Apostle

Movie Name: Apostle
Year of Release: 2018
Director: Gareth Evans
Starring: Dan Stevens, Michael Sheen, Mark Lewis Jones, Paul Higgins, Lucy Boynton, Bill Milner, Kristine Froseth, Elen Rhys, Sharon Morgan, Ioan Hefin
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 6
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Synopsis and Review:

Writer/Director Gareth Evans made a name for himself with the well received "The Raid", which had a sequel, and has garnered a cult following since its release in 2011. "Apostle", which Netflix has released, is one of his most recent endeavors. The film, which takes place at the beginning of the 20th century, follows the story of Thomas Richardson, who travels to a remote Welsh island, inhabited by a small community, to rescue his sister Jennifer. She has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom. Pretending to be a recent convert, Thomas soon encounters the leader of the cult, Malcolm. Malcolm started the cult with two other convicts, Frank and Quinn, and they all claim that the barren island has in fact become hospitable and fertile through blood sacrifices. As Thomas comes to realize that there is indeed a supernatural element maintaining the island alive, the cult also degenerates as internal struggles for power cause battles and casualties to start piling. Thomas has to figure out a way to save his sister and whomever else wants to escape the cult and keep a semblance of their faith and humanity.

"Apostle" benefits from keeping the community where the action takes place quite minimal in scale and also leveraging the cult/pagan aspect of the narrative in a manner that is simultaneously visceral and never overly artificial. As we follow the events taking place in the island, from the particular perspective of Thomas, someone who has lost his faith for that matter, we also realize how instilling fear in others functions as a powerful means to keep them in control. It's a film that manages to depict quite succinctly and effectively the cult that exists in that small island, the monstrous actions people can commit in order to preserve what they seem to think is the status quo and their own sense of importance. While much attention is indeed devoted to the context building and the situation in which the main characters find themselves in, who they actually are and their motivations, are fairly shallow and underdeveloped. This ends up being the less satisfactory aspect of the film, since for the most part, these characters have little to no dimension. The cast manages nonetheless to make this a compelling view, including Dan Stevens, the always fantastic Michael Sheen, Lucy Boynton and Mark Lewis Jones. The cinematography from Matt Flannery is solid, as is the score from Aria Prayogi and Fajar Yuskemal. While not tremendously memorable, it is worth watching.