Written by Simon Barrett (Blair Witch, The Guest) and directed by E. L. Katz (Cheap Thrills), Azrael is set in a world where no one speaks. Barrett and Katz are big fans of genre and arthouse films and this action horror film was inspired by international cinema that Katz discovered during the Covid lockdown.
There is no dialogue in Azrael apart from one brief scene with a character that is swept away as soon as they’re introduced. Azrael (Samara Weaving) is on the run from a religious community. She is eventually captured and tied up in the middle of the woods, meant to belmfa an offering to the burnt souls lurking in the forest’s depths. Escaping once again, Azrael has to figure out a way to survive while satisfying her desire for vengeance.
Characters tramp through the woods in Azrael (2024), IFC Films/Shudder
Simon Barrett says a recurring nightmare dating back to 2018 is what eventually became the screenplay for this film. The few lines of dialogue in Azrael are in Esperanto: a made-up language from a 1966 film called Incubus starring William Shatner. No subtitles are offered for the scenes where Esperanto is spoken.
Since there’s no dialogue otherwise, Azrael is a film that is mostly open to interpretation and will mean slightly different things to whoever watches it. In Islam, Azrael is an angel of death. He removes the soul from the bodies and escorts them into the afterlife. With how much death there is in the film, you could say that Azrael could be a female angel of death.
Azrael offers a different type of horror film. There is a story here, but it’s told unconventionally; through body language and nasty violence. A fascinating aspect is that the film can be looked at as the calming of a common evil or the birth of something entirely new and terrifying. Azrael plays out like a hypnagogic nightmare that you can’t wake up from. A hellish purgatory we’ve all been subjected to and can no longer escape from.µ
EPISODE 01
EPISODE 02
EPISODE 03
EPISODE 04
EPISODE 05
EPISODE 06
EPISODE 07
EPISODE 08 FINAL
