The premise involves a man, portrayed by Dan Stevens, traveling to 1905 Wales to infiltrate a peculiar cult and rescue his sister who’s being held captive on a remote island. "Apostle," released in 2018, shares plot similarities with “The Wicker Man” (both the 1973 and 2006 versions) and evokes settings reminiscent of "The Village" (2004) and “The Ritual” (2017), though it doesn't measure up to those films. Initially, the film establishes a reasonably engaging foundation; it’s somewhat slow-paced but maintains an appealing sense of intrigue thanks to its striking setting and village design. Sadly, the narrative takes a turn for the worse in the latter portion, descending into poorly executed horror tropes with a few jarring torture sequences seemingly intended to inject excitement. I was genuinely surprised by how disappointing the second half proved to be – the pacing felt off, it lacked subtlety, the ideas were flawed, there wasn't enough consistency, and it remained unnecessarily vague; overall, it just felt like amateurish horror filmmaking. It seemed as if the director needed an additional twenty minutes to properly develop the story but was hurried to keep the runtime near two hours, resulting in a clumsy assembly of scenes during the second half. Despite its shortcomings, the film prompts some interesting thoughts afterward, particularly concerning man-made religions and the possibility of corruption and exploitation within them. It brings to mind Jeroboam's blended religion when the northern kingdom of Israel separated from Judah; he created two golden calf idols and appointed unqualified "priests." While borrowing elements from Judaism, it omitted a crucial component (God). The movie’s length is 2 hours and 10 minutes, and filming took place in Wales. I'd be interested in seeing an extended version, approximately 2.5 hours long, that included the explanatory material that was unfortunately cut during editing. GRADE: C (First half B- / Second half D)

Source on TMDB