking the cultist |
Azrael struggles and manages to break the arm of the chair, pulling away a shard of wood still strapped to her arm. One of the cultists has looked back and sees this and so goes to intervene and Azrael manages to stab him in the neck. The burnt can be rather nippy and agile and it grabs the cultist, ripping into the wound and lapping blood. Azrael manages to unbuckle herself from the chair and get away. When the other cultists eventually turn the burnt is dragging the corpse of their compatriot into the trees.
 |
| truck |
So, Azrael binds her wound (the burnt can smell blood it seems, attracted to it like sharks) and heads to the cultist camp to try and rescue Kenan and we get a back and forth of being captured and escaping with a dose of the revenge flick, which is the majority of the film. I mentioned oddities. This includes automobiles. The cult have a couple of beat up cars that they used when capturing the pair. Later Azrael is almost knocked down by a truck driven by a man who speaks Esperanto and which exudes bright illumination. One might question where the fuel is coming from (and indeed where the Esperanto man is from and where he is going to).
 |
| Vic Carmen Sonne as Miriam |
The cult have a heavily pregnant priestess, Miriam (Vic Carmen Sonne), who seems to listen to the murmur of wind through a hole in their wooden church’s wall. As for the burnt – the wind connects them and Miriam (in that it picks up when Azrael is cut, and it seems indicative of some higher power) and at one point Azrael has some of Miriam’s blood on her and a burnt backs away from her. What they are – dammed souls following the rapture, demons, vampires or zombies – is not answered, but Azrael manages to hang one so they can be killed. Of course, the burnts' look gives a feel of a vampire that’s been in the sun (though there doesn’t seem to be an issue with daylight) but it is their attraction to blood – one licking it from a surface – that makes them vampiric enough for me.
 |
| one of the burnt |
This film excels in tension, the back and forth to the camp and the handy positioning of people in the vast woods, so that the story moves on, might seem contrived but, when taken in the context of the denouement of the film (which I won’t spoil) actually reads more fated or even supernaturally manipulated. For a film with virtually no dialogue – from what I can ascertain the Esperanto is mostly general concern – it manages to tell a lot of story but, of course, leaves much to the imagination and interpretation of the viewer. 6 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US
On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK
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