The terrors are few in the lukewarm horror thriller “Azrael” by EL Katz. We plunge headlong into a forest, where a young woman and man seem in love, though occasionally frustrated with each other. Neither of them can speak, so their story is told entirely through looks and affectionate gestures. But something is wrong in their world. There is a danger that is attracted to noise and movement, so silence and stillness are essential for survival. Their idyllic forest happiness is interrupted when other humans capture them for an untold plot. They can’t talk either. As terrors close in from all sides, Azrael (Samara Weaving) must take matters into her own hands and fight for her survival.
Weaving, who broke out with the fantastic family feud hit “Ready or Not,” finds himself in a similar “me against the world” situation and must find his way back to safety. Unfortunately, writer and co-producer Simon Barrett’s story gives her very little to work with beyond looking scared and struggling. It’s one chase sequence after another with hints of context here and there, just enough to hold the story together, but not enough to fully explain everything. Unlike Azrael, his partner Kenon (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) is, unfortunately, mere emotional bait and functions as an afterthought once off-screen.
Like the mythical Azrael (a nod to the Angel of Death), the film incorporates other religious motifs and references, especially in the camp where a church houses a Mary-like figure named Miriam (Vic Carmen Sonne), whose second-in-command It is a woman named Josefine (Katariina Unt). The walls are covered in crude paintings and candles, but their primary purpose seems to reassert Miriam’s dominance over the group as a cult leader. She is the only character dressed in pristine white linen, while the rest survive in dirty clothes the color of forest soil, elevating her status in their small fiefdom. Why she and Josefine so want Azrael to be sacrificed to the monsters remains a mystery. Is this supposed to be a virgin sacrifice? Or does Azrael represent a danger to Miriam that only she knows about? These are just some of the mysteries that remain unanswered.
There are some clues in the film’s references to other horror classics, like how the title appears on screen, reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” or how Miriam’s pregnancy resembles Rosemary’s Baby. Roman Polanski. The most obvious example is “A Quiet Place” by John Krasinski, where the lack of sound and dialogue is a creative challenge. Katz fails to maintain the same level of suspense and much feels lost due to the lack of dialogue or any semblance of communication. Some moments captured by cinematographer Mart Taniel seem like a fascinating respite, such as a shot in which daylight filters into the forest through the leaves and car lights illuminate the trees in pure darkness, but they are too brief to savor for long. Other scenes seem fairly predictable, filmed in such a way that nothing feels particularly disturbing, and are only memorable when the movie’s monsters feast on the poor souls unlucky enough to be caught.
Speaking of those monsters, the demonic apparitions look like burned bodies fresh from hell, charred to a crisp black but moistened by protruding deep red muscles and blood where the skin no longer exists. It is a gruesome, but not necessarily terrifying, sight when the logic of these creatures seems to fit only the needs of the story. At the beginning of the film, Azrael panics because his companion started a fire, but later, the camp feels quite safe by openly burning bonfires for light. Sure, they’re flimsy barricades, but isn’t fate tempting to attract these creatures? The figures walk slowly like zombies, lunging unsteadily towards their prey with an unsteady gait, but can then switch to a full-speed run to pursue a moving target. They smell and follow blood and noise, but like the T-Rex in “Jurassic Park,” they can’t see someone if they don’t move, although other times they can. The inconsistencies keep the viewer guessing, and not in a good way.
Ultimately, “Azrael” lacks the energy or chills to terrify viewers. The setting where the story takes place is strange but confusing, mixing religion and horror in the hopes of scaring the audience. Instead, the film simply creates an ominous atmosphere, like a poorly executed haunted house. The text between scenes does little to connect one moment to the next, so for most of the film your mind fills in the blanks in the script, which can feel more laborious than enjoyable. This riff on “A Quiet Place” doesn’t do enough to differentiate itself and fails to scare its audience with anything they haven’t seen before.