E.L. Katz' new action horror film Azrael has almost no spoken dialogue, which makes it easy to miss some of the more crucial explanations of the world in which the movie takes place. Starring one of horror's greatest scream queens, Samara Weaving, Azrael takes place in a post-apocalyptic world many years after the biblical Rapture, the final ascension of the holy and righteous into Heaven. The survivors are plagued by demonic humanoid creatures known as the Burned Ones, who constantly hunger for human flesh and blood.
Azrael, which is now showing, opens with Weaving's Azrael and her lover Kenan traveling through the woods, fleeing from a cult of survivors who believe that speech is a sin, and have surgically removed their vocal cords in response to what they believed to be the reason they were not chosen. They are captured and separated, and Azrael is tied up in an apparent sacrifice to the Burned Ones, who almost get to her before she escapes, injuring one of her guards in the process, who is torn apart by a Burned One and dragged off.
The audience learns that the cult worships the wind, as an extension of God, to a certain degree, with a pregnant woman (Vic Carmen Sonne) named Miriam leading them and interpreting its will. Azrael finds Kenan nailed to a tree as a sacrifice to the Burned Ones, and is captured once again. She manages to escape again, with their guards and Kenan dying in the process. In her rage, she decides to take vengeance on the cult and returns to their camp, but is captured and escapes once more, this time encountering a Burned One who surprisingly lets her live.
At night, Azrael returns to the camp again and sets it on fire while also picking off the survivors one-by-one with a gun, and finally, a machete. That brings her to a final confrontation with Miriam and her right hand in the camp's church, Josefine (Katariina Una), and Azrael manages to kill Josefina and mortally wound Miriam, who gives birth on the spot. Upon seeing her child, Miriam cuts her own throat in horror as the Burned Ones close in on the church.
Why Azrael Smiles When Holding The Cult Leader's Baby
The Shocking Twist Comes In The Final Scene
Miriam kills herself upon realizing that she has given birth to a monster. After living her life believing that she was holy and acting in the interest of God, Miriam gives birth to a goat monster with many eyes, which is implied to be the Antichrist, which is born following the Rapture in some segments of Christian lore (although not in the canonical Bible itself). The Burned Ones who assemble in the church in response to the child's cries howl in triumph when Azrael reveals it to them, indicating that they are servants of the Devil in some capacity.
Azrael Key Details | ||
|---|---|---|
Release Date | Budget | RT Tomatometer Score |
September 27th, 2024 | $12 million | 73% |
Azrael smiles in the final scene as she holds the child and the Burned Ones howl, indicating that was the outcome that she was hoping for the entire time. Her name holds the clue to why; in Abrahamic religions, Azrael is recognized in many places as the Angel of Death, who serves God by transporting souls after death. The reference in Azrael is most likely to the 2nd-century Christian text known as the Apocalypse of Peter (which is not recognized as part of the Bible) which describes Azrael as the Angel of Wrath who oversees the punishments of the wicked.
As with many texts from early Christianity, the interpretations are heavily disputed in translation, authorship, and veracity, although that doesn't matter for the character name. Azrael is happy that the monstrous child was born, indicating that her murderous rampage across the camp was not necessarily vengeance of a previously terrified young woman, but perhaps her mission from God as an angel of death or wrath.
Another possible explanation lies in the fact that the evil child proves that the cult Azrael fled from was not acting in God's interest, and that she and Kenan were right to flee from them in search of their own path. Still another interpretation could be that the happiness that horror icon Samara Weaving conveys that as long as she has the child, the Burned Ones can't hurt her, which will allow her to gain true freedom. With no exposition or informational on-screen text, the ending is left open to interpretation, as is often the case with horror movie endings.
Why Did The Cult Want To Kill Azrael?
The Fanatical Cult Members Tried To Kill Her Multiple Ways
Azrael and Kenan clearly fled from the cult, as they bore the same scars on their necks indicating that they had their vocal cords removed. While their motivation is never spelled out, Miriam and Josefine's urgency to not only capture them, but sacrifice them to the Burned Ones indicates that Azrael and Kenan may have committed some form of blasphemy. Their love could have been the cause, or just their desire to leave the cult; no matter what the original reason was for their flight, they had marked themselves as targets for sacrifice to the cult's leadership.
Why Is Speech A Sin In Azrael?
It's The Foundation Of The Cult's Belief System
As is the case with many questions posed by Azrael, the lack of dialogue means there isn't a straightforward answer given for the cult believing that speech was a sin. However, the most likely reason is because the Burned Ones are drawn to not only blood, but sound as well. That explains why Josefine and the others who first capture Azrael hyperventilate when she's tied to the chair: they are trying to attract the Burned One to her.
Following the Rapture, they developed a completely new, twisted version of Christianity, with the self-silencing acting as a centerpiece. It's similar to how some Christian sects self-flagellate to punish themselves for the innate sinning they do every day having been born as imperfect humans. Interestingly, that appears to only be a choice of their cult, as Azrael meets another man who is not mute, and seems to have a perfectly modern lifestyle, complete with a truck and GPS.
Who Are The Burned Ones In Azrael?
The Terrifying Humanoid Creatures Kill Indiscriminately
The Burned Ones appear to have some humanity to them based on their motion and overall appearance; they look like regular human beings who have been extremely burned but somehow remained alive. Once again, their true nature is never explained due to the lack of dialogue, but subtle clues like the paintings on the church wall indicate that they were created at some point during or after the Rapture. However, there are reasons given that they aren't simply burned humans propped up by a zombie virus or something pseudo-scientific.
