“Dread” is the operative word on the menu when it comes to Rose Glass’ haunting directorial debut, Saint Maud. The film is filled to the brim with an almost-agonizing amount of anxiety, representing the epitome of a “slow burn.” The spark is ignited quickly, but you don’t start smelling the smoke until far later. But all throughout, you feel the heat growing and engulfing you, until all that’s left is to be swallowed by the flames of this movie’s evocative inferno.
The story begins with a nurse named Maud (Morfydd Clark), previously known as Katie, who is working as a private caretaker for Amanda (Jennifer Ehle), a terminally-ill dancer and choreographer confined to a wheelchair due to her stage four lymphoma. The audience is granted some slight insights into a previous incident into Maud’s life (when she once went by Katie), but Glass wisely holds her cards close through much of the film. Instead, the bulk of what we’re given is the dynamic relationship between Maud and Amanda, the former a reborn devout Roman Catholic and the latter an atheist who feels embittered by her fate and admits to fearing death. Maud, seeing herself as a savior, sets out to redeem Amanda’s soul.
The film, at a brisk 83 minutes, dedicates much of its focus to the bond between Maud and Amanda, and it’s a fascinating exploration into religion, friendship, deception, delusion and so much more. Maud’s motives are far clearer than Amanda, as we’re often placed in Maud’s fantasy world where visions of angelic callings and holy signs from God reign free. As Maud and Amanda’s relationship grows and eventually deteriorates due to their clashing beliefs and actions, the film moves from dread into overwhelming shock, leading to a final 10 minutes that will have you at the edge of your seat. The final shot alone is one that you may find seared into your memory for quite some time.
But it’s all on account of the build-up, the aforementioned slow burn, where Glass carefully lays out her ingenious plans through the course of a compelling narrative that grips, astounds and provokes. Both Clark and Ehle’s performances are remarkable. Clark leads the film as an enigma that is equally puzzling yet sympathetic. You feel for Maud, living in her imaginative state, but there are also elements that lead you to realize just how real her hallucinations are to her. As Amanda, Ehle is deceptively sinister, crafting a character who is far less surface-level than Maud yet equally as fascinating. Together, they’re dynamite.
Genuinely unsettling and twistedly magnetic in its dread-soaked allure, Saint Maud makes the most of the journey it takes its viewers on, telling a story where we’re never quite sure where it will go until it’s too late and there’s no turning back. The abruptly ferocious final minutes of this film would be nothing without the wisely laid out trepidation that falls before them, and Glass proves herself a master of terror worth watching as she moves forth in her career. Saint Maud may leave a scar, and that’s a compliment.
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