Apostle is about Thomas Richardson, a prodigal son who founds out that his sister was taken hostage by a religious cult on a Welsh Island. He decides to visit the island and pose as a convert in order to free his sister. There, he encounters the founders of the cult, Malcolm Howe, Frank and Quinn, who then explain to him that the land has a sort of hunger for blood and the land became fertile because of blood sacrifice. Hence, the founders sacrifice the offspring of their farm animals to the land but issues arise when the offspring begin dying and they have to rely on human blood. The community holds a tryst, or meeting for bloodletting and then the blood is jarred and kept in storage for when harvests are not doing so well. Now that I have given a bit of backstory on the film, I will talk about the hypocrisy of religious cults, especially this one. First of all, religious cults are spiritual groups with a leader/authority figure that guides every sheep in the flock and as we can see the irony in “following the herd”. Cults main agenda is not to convert individuals and spread their messages, it is to keep their group small and their followers blinded. Most of their followers stay loyal because cults hide behind the worshipping of a God, typically the God from the Bible as seen through their history. This form of interaction with a leader who is led by God is extremely attractive to the masses. Thus, we see the hypocrisy surrounding cults because they do not practice what they preach. In the film Apostle, strict rules have to be enforced and followed by every member and if they don’t then they are punished in the name of God. Jeremy, a boy from the island, fell in love with the daughter of Quinn and they ended up having sex and she became impregnated with his child. Once her father found out, he killed her and ripped the fetus from her womb. Not to mention, he falsely accused Jeremy of killing his daughter and sentenced him to be punished and killed. This being said, they preach about repentance and purity but then their leaders commit murders act that are justified in their “holiness”. It seems to be that these leaders are hypocrites and hide behind a facade in order to keep on killing. Not to mention, this is a way to instill fear in their members and prevent them from rebelling. Through history, cults have been committing heinous acts and killing hundreds such as People’s Temple, where 900 members were urged by Rev. Jim Jones to drink cyanide laced grape punch. Thus, they died in the name of their leader and their religion. But, I would like to think that if a religious leader told me to do something that would go against my beliefs and place my life in danger then I would turn away from them. Though it seems that followers are more deranged than the actual leaders of these cults because they allow themselves to believe all the nonsense. They justify the death of their friends and even family members in the name of fate and it is wrong. Watching Apostle, I felt a sense of anger because of the way they treated their members and how poor Jeremy was falsely accused of murder by Quinn and was put to death. Still, this film was very well thought out and I thoroughly enjoyed it even though it gave me the jeebee geebees.