Rose Glass' disturbing directorial debut Saint Maud blends deeply unnerving atmospherics, psychologically scarring chills, starkly unsettling body horror imagery, and a thrilling final sequence sure to instill stone-cold shivers long after the credits close.
The inherent beauty of Saint Maud, beyond its suspensefully absorbing score and dread-inducing cinematography, is that events are, in large part, left open to interpretation. We never quite know, for instance, if the harrowing scenes we witness are mere mental manifestations of Maud's seemingly devout fanaticism or perhaps more profoundly, they convey miracles of divine intervention.
As events in Maud's life spiral out of control, her relationship with faith takes a radically obsessive twist. Increasingly, she finds herself searching for purpose and spiritual salvation amidst a world full of hopelessness and despair.
From beginning to end, Saint Maud makes for an utterly captivating watch. Not least, because of the suffocating sense of doom that smoothers each scene. Petrifying to palpable degrees, Saint Maud sets a visually oppressive and uncompromising tone that slowly sinks its teeth into the psyche over time.
Further still, thanks to a series of sinisterly effective scares, ranging from sudden facial distortions to bodily levitation, Rose Glass has somehow managed to meld together foreboding atmospherics with eerily dynamic chills that leave a lasting bite.
Wish to sample more A24 Horror movies? Check out our chilling dissection of Ari Aster's freaky folklorish tale Midsommar & ARI ASTER'S harrowing HEREDITARY.
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