Saint Maud (2019) | 31 Days of Horror: Oct 10

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Then there’s Saint Maud. That uncompromisin’, enterprisin’, anything but tranquilizin’, right on Maud!

A24 week continues with Saint Maud, a tragic tale of a pious young caregiver who loses faith  and then loses her mind. It’s another horrific tale that is about the evil within us all.

Before Viewing

This film appears to be about a young woman who is a private nurse to a wealthy socialite. She is teased and called “a saint” by this woman, but rejects the attention. Meanwhile she has a devotion to Jesus Christ that goes far beyond simply praying the rosary and going to church. She places needles into her shoe before going out, possibly as a form of penance. Her religious frenzy seems to make her more of an outsider, but may also have some supernatural component to it as well. It’s time for another A24 film on 31 Days of Horror.

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

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After Viewing

Maud (Morfydd Clark), a nurse, sits in shock in a corner while a dead patient is on a nearby gurney. Sometime later she takes a new job as a private carer for an ex-dancer and socialite Amanda Kohl (Jennifer Ehle), who is dying of lymphoma. A male friend of Amanda’s comes over and Maud leaves the house, but is soon called back due to Amanda getting sloppy drunk. Maud begins to grow closer to Amanda and admits that sometimes she feels God within her, warm and good, pulsating. She reassures Amanda about her impending death, that things will be fine.

After praying and having one of her ecstatic embraces (which connotes orgasm), Maud realizes God’s plan for her is to save Amanda’s soul. Later that night Amanda’s friend Carol (Lily Frazer) visits. Maud tries to turn her away as it is so late, but Carol claims she is expected. Maud sees her leaving the next morning with a wad of cash in her hand. Later at lunch Maud shares a nice moment with Amanda as they both feel God’s warm embrace.

Amanda presents Maud with a book of William Blake art signed to “my Saviour,” which has a lot of religious imagery in it, intriguing Maud. The next morning, after seeing Carol and Amanda having sex together, Maud confronts Carol, telling her to leave Amanda alone. Maud says Amanda has much to do, and must focus on her final journey, and not the silly intimacy. Maud feels proud of her intervention. Later at a birthday party for Amanda, which Carol returns to, Amanda publicly embarasses Maud. The caregiver angered, slaps her employer on the face, obviously getting fired.

Maud meets Joy (Lily Knight), a nurse that knows her as “Katie,” on the street of the town. She suggests that they hang out some time. Maud begins to question God’s Love and His plan for her. She decides to get drunk in a local bar. She has an intimate encounter with a young man in the back hallway, before going home with a large man. They have intercourse, but Maud hallucinates that she kills the man with CPR (much like the woman at the beginning of the film).

Dejected, Maud stumbles home and prays to God to guide her. She has a massive seizure and is raised into the air as if by an invisible hand. The next morning she puts tacks in her show as a form of penance, and wanders the town obsessing about Amanda. She sees her former employer with her new caregiver, who both seem happy outside of the house. God speaks to Maud one evening and tells her his plan.

Dressing up in a sheet that resembles a robe, Maud walks to Amanda’s house full of purpose. She confronts Amanda that she must believe in God after their previous encounter. Amanda confesses that it was just a ruse and, with her voice turning demonic, renounces Maud and her beliefs. Maud stabs Amanda with a pair of scissors and stumbles out of the house. She wanders to the beach and douses herself with acetone before setting herself on fire. The onlookers kneel in reverent awe before her, as tears stream down her cheeks. The final image of the film is Maud engulfed in flames, flesh searing, screaming.

“No one sees what they don’t want to” – Amanda

As the third film in a week-long watch of films produced by A24 Studios, Saint Maud seems to extend the ideologies begun with The Witch and continued in The Blackcoat’s Daughter. These films show a progression of female protagonists that are surrounded by crazy people, might be crazy themselves, and here, one that is certainly off her pulpit. As the first full length film by writer/director Rose Glass, Saint Maud presents a traumatized and unhinged protagonist who serves also as the antagonist. Her journey, which is filled with potentially supernatural phenomena, turns out to be nothing more than the inside of a disturbed mind. While the supernatural elements of the previous A24 films might be questionable in their reality, Maud’s connections to God and His power appear to be from Maud’s own inner monologue.

The unreliable narrator is in full effect in this film. Maud narrates portions of the film, sharing her thoughts–as prayers–to the audience. As a woman traumatized by the loss of a patient, Maud shows the character arc of someone looking for guidance spiritually (and internally), when she definitely should have been seeking outside counseling. What makes her character engaging and interesting to watch is the audience is unsure of what happened in her past. A brief opening shot depicts the dead patient, but it’s unclear whether Maud (Katie, at the time) killed the patient, or was trying to save them. Her piousness presumes that she is of good heart. And the film is called Saint Maud, indicating that she is the protagonist. Audiences might assume that her faith will be tested by some trial, which is true in a certain way.

Having Maud switch to being the antagonist of the film is unique in the realm of horror. Other films might present multiple characters in the part of the protagonists, which sometimes has one of them turn out to be an antagonist, such as with The Blackcoat’s Daughter. But having the main character devolve to a point that they become the evil in the world is rare. As with any of the best villains in film, Maud doesn’t believe that she is doing anything wrong. From her perspective she is saving souls and doing what is best for Amanda. Yet it’s all still a bit presumptuous. Her change in faith was brought on within the last year, after a traumatic event in her life. That pendulum swing between sinning and being born again feels like too much of a drastic course correction for the character to be telling anyone else how to live their life. But maybe that’s the point. The recently “saved” might feel they are in a better position to tell others how to be saved themselves (however inaccurate or hypocritical that may be).

Director Glass does an excellent job setting up Maud as a properly religious individual. One that might actually be able to hear the word of God. But what is Maud hearing? It seems different from her inner-voice, as that is heard by the audience when Maud is praying. Her description of God being with her, “pulsing” and “warm and good,” could describe many feelings. Some of Maud’s “events” are portrayed as orgasmic, while other times it’s like a seizure. By the end of the film it’s clear that there is something wrong with Maud’s brain.The audience is presented with Maud lighting herself on fire only to see passersby kneel down in reverence at “Saint” Maud. It’s only the final second of the film, with its blood curdling jump scare, that audiences see the truth of what is happening; which is Maud self immolating.

Saint Maud is a horror film different from the vast majority of other films being reviewed this month. Like The Shining, it’s a film about the devolution of an individual. But where other films use external forces controlling the character, Maud’s pathology is all within her own head. She is a traumatized individual which may or may not have trauma beyond the incident seen at the start of the film. She earnestly wants to affect a positive change in her life, but is unable to cope with the backlash that she receives as being a very religious-forward person in a secular world. The film serves as a reminder, both to those that practice religion and those that chose to forego it. Pushing individual beliefs on others to conform to your level of morality or spirituality can have detrimental effects, and is also just rude. Maud crosses a threshold with her employer, but Amanda is just as guilty in goading Maud further down a dark path.

Assorted Musings

• Morfydd Clark has gone on to play the much more revered character of young Galadriel in the prequel series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
• As Maud looks through Amanda’s poster early in the film, the first one has a subtle “666” in the lower part of the frame. This number is often associated with the antichrist as the number of the Beast.
• The chilling final jump scare, showing Maud screaming in anguish, lasts exactly one second.