Azrael

E L Katz 2024

Years after the Rapture, a shanty-township of the pious courts belated redemption by tattooing crosses on their throats and adding the sin of speech to the list of Christian prohibitions. Nevertheless, not even the end of the world as we know it justifies measures so extreme as an end to witch-hunts; and the plot is essentially that of The Hitcher with the wannabe-chosen in the Rutger Hauer role, relentlessly pursuing the protagonist for reasons never communicated. Although the pious have firearms as well as the time-blessed flame and rope, their essential mercy consists in feeding their enemies to the flesh-devouring victims of the holy fire who roam the countryside.

An Edenic woodland tryst at the beginning may indicate that the persecution of the heroine and her lover results from sexual misconduct; but since her inquisitors never commit the sin of explaining themselves it's impossible to be sure. The pattern of chase, entrapment and escape is repeated with sufficient variation and invention to keep from becoming tedious, and without relying on implausible levels of character stupidity to keep things moving along. Led by the superb Samara Weaving, the dialogue-deprived cast all play their roles convincingly.

Part-way through the heroine's trials there's an intriguing revelation that the residents of the shanty-town are not the only people left behind: at least one other commmunity exists where they not only speak but speak in Esperanto, the best-known among various efforts to undermine God's assault on human brotherhood at Babel. Meanwhile, the presence in the church of a white-robed pregnant woman hints that the shanty-town may be a site of wider consequence than a mere cultic retreat; and this promise is charmingly fulfilled at the finale, completing the heroine's revenge for her tribulations while confirming that the advent of the Rapture has neither diluted nor improved the Deity's taste in practical jokes.