10 Recent Horror Movies That Were ALMOST Amazing

6. Azrael

Azrael Samara Weaving
IFC Films

A post-apocalyptic horror movie that takes place in a world where nobody speaks, starring Samara Weaving as a badass woman who is being hunted down by a cult that wants to sacrifice her? Say no more.

And for much of its runtime, Azrael is a bleakly atmospheric, bloody good time, impressively mitigating its near-total lack of spoken dialogue with intense action and a typically superb performance from Weaving, whose facial expressions and overall physicality say everything that words would.

Yet even with a mere 85-minute runtime, the film runs out of steam by the end - the almost total lack of characterisation and general context becomes increasingly wearisome, leading to a climax that's likely to leave audiences thinking, "Wait, that's it?"

As an experiment in cinematic form this is definitely an interesting movie with a lot of positives, but also reaffirms just how damn difficult it is to make a sans-dialogue movie truly compelling at even a short cinematic length.

 
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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.