No, Samara Weaving is not up against zombies in her new film Azrael––it’s more complicated than that.
Her latest film, from director E.L. Katz and writer Simon Barrett, is set in a post-apocalyptic world and follows a religious cult who have all removed their own vocal cords. In doing so, this means the narrative is almost entirely dialogue-free.
Weaving leads the pack as Azrael, someone who once had ties to this cult but is trying to get away from them alongside her close companion, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett’s Kenan.
Besides the crazy human aspect of everything, one of the key threats in the film is zombie-like humanoid creatures who roam the woods and run after the scene of blood.
What Are the Monsters in Azrael?
The Direct's Russ Milheim sat down with Azrael director E.L. Katz and writer Simon Barrett, where they revealed what exactly those monsters are in the film––and they aren't zombies.
"Those are the burnt people," Katz confirmed.
The director explained how there was an extremely hot global event that some people got caught in, turning them into monsters. "Maybe they used to be normal people," Katz added, noting how "there is humanity to them:"
"It's not too much of a spoiler to say that, based on how they start the movie. 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… I think there should be something about them that feels a little familiar. These were people. They're scary and monstrous, but there is a humanity to them, and they've experienced something."
Barrett elaborated that they didn't want the Burnt People to be too much like a zombie or a creature, but rather people who "have survived some kind of fire:"
"It was just very much like, Okay, we don't want this to be too much like a zombie or too much like a creature. The movement of the burnt people is very important to us, that they still have some kind of like humanity to their motion... That they don't seem so much like monsters, but as people who have survived some fire and are hard to kill in certain ways... We wanted something original but scary... I showed [E.L. Katz] the anime 'Attack on Titan' and how the Titans run in that anime. That was a big inspiration for us because we hadn't quite seen anyone rip that off yet."
As for what exactly happened to put the world in the state audiences see in Azrael, Barrett explained that the people in the movie "believe that it is a religious Rapture:"
"Well, certainly, the characters in this film believe that it is a religious Rapture, essentially like a Christian, biblical rapture that has scorched the earth and left a handful of sinners behind. Of course, in this film, you're seeing the distant descendants of what happened. And the fun of this movie is slightly trying to unpack that through the beliefs of the characters or what we show you of those..."
For Barrett, he prefers "taking a post-apocalyptic film in a more theological direction rather than a literal one:"
"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, where I'd have to, you know, compete with George Miller, which I would never want to.
The events of the movie actually take place "200 years" after the world first fell, the writer confirmed:
"200 years... At one point, we considered a little scroll at the beginning that said 200 years. And then it was [questioning], do people need this?... I personally like being intrigued by horror films and not necessarily knowing where they're going, as long as there is a clear, like, internal logic and they're not just throwing nonsense at me, which I guess is, you know, the criticism that you know we might be inviting here. But for me, I love not knowing everything and having to piece things together."
Director E.L. Katz commented on how even looking at the news in today's time, "it feels like we're energetically racing towards some version" of the apocalypse portrayed in Azrael:
"Look at the news. It feels like we're energetically racing toward some version of something like that. We might not end up worshiping the wind and having [burnt] people walking around, but it's like, how we live and how the planet operates, and how humans tend to like to engage, feels like it's definitely going towards something a little mucky. And I think that was a big part of this where it's like, how do you create this insane, almost fantastic adventure..."
Continuing his train of thought, Katz likened the chaos in the world to feeling "like a never-ending apocalypse is going on:"
"We keep on getting caught in these cycles of just like, what seems like violence that makes sense for whatever reason, whether it's like, personal because it's like, yeah, people did something bad to me, or your beliefs, you know, and but at the end of the day, it traps us in a world that feels like a never-ending apocalypse is going on."
Besides the post-apocalyptic angle, the other big hook of the film is how nobody talks. In fact, the story follows a religious sect of people who have cut out their own vocal cords.
When asked about the challenges of writing a film where there's no dialogue, Barrett noted that writing it wasn't too difficult, with the biggest roadblock being how the scripts don't look all too readable compared to the standard affair:
"Well, on a writing level, it's not too hard once you get over the fact that the script's not going to look readable. Normally, when you're writing a screenplay, you actually try to break up the page with a fair amount of dialog because it's the only thing agents and actors are ultimately going to read... If I have a three-page action scene, I'll occasionally have a character go, 'Ow!' Just so people aren't facing a huge block of text."
However, on a filmmaking level, the challenges were far more difficult. As they started up production, Barrett confirmed that he and director E.L. Katz found "the movie [starting] to get more obscure" than intended:
"… But on a filmmaking level, once [E.L. Katz] and I were actually in Estonia and working on the movie, we were kind of like, oh, okay, people aren't going to get this. That's when you're translating it to image. Words on the page can explain some things that images cannot. So the movie started to get more obscure, which isn't what we wanted. We wanted it to be quite obscure… It's a very fine balancing act based on our specific vision for this project. So there was a lot of finesse with it."
For Barrett, the key to the film's success was getting Samara Weaving as their lead. "I kind of stopped worrying" when the actress came on board, the writer revealed:
"Frankly, when I found out that Samara Weaving had said, Yes, I kind of stopped worrying... First of all, I was blown away that Samara agreed to be in this film. I mean, we had mutual friends with Radio Silence and stuff. But still, I was like, this was a bold role for someone to take. I mean, we're taking away all her tools. We were filming in Estonia... I thought there was no way we would get her. But Samara is just a person who's very much down to being in cool movies, and she really has a vision of her career that I think is extremely impressive."
"We don't have to worry about people not understanding Azrael's emotions or feelings or thoughts," he continued:
"As soon as I found out that she had agreed to play Azrael, it was like, Oh, well, we don't have to worry about people not understanding Azrael's emotions or feelings or thoughts at the moment because Samara will be able to convey that, like, with her eyes, you know, and that helped a lot, honestly, like, I truly, I don't know what this movie would be without Samara Weaving. Like, it's really hard to imagine it working."
Azrael lands in theaters on September 27.
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