Nerdist took to the interwebs to present an exclusive look at the first official poster for upcoming horror thriller, Apostle. It’s the first new-anything since the first still went viral as of May and here with Dan Stevens leading the way and famed Merantau, The Raid and The Raid 2 helmer Gareth Huw Evans directing.
London, 1905. Prodigal son Thomas Richardson (Dan Stevens) has returned home, only to learn that his sister is being held for ransom by a religious cult. Determined to get her back at any cost, Thomas travels to the idyllic island where the cult lives under the leadership of the charismatic Prophet Malcolm (Michael Sheen). As Thomas infiltrates the island’s community, he learns that the corruption of mainland society that they claim to reject has infested the cult’s ranks nonetheless – and uncovers a secret far more evil than he could have imagined. Written and directed by Gareth Evans (THE RAID), APOSTLE is a harrowing occult fable where the only thing more horrifying than madness is the sinister reality behind it.
Undoubtedly, Evans is clearly still ever capable of directing action. He so clearly demonstrated this in a post-Raid online experimental samurai short film a few years ago and one only hopes that some day he’ll get back in the saddle again for the goods. Until then, Apostle is what he now offers to moviegoers and with a stark vision promising a great deal of intensity and caliber in its multi-layered form, telling Nerdist:
“It’s not for the squeamish,” Evans said during a conversation with Nerdist. “But the violence in it in certain places is more inferred than what’s shown, especially in the first part of the film. And then it starts to unravel as the story intensifies.”
He later adds:
“We wanted to make something that was tonally in the same universe,” he said. “The most interesting thing about horror and thrillers is when there’s something deeper going on in the subtext of the film. [Apostle] is not purely about a guy going to an island to rescue his sister. There’s more going on there. We explore the notion of how man’s political ideals and desire for power can corrupt a religion, can corrupt society, can corrupt morality.”
Read more at Nerdist, and then click here to read my interview with the film’s stunt coordinator, Jude Poyer!