Review: Saint Maud

It's October, and even during these times we can still get a new release of a horror film in the build-up to Halloween.

I had heard a solid amount of buzz for this feature for the past year. It did the festival circuit and did rather well at the major film festivals such as Toronto and London in 2019.

If you know me well, then you will be aware that horror is a genre that I don't find much success in. However, I am always intrigued by the ideas and concepts these films have. However in the last decade, certain directors have caught my attention and have me particularly enjoying indie horrors.

Another one I can now include in that is Rose Glass, who is making her directorial debut with this rather striking and effective feature.

While the opening image of the film gives you an idea where we will end up, the first act lays the ground work well with solid character development. But the odd moments of surrealism and deep religious connections that almost come off as quite erotic gave you a nice hint of what's beneath the surface.

As the film goes on, the imagery gets slightly more disturbing. Going back to the religious aspect, we start to see old testament style of Christian worship which can be tough to watch. Even with the cinematography enhancing the disorientating and unnerving atmosphere, none of it ever felt gratuitous and always felt important to support the story and its themes.

The ending is probably where we get the films most accessible scene but also its most bold shortly after. But I feel Glass and her team managed to make this work and give me a level of comfort in completing the story arch of what I was experiencing.

I was surprised to see that it's only 84 minutes long. It's rare to find films these days that are of this duration. It just gets in, tells everything it needs to say and gets out while it can.

As for the acting, while the leading performance might not be a debut, it is most definitely a breakthrough for Morfydd Clark. I felt she did a great job of balancing the main themes of mental health, loneliness and extreme religious devotion. Clark definitely gave a performance something similar to that of Sissy Spacek in Carrie.

Elsewhere, Jennifer Ehle I felt was a great support in the first act especially. With almost channeling Gloria Swanson from Sunset Boulevard, her comradery with the lead really helped lay the foundations for Clark's character to blossom in the second and third acts.

The production aspects are of high-quality. The general production design by Paulina Rzeszowska fits in perfectly with the tone of the story. Ben Fordesman's cinematography enhances the unsettling moments almost to the qualities of Ari Aster's regular cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski. I also have to give props to Mark Towns' editing and the score by Adam Janota Bzowski who both made noticeable contributions.

This film is certainly not for everyone. It has little in jump scares and focuses more on a gradual unsettling vibe similar to that of the successful indie/arthouse horrors of the last decade. The story has a lot of weight to it and a constant strangeness in its atmosphere that won't naturally draw in a mainstream audience. If you're into your philosophy then I feel you can get the most out of this. It certainly covers grounds and projects imagery that means more compared to someone with an untrained eye.

Plus, if you like films produced by the studio A24 or like directors such as Robert Eggers, Ari Aster or even Darren Aronofsky, then I feel the tone will best suit your taste.

For me, while I'm not quite going nuts for it, I still found it a memorable and impactful watch. I liked the themes it was going for and I felt I got plenty of it to give me enough of an understanding. This is a very impressive debut by Glass. She has great vision and ideas to match or even elevate herself above the best indie horror directors of today. It's beautifully shot and edited and has an effective cinematic quality to it. I will be excited to see where Glass goes next.

With this looking like the only horror release for cinemas in the build up to Halloween, I feel that whether you end up liking it or not, this needs to at least be experienced on the big screen.

Rating: 7/10