Apostle is the latest film from Gareth Evans, who, first of all, you must not confuse with Gareth Edwards. Gareth Evans is the man responsible for The Raid and The Raid 2, two of the finest action films you will ever see in your life. Gareth Edwards made that 2014 Godzilla remake and Rogue One, and is a very different kind of filmmaker. We will speak no more of him. Gareth Evans, is extremely good at movies where people get messed the hell up—because of all the, y'know, punching. But as his first horror film, Apostle is all about messing people up in extremely different ways, and it looks upsettingly good at it.
The movie stars Dan Stevens (star of Legion) as Thomas Richardson, a man who discovers that his sister has fallen under the sway of a cult that lives on a remote island somewhere near the U.K. Concerned for her safety and well-being, he embarks on a journey to find her and bring her home. It, as you can imagine, does not go as planned.
You've seen this sort of thing before—cults are common horror movie fodder, and also extremely hot right now—but I have a hunch that we haven't seen one quite like this. Gareth Evans films are wonderfully composed and surgically brutal, which probably explains the unsettling-as-hell torture devices we see here, and in casting Dan Stevens (an actor very good at, uh, losing it) as the outsider who slowly ends up hopelessly trapped, and Michael Sheen as the charismatic cult leader who likely intends to convert him, Apostle also has two compelling leads that we'll want to follow to the end. Even if it's extremely unpleasant.
Apostle premieres on Netflix October 12, just in time for Halloween.