2020-04-01_Total_Film

T

here’s an entire subgenre of horror films

devoted to the religious fervour of young

women – and it pretty much is always young

women – who may or may not be under the

influence of God or Satan: The Last Exorcism, The Exorcism Of

Emily Rose... basically anything with ‘exorcism’ in the title.

The problem? Time and time again, the culprit is Satan.

Maud (Morfydd Clark) is a pious

young nurse in a washed-out seaside

town. “I hope you will reveal your plan

for me soon,” she prays, before

receiving a new assignment: tending to

dying dancer Amanda (Jennifer Ehle)

who lives in a spooky house on the

clifftops. “How she is?” Maud asks her

colleague as they swap shifts. The

refreshingly frank response tells us this

is a film that won’t be pulling punches.

Against the odds, Maud and Amanda

form a bond: the ascetic and the

aesthete. Amanda is intrigued by

Maud’s faith, calling her “my little

saviour”, but things start to go south

when Maud sends Amanda’s lover (Lily

Frazer) away, and gets sacked. Turns

out, she isn’t quite the paragon of

innocence she appears. A scene in which

she bumps into an old colleague (Lily

Knight) sows the first seeds of doubt.

During an extraordinary dark night

of the soul, Maud completely unravels,

dragging the film’s claustrophobic

composure along with her. In an awful

bar, as the camera moves in closer and

closer on the drinkers’ large, leering

faces, she starts seeing vortexes in pint

glasses. Then comes an even more

intense hook-up with a stranger

(Turlough Convery) that delivers one

of the film’s strongest shocks. The

hallucinatory vibe continues with a

canted angle that shows her stumbling

home down some dark, back-alley

steps, her whole world tilted on its axis.

There’s more: the third act is full-

bore cray cray, with Maud’s behaviour

even further beyond the pale: “I am

transformed and soon everyone will

see!” she declares. After 70 minutes of

simmering dread, the final confrontation

between Maud and Amanda is truly

startling, providing genre fans with a

proper conclusion while staying true to

the character and the mysteries of her

faith. If the coda disappoints it is only

a question of ambition besting budget.

To say more would be sacrilege, because

Saint Maud is worth discovering at your

own pace. In fact, quibbles aside, it’s

one of the boldest horror debuts of

recent years. Matt Glasby

THE VERDICT

A stark, sinister chamber piece built

on atmosphere and performances.

Morfydd Clark is a revelation.

Saint Maud, the debut of writer/

director Rose Glass, elegantly sidesteps

the problem by making its protagonist

so devout that we never know whether

she’s being influenced by God, the Devil

or, to quote Blackadder, Mad Jack McMad

the winner of last year’s Mr. Madman

competition. The latest horror offering

from A24 (Hereditary, The Lighthouse), the

result is as assured as it is oppressive.

CERTIFICATE    DIRECTORRoseGlass

STARRINGMorfyddClarkJenniferEhle

Lily KnightTurloughConverySCREENPLAY

RoseGlassDISTRIBUTORStudioCanal

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TOTAL FILM | APRIL 2020

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