Even if the execution isn’t always where it needs to be, Katz and screenwriter Simon Barrett still deserve their flowers for conceiving such a purely cinematic idea and swinging for it with so much confidence.
70
ColliderMatt Donato
ColliderMatt Donato
Azrael is both familiar and unique, blending genre comforts with a risky idea. Luckily, it all works, paying off a relatively massive gamble that benefits from Samara Weaving's star power.
Weaving confirms that she has the nerve to be a horror icon, delivering a wicked and gritty performance, and rising to the demands of a film where she must believably convey the nuances of fright and rage, without any words to do so.
Silence is both the film’s main asset and its principal limitation, creating moments of suspense but also leaving us in the dark, to the point that it feels more like a gimmick than anything substantial.
40
Screen RantFerdosa Abdi
Screen RantFerdosa Abdi
The lack of specificity around the situation and the underbaked character development reduces Azrael to being nothing more than a horror with an interesting premise.