Apostle
2018
**
Director: Gareth Evans
Cast: Dan Stevens, Lucy Boynton, Mark Lewis Jones, Bill Milner, Kristine Froseth, Paul Higgins, Michael Sheen
At the start of the 20th century, a man travels to a remote island of Erisden to rescue his sister, who was kidnapped by a cult that rules the community with an iron hand. Thís period horror film has an intriguing and atmospheric set-up, which owes a debt to The Wicker Man (1973). Unfortunately the rest of the story is not what I wanted to see. The apostate protagonist has an extremely disappointing character arc, and the brutal cult and their medieval methods actually come out in positive light. In the second half, the whole thing nosedives into supernatural nonsense and Evans fills the screen with overexaggerated gore to the tune of loud grunting. The score by Fajar Yusekemal and Aria Prayogi is clichéd and almost laughably creepy. Dan Stevens' performance, on the other hand, is 95 % brooding.