Azrael is the latest critical hit for IFC Films and Shudder, the collaboration responsible for other 2024 hits In a Violent Nature and Late Night with the Devil.
Their burned skin and insatiable hunger for human blood points to them being actual agents of Hell, as does their joy at seeing the creature implied to be the Antichrist born. It's implied they could be servants of God or Satan whose purpose is to punish the wicked who were not Raptured, which explains why their method of killing is so brutal. However, Azrael manages to kill one by hanging it, and the cult protects itself with guns (indicating they are effective), which could make them former human beings suffering from their own form of punishment at God/Satan's hands.
Why Didn't The Burned One In The Tunnel Kill Azrael?
Azrael Came Face-To-Face With One Of The Monsters
In her first encounter with Miriam, Azrael manages to scratch her and draw blood before she is knocked out and placed in the coffin, which opens into a tunnel where a Burned One waits. She encounters it as she tries to escape again, and it follows her back into the coffin. It stops short of killing her though after smelling her hands and fingers, implying that the blood/skin under Azrael's nails deterred it. The Burned One smelled the blood of the Antichrist's vessel, which, as is later proved, it knows not to attack.
What The Director Has Said About Azrael's Ending
E.L. Katz Provided Some Details Not Spelled Out In The Film
In an interview with The Direct, Azrael director E.L. Katz actually provided a bit more insight into the nature of the Burned Ones, although he did so without revealing any spoilers or truly providing an affirmative answer. Katz seems to support the notion that these were once normal people:
There was an event that was pretty hot. The temperature was pretty high. Some people got caught in certain places, and now they're sticking around, you know, and they're angry, and they're hungry, lost, and maybe they used to be normal people…
That would support the idea that they are suffering their own form of punishment, whether at the hands of a deity or otherwise. Katz also confirmed that Azrael takes place 200 years after the world-ending event, making the cult member descendants of the people who initially witnessed the event. That could explain why they have such a distorted view of Christianity, and why they now worship the wind and have taken to self-silencing.
As for the movie's ending, Katz notes that he intended to keep the theological bend to the narrative as opposed to a more worldly explanation like a nuclear war, a la the Mad Max movies.
Although I'm not myself a particularly religious person, I would lean toward the biblical rapture for this one. I've always just enjoyed that kind of idea of taking a post-apocalyptic film in a more theological direction rather than a literal one...
That supports the notion that the Burned Ones may actually be agents of evil, that the creature Miriam gives birth to is in fact the Antichrist, and Azrael herself may be an agent of God or Satan. Azrael's on-screen text claiming that the Rapture occurred was not intended as a misdirect, that's what actually occurred to result in the world depicted in Azrael.
Who The Truck Driver Was In Azrael
The Movie Is Heavy With Christian Symbolism
One of the biggest surprises in Azrael is the sudden appearance of a modern-looking truck on the road across which Azrael flees early in the movie. The man driving the truck is not mute, and while he doesn't speak English he clearly doesn't share the same violent nature or fanaticism of Miriam's cult. He is quickly killed, but his presence indicates that the entire world may not be infested with Burned Ones like the woods surrounding the cult's encampment.
His appearance points to there being other groups who survived the Rapture, and they carried on living their lives somewhat normally. That casts doubt on the entire world as Azrael knows it. Are the Burned Ones punishing people everywhere, or are they actually a punishment specific to Miriam's cult? In fact, they could even be a product of Miriam's cult. Azrael answers none of these questions, which is somewhat frustrating, but is also the point of the film.
The Real Meaning Of Azrael
Vengeance And Fanaticism Drive The Action Horror
While Azrael is, for the most part, played as straightforward action-horror, it does explore some grander themes. The most significant is the evils of religious fanaticism, which Azrael is shown rebelling against throughout the movie. The fact that the cult members are plagued by literal demons, and that their leader gives birth to the Antichrist is a heavy-handed metaphor indicating that holding on to religious doctrine does not immediately make a person good. In fact, that fanatical embrace of religion has been responsible for some of the greatest evil in the history of the world.
Azrael's smile and appearance at the very end of the movie is evidence that she has evolved into the thing they all feared; her blood-red face and murderous rampage make her no different from a Burned One.
The concept of vengeance is also explored, particularly in regard to how the intense need for vengeance can sometimes turn a person into the very thing they desire revenge on. Azrael returns to exact vengeance on the cult for murdering Kenan and attempting to murder her, and in doing so becomes the Angel of Death herself, using fire and violence to kill everyone else. Her smile and appearance at the very end of the movie is evidence that she has evolved into the thing they all feared; her blood-red face and murderous rampage make her no different from a Burned One.
Source: The Direct
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Azrael
R
Horror
Action
Many years following the apocalypse, a devout cult of mute zealots hunts down a young woman, Azrael, who has escaped her imprisonment. Recaptured by its ruthless leaders, Azrael is to be sacrificed to pacify an ancient evil that resides deep within the surrounding wilderness – yet she will stop at nothing to ensure her own survival. In what follows, Azrael makes a savage bid for freedom as her escape accelerates towards a vicious, revenge-fueled showdown.
- Director
- E.L. Katz
- Release Date
- September 27, 2024
- Writers
- Simon Barrett
- Runtime
- 85 Minutes
- Main Genre
- Horror
