I think it's about time we crown Dan Stevens the newest scream king on the scene, and let's keep casting him in more horror flicks. Even in the midst of his bizarre, crazy-eyed role in Legion, he delivers varied and nuanced characters in feature films, revealing a bankable and versatile star who is never less than interesting. He has dived headfirst into horror before, but the terrifying efficacy of Apostle stems from its use of Stevens in a period piece. This time, he is far from any aristocratic abbey.
Thomas Richardson (Stevens), thought to be dead, returns home to his aggrieved father: his younger sister has been abducted and held for ransom by a cult. While it's not exactly clear by no authorities have intervened, we're excited to see Thomas embark to the cult's remote Welsh island and investigate. The mystery is chillingly thick, and as Stevens poses as a new convert to gain access, we see that he is a very troubled man. Surely this film will be a journey to his heart of darkness as much as that of the new, nature-based religion led by their prophet Malcolm (a deliciously creepy Michael Sheen).
Roughly the first half of the film feels uncannily like The Wicker Man, from the remote cult-ruled island to its seemingly peaceful pagan prosperity, and from the lone troubled man investigating a disappearance of a young woman to the cult's classy and clearly insane leader. Then there's its preoccupation with bodily fluids: the island inhabitants claim the barren island only flourishes now because of their regular blood sacrifices. It's disturbing, sure, but each practitioner keeps a bloodletting jar at hand and only cut themselves. Apart from their animal sacrifices. Surely there won't be murder, right? Especially not as the cult's resources have diminished and the islanders are getting desperate as their crops begin to wilt and wither.
I'm not familiar with writer/director Gareth Evans's other work, but if it's anything like Apostle, I'm sure it's fascinating. The visual approach, rich in period detail and a production designer's dream once on the island, is grim and gritty, coated with grime and mud, feeling like a darker, dirtier older brother of Midsommar. By the second half, though, there are more elements in this filthy aesthetic, especially blood and guts. Unexpectedly and shockingly violent, the gore gets poured into several scenes in ways that really bothered me, probably because we don't often see this kind of body-ripping realism in psychological horror movies.
But it didn't put me off -- despite what my gasps and gags might have suggested as I watched -- and that is because it just works with the story Evans is telling. It's about desperation, about how we commodify and use others, sucking them dry and discarding them, "for the greater good" -- always, conveniently, helping ourselves. Even Evans's filmmaking sometimes feels indulgent and excessive, but its specificity and reluctance to give us any easy answers is as admirable as it is frustrating. I love his commitment and his incredible ability to stretch our nerves on the rack for so long; this mystery is one well worth delving into. Plus, I'm a sucker for isolated, murdery cults. In fiction.
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