I feel like the villains didn’t get a bad enough comeuppance. With especially horrible people, they need a death like at the end of Kiss of the Dragon or Fury Road. Hell, many of those other villagers should have been swallowed up by that island.

I finally got around to watching this one recently, and would agree with the 8/10. For me its only real weakness was a slightly protracted finale, otherwise it hit all the right notes. I don’t really think the reveal turned it into sci-fi, but rather delivered on the hints of the supernatural it’d been teasing throughout (in other words, the opposite of so many Korean movies in the post-‘Wailing’ era, which hint at the supernatural but rarely follow through). It added substance to the reason why each of the islanders is expected to leave a jar of blood outside their door each night, and provided a worthy pay-off to the mystery.

More than anything though, ‘Apostle’ clearly shows that Evans is a director evolving into a genre filmmaker capable of more than just Silat infused violence (which he does incredibly well!). I can’t wait to see what he does next.

I feel like ‘The Apostle’ to ‘Raid 3’ ratio in this comment is a little disproportionate. 😛

The cinematography is Matt Flannery’s domain for the most part.

Although I do think Evans should just man up and make The Raid 3. There are many cliffhangers he left us with. Whatever happened to Eka, did the Gotos pick him u?. What happens when Bunawar makes it to the crime scene, since the Gotos beat him there. Chances are he double-crosses Rama by treating him like a “disposable asset”, since it’s pretty much hinted that’s what he tried to do with Eka and why Eka ended up joining the other side.

I would have really like to see Rama and Eka team up to take out Bunawar. Plus there’s other gangs that’s going to try to take over Bangun’s territory now that he’s gone. There’s two scenes in the movie where it’s mentioned that there’s other gangs beyond the three that TR2 was about.

I like that Evans wants to do other genres, and he should keep at it. I just wish that such a different horror film didn’t fall victim to some of the typical horror cliches. (Take out the threat before the rescue, make sure they’re dead, etc)

The secret of the village was very unnecessary and turned the film into science fiction. Did we really need a Poison Ivy mentality?

Another cliche I hate is when a movie establishes a villain, and then does a bait and switch, revealing that “someone else is the REAL villain!” It happened in Wonder Woman, and it happens here.

He was a horribly despicable character, especially when he proved to be a coward and a hypocrite. But that reveal just came out of nowhere. It was also troubling that the kid put up more of a fight with him than Dan Stevens.

I liked the combination of Wicker Man, Resident Evil 4, and Silent Hill, and I would like to see the concept done better. Apostle does make a great blueprint though.

But I’d still be generous and most likely give this a 7/10. I did appreciate the Lovecraftian undertones, although the movie mostly reminded me of a ton of horror video games I’ve played (Bioshock, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Dark Souls).