Saint Maud ★★★½

ONE of the best horror film directing debuts of recent years is 2019’s Saint Maud.

If you like your horror disturbing and psychological then Rose Glass’s first film is made for you.

A nurse named Katie fails to save the life of a patient in her care. Racked by guilt, she turns to Catholicism.

Some time later Katie, who now calls herself Maud after her favourite saint, is working in private palliative care in an English seaside town.

She is assigned to care for Amanda, a former dancer and choreographer from the United States who is terminally ill.

Despite Amanda being an atheist she sees impressed by Maud’s confidence in her faith. The two women slowly bond.

Maud comes to believe that God has tasked her with saving Amanda’s soul. Maud claims God sometimes visits her and starts trying to influence aspects of Amanda’s life, including Amanda’s relationship with a younger woman.

Glass quietly increases the tension in her story to the point where Maud’s psychosis has severe impacts with a climax that will disturb and haunt the viewer for some time.

The overcast weather and austere indoor locations help build focus on the characters, in particular the inner demons that are tearing Maud apart.

Morfydd Clark as Katie/Maud and Jennifer Ehle as Amanda are both excellent. Their scenes together are thought-provoking, suspenseful and charged with emotion.

At the British Academy Film Awards, Glass was nominated for Outstanding British Film and Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer.

It’s a significant achievement.

Watched on Apple TV.