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REVIEWED: Apostle (2019)
Starring: Dan Stevens | Bill Milner | Lucy Boynton | Michael Sheen| Sharon Morgan | Mark Lewis Jones Genres: Drama | Fantasy | Horror IMDB Synopsis: In 1905, a drifter on a dangerous mission to rescue his kidnapped sister tangles with a sinister religious cult on an isolated island. |
Here be spoilers.
Apostle is a historical horror movie set at the beginning of the 20th century with most of the action located on a fictitious island off the Welsh coast. Thomas Richardson, played by Dan Stevens of Downton Abbey fame, is a former Christian missionary summoned home by his wealthy father when his sister Jennifer is abducted by the cultists living on the island. Jennifer, played by Elen Rhys, is being held for ransom and it falls upon Thomas to negotiate her release.
The exchange is not expected to be easy — and is assuredly a trap. Sure enough, Thomas's ferry ticket to the island is marked, but a quick sleight-of-hand means another male passenger meets an untimely fate instead. Now afforded some measure of anonymity, Thomas wastes no time slipping out of his room at night to search for Jennifer. He discovers much more than your garden variety cult, however. Although the community's patriarch, Malcolm Howe (Sheen), claims the island is a paradise free of British rule and taxation, things are beginning to fall apart. The crops are rotting on the vine and even the livestock cannot produce viable offspring. For reasons unknown, the residents are required to bleed themselves into jars which they leave outside their bedroom doors at night. Some of the community members are hatching plans to escape and everywhere there are grumblings of discontent. It seems that Jennifer's kidnapping was an act of desperation to keep the community alive... even though supernatural forces are at work to destroy it.
The supernatural forces in question were discovered by Malcolm when he shipwrecked on the island decades earlier. He and the other castaways discovered a female creature they call “the goddess.“ When nourished with fresh blood, the goddess can transform the desolate island into a fertile paradise. But after decades of keeping the old gal in shackles, she’s begun to rebel and Thomas and Jennifer are unwittingly in the middle of a power struggle between someone who thinks he's divine, and something that actually is.
Apostle’s premise is a tried and true horror trope and it really doesn’t do anything new with it. At its best, it feels like a good episode of Lost. At its worst, it feels like a bad episode of Lost. In between, it’s a mostly boring movie with superficial characters and a protagonist so morose and unlikable that there’s really no one to root for here. Thomas's meager backstory, about him being a Christian missionary who narrowly escapes death during the Chinese Boxer Rebellion, does nothing to make him more sympathetic. After all, he's essentially guilty of the same kind of behavior as the cultists (without the abduction and murder perhaps.) Plus, it's never explained how a man of God acquired some pretty advanced fighting and espionage skills, all of which make him an unreliable hero. The film’s conclusion is exceptionally violent and gory, which seems unnecessary and inappropriate considering the rest of the film’s tone. In the end, Apostle is a massively inconsistent film and not one I can recommend.
Apostle is a historical horror movie set at the beginning of the 20th century with most of the action located on a fictitious island off the Welsh coast. Thomas Richardson, played by Dan Stevens of Downton Abbey fame, is a former Christian missionary summoned home by his wealthy father when his sister Jennifer is abducted by the cultists living on the island. Jennifer, played by Elen Rhys, is being held for ransom and it falls upon Thomas to negotiate her release.
The exchange is not expected to be easy — and is assuredly a trap. Sure enough, Thomas's ferry ticket to the island is marked, but a quick sleight-of-hand means another male passenger meets an untimely fate instead. Now afforded some measure of anonymity, Thomas wastes no time slipping out of his room at night to search for Jennifer. He discovers much more than your garden variety cult, however. Although the community's patriarch, Malcolm Howe (Sheen), claims the island is a paradise free of British rule and taxation, things are beginning to fall apart. The crops are rotting on the vine and even the livestock cannot produce viable offspring. For reasons unknown, the residents are required to bleed themselves into jars which they leave outside their bedroom doors at night. Some of the community members are hatching plans to escape and everywhere there are grumblings of discontent. It seems that Jennifer's kidnapping was an act of desperation to keep the community alive... even though supernatural forces are at work to destroy it.
The supernatural forces in question were discovered by Malcolm when he shipwrecked on the island decades earlier. He and the other castaways discovered a female creature they call “the goddess.“ When nourished with fresh blood, the goddess can transform the desolate island into a fertile paradise. But after decades of keeping the old gal in shackles, she’s begun to rebel and Thomas and Jennifer are unwittingly in the middle of a power struggle between someone who thinks he's divine, and something that actually is.
Apostle’s premise is a tried and true horror trope and it really doesn’t do anything new with it. At its best, it feels like a good episode of Lost. At its worst, it feels like a bad episode of Lost. In between, it’s a mostly boring movie with superficial characters and a protagonist so morose and unlikable that there’s really no one to root for here. Thomas's meager backstory, about him being a Christian missionary who narrowly escapes death during the Chinese Boxer Rebellion, does nothing to make him more sympathetic. After all, he's essentially guilty of the same kind of behavior as the cultists (without the abduction and murder perhaps.) Plus, it's never explained how a man of God acquired some pretty advanced fighting and espionage skills, all of which make him an unreliable hero. The film’s conclusion is exceptionally violent and gory, which seems unnecessary and inappropriate considering the rest of the film’s tone. In the end, Apostle is a massively inconsistent film and not one I can recommend.
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