Azrael, Samara Weaving‘s latest entry in the horror genre, will bow in theaters this fall. The film will premiere exclusively in theaters on September 27. Deadline reports that IFC Films and Shudder have acquired the North American rights to Azrael; Shudder will stream the film later in the year.
Azrael takes place in a mysterious post-apocalyptic world where nobody speaks. Weaving plays Azrael, a young woman who has escaped from a fundamentalist community. They wish to sacrifice her to stave off the ancient evils that dwell within the woods – but she has other ideas. The film also stars Femme‘s Nathan Stewart-Jarrett. Azrael comes with a horror pedigree; director E.L. Katz previously helmed the black comedy thriller Cheap Thrills, while screenwriter Simon Barrett is a frequent collaborator with Adam Wingard, having penned You’re Next, The Guest, and Blair Witch. Says Katz, “I couldn’t be more thrilled to have Azrael released by our good friends at Shudder/IFC. Their support of wild, uncompromising genre films is unparalleled. We are so excited to invite all horror fans along for this mysterious, gruesome, hellish, Samara Weaving ass-kicking marathon.”
Who Is Samara Weaving?
The niece of character actor Hugo Weaving, Samara Weaving made her screen debut in her native Australia on the TV drama Out of the Blue, and later moved on to the long-running soap opera Home and Away. She made her big-screen American debut with Monster Trucks, and has become a familiar presence on the big and small screens, starring in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Nine Perfect Strangers, Bill and Ted Face the Music, and Babylon. Weaving has established herself as a “scream queen” with a number of prominent horror roles, most famously as a blood-spattered bride-to-be in Radio Silence‘s Ready or Not; she has also appeared in Mayhem, The Babysitter, Scream 6, and the TV series Ash vs. Evil Dead. Next up for Weaving is the thriller Borderline, alongside Eric Dane and Alba Baptista, and the heist comedy Eenie Meanie, with Karl Glusman and Andy Garcia. She is also slated to star in the single-camera Netflix comedy Little Sky, which she will also executive produce.
Azrael premiered at the South By Southwest Film Festival earlier this year; in his review, Collider‘s Matt Donato praised Weaving‘s largely-silent performance, remarking that she “carries Azrael without speaking as much as a whimper”. It will also screen at Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival next month.
Azrael will premiere in theaters on September 27, 2024, and will bow on Shudder later in the year.
via Collider