Every week, new original films debut on Netflix and other streaming services, often to much less fanfare than their big-screen counterparts. With Cinemastream, Vox will highlight the best and/or most notable of these premieres, in an ongoing effort to keep interesting and easily accessible new films on your radar.
Apostle
The premise: Apostle is a bonkers horror film about a man who tries to rescue his sister from a 19th-century utopian cult, only to discover that the situation is much, much more complicated than he expected.
What it’s about: It’s 19th-century England, and Thomas Richardson (Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens) discovers that his beloved sister (Elen Rhys) has gone missing, kidnapped by a utopian cult that worships a goddess of the sea. With the ransom note in hand, he sets off to find and rescue her, but when he arrives on the island where the cult dwells with their charismatic leader (Michael Sheen), he discovers that what’s going on there is a whole lot darker and weirder than expected.
Written and directed by Gareth Evans (The Raid, V/H/S/2), Apostle starts off like a thriller — but just when you think you know what’s going on, things get wild. It grows more terrifying in its second half, combining elements of body horror and the supernatural, with plenty of cult infighting and a touch of rebellion against capitalism, too. It’s not exactly for the faint of heart, and its wild zinging from plot point to plot point can get tiring. But if you’re on the hunt for a frightening and original horror movie, it’s a stellar choice.
Critical consensus: Apostle currently has a score of 61 on Metacritic. In the Guardian, Charles Bramesco writes, “Anyone not put off by the bodily mutilations and hefty run time of last year’s A Cure For Wellness, anyone who sees untethered ambition as a virtue even when it goes slightly awry, anyone with a habit of ordering their sandwiches ‘with everything on it’ — they’ll be the ones to appreciate the wild abandon with which Evans yanks out all the stops.”
Where to watch: Apostle premieres on Netflix on October 12.