Apostle

Apostle is a 2018 gothic horror film written, directed and edited by Gareth Evans, and starring Dan Stevens, Lucy Boynton, Mark Lewis Jones, Bill Milner, Kristine Froseth, Paul Higgins and Michael Sheen. It had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest in September 2018, and began streaming on Netflix on October 12, 2018. The story follows a British man as he attempts to rescue his sister from a cult on a remote island. The film received generally positive reviews from critics. Plot In 1905, Thomas Richardson travels to a remote Welsh island to rescue his sister, Jennifer, who has been kidnapped and held for ransom by a mysterious cult. Posing as a convert, Thomas encounters the leader, Malcolm Howe, who founded the cult with two other convicts, Frank and Quinn. They claim that the barren island was rendered fertile through blood sacrifice. Thomas discovers Frank's son Jeremy and Quinn's daughter Ffion sneaking home after a tryst. He forces Jeremy to admit that Jennifer was kidnapped for ransom, as the cult does not have the resources to pay for the continuous animal sacrifices needed to maintain the island's fertility. One of the newcomers attempts to assassinate Malcolm, but Thomas intervenes and is wounded. The same night, Malcolm parades Jennifer through the village, claiming she will be killed if her co-conspirator does not come forward. Thomas flees from an old woman who chases him, and escapes to a beach cave covered in markings, depicting a deity. Malcolm visits a barn where the old woman, who is in fact the island's deity, is imprisoned in tree roots; he reprimands her for appearing to Thomas before feeding her his blood, causing the vegetation imprisoning her to bloom. Thomas tells Malcolm's daughter Andrea that he was a Christian missionary who was persecuted in Peking during the Boxer Rebellion for introducing Christianity to China, and lost his faith after his god failed to intervene. She takes him to a shack in a wheat field to hide. Ffion reveals to Jeremy that she is pregnant, and the pair make plans to elope. Infuriated, Quinn mutilates Ffion in a forced abortion. Jeremy stabs Quinn, who frames Jeremy for Ffion's murder, and uses a "purification" ritual to publicly murder him by hollowing out the back of his head. Quinn calls Malcolm a false prophet and demands that he prove himself by executing Thomas. Frank, enraged by the death of his son, attacks Quinn, enabling Thomas to escape.