When did I begin to notice Samara Weaving? Well, that was actually not a long time ago at all, considering her delightful breakout performance in “Ready or Not” (2019). Since that point, she has impressed us more and more as steadily appearing in a number of various films ranging from “Bill & Ted Face the Music” (2020) to “Chevalier” (2022), and “Azrael” surely confirms her undeniable talent to us again, though it regrettably fails to be more than the mere showcase of her acting ability.

At the beginning, the movie quickly establishes its modest post-apocalyptic background. After the human civilization was collapsed to some epic biblical incident, some survivors choose to lose their ability to speak as a sort of repentance in addition to forming a hardcore religious cult group, and the opening scene shows how Weaving’s lead character, whose unspoken name is revealed only in the end credits, is suddenly captured along with some handsome stranger by those malevolent cult members.  

While these cult members are taking our heroine to somewhere in the middle of their forest region, it becomes quite apparent to us that they are going to make her into the sacrifice for their brutal ritual. Once they tie her to one spot, they begin their little ceremony, and we soon get some glimpse of whatever she is going to be sacrificed for.

Yes, as some of you may already have guessed, the approaching entity in question is something not so far from what we have seen from those countless zombie flicks out there. It looks rather slow in its lurching movements, but it can be quite savage once it detects the smell of blood, and we surely behold its sheer barbarity not long after our heroine manages to escape at the last minute. 

As she tries to get away from not only the cult members but also those horrible entities in the forest, the movie shows more of how the cult members have stuck together under their female leader, who is played by Danish actress Vic Carmen Sonne (She was utterly unforgettable in Oscar-nominated film “The Girl with the Needle” (2024), by the way). While having incidentally been pregnant for several months at least, the leader seems to exert considerable influence over her followers, and there is a creepy moment when she and her followers silently pray together over the little but disturbing sound of a wind coming into their derelict church. 

However, the movie does not clarify much on what these insidious people exactly want from our heroine, and the screenplay by Simon Barrett does not elaborate a lot on who she is. Except for her fierce will to survive her increasingly perilous situation, we do not get to know that much about her at all, and her accidental relationship with a certain supporting character at the beginning of the story remains redundant without giving more human depth to her or that character.

 In case of those gruesome entities occasionally appearing here and there throughout the film, they surely look as scary as required, but they do not have much detail or personality either except their very, very, very hideous appearance. At one point later in the story, one of these entities makes a sort of emotional connection between itself and our heroine, but the movie remains rather ambiguous about what actually happens between them, and that is why the finale feels rather perfunctory without much dramatic impact.

Nevertheless, I still admired how Weaving continues to carry and then drive the movie to the end, Although her strong performance is occasionally limited by the contrived setting of the movie, she mostly overcomes that with her commendable efforts on bringing more presence to her character, and she also willingly throws herself into a lot of grime and blood as demanded during the last act of the film.

Around Weaving, Sonne and several other main cast members also try as much as possible. While Soone has a few big moments as expected around the climax part of the movie, Estonian actress Katariina Unt is solid as another main villain figure in the story, but both of these good actresses are unfortunately inhibited a lot by their thin supporting roles. In case of Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, he and Weaving are effortless as illustrating the mutual feelings developed between their characters during the opening part, but he also ends up being limited by his thankless role.

“Azrael” is the third feature film from director E. L. Katz, who previously made a feature film debut with “Cheap Thrills” (2013). That little black comedy thriller film is quite vicious and disturbing to say the least, but I enjoyed its naughty sense of humor while admiring how its main cast members boldly subject themselves into a number of darkly challenging comic moments.

Compared to “Cheap Thrills”, “Azrael” is relatively less impressive due to its rather superficial narrative and flat characterization, but I will not deny that I was entertained to some degree by how much Weaving tries for expanding the range of her acting talent. Besides “Borderline” (2025), she already has no less than three movies to be added to her advancing career at present, and I sincerely hope that her undeniable talent is utilized more effectively in any of these upcoming movies.