Apostle (2018)

Top comments

1. 

   lachyas

   Has more in common with Evans' V/H/S short than The Raid films, which will disappoint a lot of people right off the bat, and owes a little too much to The Wicker Man, but there's enough atmosphere, good looks, and confronting moments of gore to make this worth a watch. 5 years 5 months ago
2. 

   Siskoid

   After the Raid movies, I wouldn't have expected Gareth Evans to make a slow-burn horror film (though he did contribute to one of the V/H/S anthologies), but that's what Apostle is. A perpetually grumpy-faced Dave Stevens infiltrates an island-based cult to rescue his abducted sister, rails against religion generally, and finds there may actually be something supernatural going on. Then turns get violent and it's a bit of a slaughter show, not quite on par with what's been promised. The way I describe Stevens' performance is pretty much how I see the whole film, as one-note, with deviations either jarring or silly (as when Evans uses some of his Raid kinetics for a few seconds here or there). The participation of interesting actors (like Michael Sheen as the island prophet, and Sing Street's Lucy Boynton has his daughter) enlivens what is essentially an undercover agent story, but the third act feels like the writer-director got bored with his take on Wicker Man and had to turn it into an action movie. 2 years 5 months ago
3. 

   pegs404

   solid 6/10 from me — not awful, but not particularly stellar, either. the lengthy runtime could have been used to flesh the characters out more effectively or to gradually grow the viewer's unease, but instead, it just comes across as excessive and somewhat like a useless lead-up to the real action.
   my chief complaint is how little emotional investment i felt for the characters — ex. we learn right off the bat that the protagonist is an addict, but that gets scrapped within the first hour in exchange for a single war-trauma flashback scene... — and how sudden some of the developments arrived.
   however, with a few "wtf?" moments set aside (

   a convenient hole in the ground to escape through AND to get exactly where the protagonist needs to be? seriously? and how many near-throat-slashes do we really need?

   ), there were some gory moments worth watching, and i did like the ending.
   as far as Netflix originals go, this one is pretty standard fare. 2 years 10 months ago

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