Saint Maud

Much like a high school essay padded to meet the length requirement, this is a perfunctory "discussion" of religious fanaticism as mental illness that was dragged out to the point of nonsensical tedium. So it can be posited that it succeeds on that front as reflecting its topic via its poor and pretentious crafting. Eighty minutes of dark static shots - occasionally accented with droning sound effects or the most minimal musical score. Mumblecore dialogue on the part of the main actress. Joyless pacing and color palette. Yes, it makes the viewer very uneasy but with zero pay-off. Even the seaside ending was a yeah-yeah-just-get-it-over-with moment. Avoid. It's soul-crushingly superficial.

I'll give it an ok for spooky setting and cinematography but that's it, highly predictable extremely boring drama absolutely NO horror, I guess 5 minutes of thriller but ALL DRAMA and I hate dramas I'm bummed out cause i waited all this time spent 40 euros to buy this steelbook from the UK just to be bored!! You think at my age I'd have learned. But I cant go to the theater 1st before I buy right now so I'll get some duds like this OVERRATED slow burn drama. TRUST me wait for Netflix.

Here's another one I've previously heard a lot of good things about: SAINT MAUD (2019), a slow-burning slice of British horror about a young nurse whose latest role is as a caregiver to a terminally ill former dancer. As the plot slowly unfolds, it turns out the nurse is a committed Christian who believes her client's soul is in danger and who'll subsequently do anything to save her. Not a bad set-up there, but as it turns out this is a horror film for people who don't really like horror; in other words, there's not really much of it around. I spent the whole of the running time awaiting the inevitable plot twist, which was saved for the last five minutes, and it all felt fairly obvious and ordinary in its execution. It's one of those modern films that's constantly dark and dreary, shot in rainy Scarborough with a depressing look and feel to it. The actors aren't bad, particularly Jennifer Ehle who I've always liked since seeing her in THE CAMOMILE LAWN a few decades ago, but the script is dire and the religious stuff quite turgid and dull. Like THE BABADOOK I saw this over-advertised as the "scariest movie ever" and like that one I fail to see the fuss. I'm afraid that as a character study I found this quite the bore.

Not sure what everyone is talking about in terms of this being a psycho religious horror but I felt this was quite disappointing and poor. It almost felt like a student's half year project when they ran out of ideas but had to put something together and drag the story along.