Movie Info
Movie Name: Saint Maud
Studio: Movie Studio
Genre(s): Horror
Release Date(s): Movie Release Date
MPAA Rating: R
The power of Christ compels you!
Maud (Morfydd Clark) is finding her path through a turn to religion and the desire to help people by becoming a hospice nurse. When she is assigned to cancer patient Amanda Köhl (Jennifer Ehle), she finds her religion might not be enough for Amanda who Maud sees as hedonistic and in desperate need of salvation. Maud needs to follow God’s path and realizes that she might be the only hope to save Amanda’s eternal soul.
Written and directed by Rose Glass, Saint Maud is a psychological horror thriller. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and received positive reviews.
A24 has a modus operandi. They often pick to release off-beat horror that largely might be ignored by bigger studios. They have a pretty strong finger on the pulse of edgy horror. Saint Maud is a perfect fit…it is creative, different, and not your standard horror. Due to aspects of the story, A ******spoiler alert****** exists for the rest of the review.
I’ll swallow your soul!
The movie is one of those films which could be real or it could be completely psychological. Maud (aka Katie) is completely broken. She has suffered a crisis following the death of a patient and has turned from a rather “normal” life to a cloistered and quiet religious lifestyle. When challenged by someone who is living closer to the world of her old life (aka sexually free), fixing her is something that Maud must do…and the only fix for Amanda is a good death. Unfortunately, Maud has been so warped and twisted that she interpreting anything as religious and “a sign”.
The movie almost exclusively from Morfydd Clark’s character. Clark is driven and really falls into the character. Going deep into Maud’s character is the only way this movie works and Clark succeeds. Jennifer Ehle is a nice foil to Morfydd Clark and her character has nothing left to lose. She is the opposite of Maud in that she is free.
She has risen!
The effects are very low key. Maud has visions and the visions may or may not be happening. Like the film Frailty, there are hints that Maud could be right, but you aren’t sure since you are seeing the story from her perspective. The final shot of the movie pretty much shatters this illusion by a quick flash of Maud screaming in pain…it is effective and chilling.
Saint Maud isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. It is a tension filled movie, but it isn’t flashy or even as epic as something in a similar tone like Midsommar. Subtle horror is sometimes the best horror, and Saint Maud banks on this. The creeping horror of the mind is the subject of the film and how it blends with fanaticism and fear of death…Saint Maud rises.
