In a post-apocalyptic future charred walking corpses maraud the land, while a cult of human survivors ritually remove their vocal chords to remain silent. A woman intended for sacrifice (Samara Weaving) breaks free of her bonds and goes on the run, earning the ire of the cult leader (Katariina Unt).

Azrael is a mostly effective near-future horror film that is short on talk but rich with suspense. It jumbles an awful lot of elements together – zombie film, chase thriller, supernatural content – but does so at such a breakneck pace that it is easiest to simply throw up one’s hands and go with the flow. The film is produced on a limited budget, but what money director E.L. Katz does have to hand is well spent. It is imperfect, but highly effective at the same time.

One of its key benefits is the casting of Samara Weaving (Ready or Not) in the lead role. She is a strong performer with a lot of screen presence: a necessity when your film is essentially run without dialogue. The supporting cast are also well selected, including Unt as well as Vic Carmen Sonne and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett. It is a highly physical film, and the actors get one hell of a workout. Action scenes are tense and well-staged. Suspense sequences are effective.

The lack of dialogue will inevitably lead to comparisons with John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place (2018). Azrael does not base itself anywhere near as firmly around the idea as that film does, and as a result does not approach its effectiveness as a horror technique. Instead it works best to streamline the narrative.

A major difficulty in this non-verbal world is actually relating a coherent story. For good or ill, Katz does not expend too much effort in the telling, presumably figuring that what matters can be expressed through context and genre conventions and what cannot simply is not important enough to worry about. To a large degree this approach works – it is a simple story told in a direct fashion – but can become frustrating when the third act demands some actual explanations. Those explanations do not really arrive, which will likely be divisive with viewers.

Perhaps the film’s most interesting element is Weaving’s encounter with a random motorist midway through the film. Everything prior to their meeting suggests a worldwide apocalypse of some form: the walking dead, the religious cult, the lack of technology. Suddenly we are confronted with a man who can talk who drives a modern-day vehicle, and it simply does not make sense. It raises a dozen questions at once, none of which are necessarily answered within the film. It is provocative, and hugely effective.

Azrael is a success in terms of pacing, tone, and moment-to-moment storytelling, but the risky approach of removing any context or explanation to its world-building and context does lead to problems as the film goes on. The climax undeniably struggles, and results in some frustration. Despite this, it is certainly an entertaining ride getting there.