Look, a horror film from the guy who gave us The Raid was never going to be a joyous romp, was it? But even with that in mind, the first trailer for Gareth Evans’ cult-horror Apostle looks all kinds of spooky, bloody, and majorly unsettling. After a suitably atmospheric poster, this is the first proper look at the director’s follow up to The Raid 2 (which, even as an action film, was filled with delirious violence), and the filmmaker looks to be on fine form once again.
This time it’s Dan Stevens in the lead role, playing a desperate man whose sister has been lost to a sinister cult led by a beardy Michael Sheen. But venturing to track her down only sets him in the group’s sights – and it looks like all kinds of unspecified horrors go down when he gets there. In the trailer there's burning crosses, rudimentary torture devices, and bodies pierced on the branches of trees. All things that’ll make you want to go and lie down in a dark, peaceful room for a while, basically.
The film is heading to Netflix in less than a month, due to hit the streaming service on 12 October. Frankly, it might be a blessing for the more faint-of-heart not to see this one on the big screen. In the meantime if you want a taster of what Gareth Evans-meets-cult-horror looks like, track down his excellent segment ‘Safe Haven’ from horror anthology V/H/S/2.
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