31 Days of Halloween: Azrael

2024, EL Katz (Channel Zero) -- download

Still not sure about this movie. At first blush, a post-apocalyptic post-Rapture survival movie with a gimmick where speaking draws The Monsters thusly a movie with little dialogue, would be right down my alley. And it should have been, if they had just fucking done something in the movie. Instead what we have delivered is just chase scene leading to chase scene leading to chase scene. I don't require a "Ending Explained" type movie, and I know without even looking there will be at least half a dozen genre movie blogs writing such articles, but I do hope for at least a bit of world building.

OK, so via sectional leader cards, we are told The Rapture happened. Starting in media res, a Woman (Samara Weaving, Babylon) and a Man (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Misfits) in love are escaping pursuers. She is caught and tied to a chair, and cut open so as to bleed. The remaining captors stand with their backs to her while she struggles to escape, as weird burned zombie creatures emerge from the wood. One of them sees she is escaping and tries to prevent it, only to be struck in the neck, and subsequently taken down by the monsters. She escapes into the wood.

Despite IMDB and Wikipedia having names for the characters, and the latter having a detailed explanation as to what is happening, none of this information is present in the movie. Nothing is explained and almost nobody is named. Seems silly to fill in blanks you don't have info on, unless they are taking headcanon as truth.

The Woman finds the encampment of her captors, surrounded by a ramshackle fence that makes lots of noise, and she sneaks in. Why did she come here? We don't know, but it is an opportunity for the movie to show us the church with the pregnant woman in white, someone they are obviously following. Why? Who knows. But the Woman is discovered and has to escape.

Later she comes across a road and a man in a brightly lit truck, who is not under the imposed "no speaking" rule and seems ... less PA ? He is confused as to why she is bloody and offers to take her somewhere for food and safety. He even plays her some music that briefly calms her before he is shot by one of her captors. She survives the crash, they struggle, she shoots him.

Back into the woods for pretty much more aimless fleeing. But she does her her Man, nailed to a tree, trying to gesture she should not come closer because... sproing... rope trap. While she dangles by one foot (fool pose) another of the captors appears, as well as more monsters. She scrambles up the rope, higher into the tree while the monsters take her Man as well as ripping the head off the captor. So much for his devious plan. One monster does climb the tree but she nags it in her rope and kills it by hanging, and ... back into the woods for more escaping.

Back to the encampment where The Woman goes into the church to kill the woman in white but barely scratches her before she is caught. The captors toss her into a recently dug grave and coffin, covering it up and tossing a few perfunctory shovels of earth on top. The foot of the grave is open to tunnels but they are full of the monsters, which as she scrambles back, they smell the blood of the woman in white on her finger nails and back off, giving The Woman time to dig her way out of the grave.

Back to the encampment where the Woman breaks in and starts killing willy nilly. The camp is on fire, people are dying left and right, and the monsters are coming out of the wood drawn by blood and noise.  She goes into the church to confront the woman in white again, and they fight. The Woman bites her in the neck and the woman in white is driven back, going into the throes of childbirth. The leader of the captors appears but is mortally wounded by The Woman. The woman in white has given birth but recoils from  the terrible crying sounds of the baby, and cuts her own throat. The Woman, who we are now realizing is likely the titular Azrael, aka The Angel of Death, picks up the baby, a cutie patootie goat thing with multiple eyes, aka The AntiChrist, as more of the monsters appear crying out to the skies.

The End.

To quote the peanut gallery, aka Marmy, "A Big Ol Meh!"

Sure, we got lots of cool PA imagery but we have no world at all. Are these just looney cultists hiding in the woods, cutting out their own voice boxes for fun? The lone guy in the bright truck implies that could be the case. What are the monsters? They look like full body burn victims and act like zombies, or vampires, ripping people open and drinking their blood. Perhaps Hell has broken open and they are sinners burned by the flames of the pit? The movie doesn't seem to care to even hint at an explanation... And if the movie doesn't care, why should I ?