It’s almost October, which means all the spooky movies are about to hit our screens. Coming to Netflix on October 12, a very frightening-looking movie, Apostle, is set to kick off the parade of creepiness that will continue through to Halloween.
Apostle is about a man named Thomas Richardson (played by former Beast Dan Stevens) who goes looking for his missing sister. He’s been told she was kidnapped by a sinister religious cult, so he travels to a lush island to rescue her. Judging from the tailer, things do not go well for Thomas... or, really, anyone on the island. The crazy-eyed cult leader (played by former Volturi leader Michael Sheen) senses that there is an outsider among them. Whether he knows it’s Thomas or whether there is actually more than one intruder remains to be seen. Thomas seems to be a religious man himself, as he warns someone -- we don't see who -- to beware of false prophets. Lines like these do seem a bit on the nose; the trailer doesn’t really go for subtlety, but I’m willing to let it slide because of the mood it creates. There is an eeriness throughout the first half of the trailer that turns into outright shocking-ness by the second half. We can expect lots of creepy cult behavior. like bloodletting and torture, because that’s what dominates the second half of the trailer.
Any movie about cults is usually one I’m on board with, and this one looks especially chilling. Apostle is set in 1908, which makes the Puritan, Colonial vibes even more unsettling. I know it’s set somewhere near Great Britain and not in America, but still. That kind of old-fashioned religious fervor, the kind that leads to cross burning and rusty torture devices, transcends borders I guess. Who exactly is being tortured is yet to be revealed—maybe it’s Thomas, maybe it’s various other non-believers. Who is the man wounded, covered in blood, carrying out his own punishments to other people? Does Thomas find his sister? Who is the woman who tells him that his eyes look like they’ve “seen things” (what exactly has he seen)? We won’t know for sure until the movie hits Netflix on October 12. Give it a watch to find out exactly what happens on this cult’s island “paradise”...
(Image via Netflix)
- Meg Spaulding, YH Contributing Writer