Did we need E.L. Katz’s Azrael to hammer home the point that Samara Weaving is a formidable final girl? Yes, and no. Since Weaving left such an unforgettable impact as the unyielding heroine in Ready or Not, it’s sort of a struggle to shake that image when you try to fully immerse yourself in the world of Azrael. What helps though, is Azrael’s decidedly peculiar world-building. The narrative being almost completely devoid of any dialogue already meant we’d have to do without exposition. The less you are told, the closer you look.

Spoiler Alert

What happens in the film?

We don’t know what year Azrael drops us in. But the title card’s half-hearted initiation does tell us that the world we’re walking into is post-Rapture. The evangelical faction of the survivors has done away with the sin of speaking. The cross on their...