Critic Reviews

Weaving’s expressive face and boundless energy make her a compelling heroine, and her will to survive is unstoppable.

Weaving, who excels at this kind of character-driven action-horror, plays perfectly with our empathy, wordlessly guiding us through this damned land.

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.

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.

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.

Gorehounds will appreciate the film’s many beheadings and bloody murders.

Ultimately, “Azrael” lacks the energy or chills to terrify viewers.