Magic in Movies: Apostle.

During a solitary Saturday night, in the company of my trusted familiar, I open Netflix looking for something to watch: the preview of Apostle appears in full screen, a film by Gareth Evans released on the platform on October 12th.

The 20th century - Sorcery - Horror - Thriller - British Films

The perfect recipe to convince me to press play.

THE PLOT:

London, early 20th century. The wealthy and aristocratic Thomas Richardson returns to the manor house, after leaving his path as a missionary, to discover that his sister was taken hostage by a religious cult in search of a ransom. Upon hearing the news, Thomas travels to a remote island off Wales, where a pagan sect thrives under the guidance of Prophet Malcolm - rejecting the corruption of society and its christian god, trying to create one of their own under the guidance of a benevolent local pagan goddess. But under the idyll of this community, a creepy secret hides ...

As can be seen from above, there are all the elements for a respectable thriller; where the gloomy Victorian atmospheres are holding us in suspense in an aura of mystery throughout the film. A rare gem in today's cinematic landscape, where the binomial horror=splatter dominates. Of course, the blood is not lacking but it is not only seen in the mere optics of the classic horror film.

And it is blood that is the key to reading the whole story.

Blood seen as a gore element, blood seen as a sacrificial offering, life and even poison. But let's proceed with order ...

*** ATTENTION - SPOILERS FURTHER DOWN IN THE READING ***

On one hand we have Thomas Richardson, the main character: a former missionary who became a disbeliever after suffering the horrors of the religious war in China - during the Boxer Uprising. Thomas is a disillusioned man, lost in the delirium of opiates - his only comfort to forget the death and destruction he witnessed, no longer having a faith to turn to.

On the other hand we have the prophet Malcolm, a Victorian version of the Reverend Jim Jones: fanatical-eyed, who keeps the entire island community in check, posing as spokesperson for the Goddess of Erisden while rattling off almost socialist speeches about equality and depravity of the Kingdom from where he has escaped. A farce behind which there are games of power, corruption and slavery.

Not only slavery of the population of Erisden, but also of the divine itself. In fact, behind the miracle of the sudden fertility of a historically uninhabited island, lies a chilling story.

Malcolm, shipwrecked on the island with his companions Quinn and Frank following a prison evasion, meets a mysterious Chrone Goddess (probably inspired by Cailleach), who saves them from certain death. As we all know, natural and magical laws always provide for an exchange: in this case, a blood sacrifice. Blood is one of the greatest offers that can be found in nature, the very source of life. A powerful and arcane symbolism.

The three soon find a way to speed up this process, imprisoning the goddess and forcing her to drink blood to make the earth fertile, almost in an industrial way. When slaughtered animals are no longer enough, the devotion of the inhabitants of the island comes to the scene, who came to witness the prodigy of this inexplicable fertility but unaware of the macabre background: a vial of blood, to be delivered every night after the curfew. 
And here's the miracle, a miracle obtained at the expense of the nature itself that resides in a hut - hidden under the carpet as dirt. Until, exhausted and squeezed to the end, prosperity turns into poison, famine and pestilence... to the point to seek a monetary ransom, at the expense of the Richardson family.

The heir, after having immersed himself in a vortex of terror, delirium and fanaticism, comes into contact with a renewed faith, freeing the goddess from the mechanical grip of the human being.

I do not know if the director had planned this ecologic message or if it was an expedient to make the atmosphere more "folk", but parallelism immediately jumps to the eye: we ourselves, nowadays, we are reserving the same treatment to the our goddess, Gaia. We, too, enslave her,  gorging her with fertilisers, pesticides and waste; all in the name of an economic profit.

Think of the horrors of industrial farms, socially accepted: real lagers, in which living beings are stuffed with hormones and suffering in dark cells. But do not fall into the trap of thinking that eating only quinoa and tofu is more sustainable, in extensive cultivations that destroy hectares of forests. It is impossible not to have an imprint on this planet, for every cause there is a consequence. But we try to be aware, in our small way, by reducing the environmental impact as much as we can during our passage on this planet. When we do it, we think of a chained and dying Mother Earth.

In conclusion, I found it a great film - suitable for the dark atmosphere of October, around the night of Samhain. Definitely recommended if you want to enjoy a thrilling evening that also wants to give us a food for thought.

♃Ludna

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