Apostle Netflix movie review: "straight out of the Spanish Inquisition slaybook"
Dan Stevens infiltrates Michael Sheen's cult in a gruesome period horror from the director of The Raid
★★★
Legion star Dan Stevens is plunged into Wicker Man territory for this creepy horror thriller set in the early 1900s.
But being broody, moody and partial to pharmaceuticals probably isn’t the safest way for his prodigal son Thomas to infiltrate the remote island home of a fearsome religious cult and rescue his sister.
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With Thomas hiding his identity from Michael Sheen’s self-styled prophet and his henchmen – especially Mark Lewis Jones’s bristling bruiser – the tension bubbles along nicely, until a ghastlier force rears its head.
Better known as the director of visceral martial arts thriller The Raid and its sequel, Gareth Evans here riffs on his mind-bending Safe Haven segment from 2013 horror anthology V/H/S/2 to jangle the nerves with oppressive dread, jump-scares and eye-watering scenes of torture straight out of the Spanish Inquisition slaybook.
It’s a tad long and occasionally loses focus but Matt Flannery’s cinematography is splendidly effective, Stevens is a convincingly intense hero and the result is mercilessly watchable fright fare.
Apostle is released on Netflix on 12 October 2018
This article was originally published in October 2018
