I’m very much on the edge on this movie. I didn’t “get it”… I don’t feel like I saw the tense, taut, thoughtful suspense/horror movie every one else did. I saw a slow, ponderous, plodding film that has occasional creepy, unsettling, unnerving moments. And the last fifteen minutes were kind of amazing… and no matter how ground down the first half of the movie was, I’ll be thinking about it for days. And that counts for something.

Saint Maud is about a devout (overly devout, as it turns out) caregiver who looks after a dying former dancer. She thinks the dancer is hedonistic and tries to help her spiritually but is rebuffed. Maud starts to lose grip on reality in her religious fervor… or, if you read the movie another way, starts to connect with the divine. Or the infernal.

I’d say the acting is fine and the film making works… I don’t think the film is ever anything but exactly what the writer/director wanted. I’m just afraid what she was going for was lost on me. The necessity to fill a ninety minute runtime is the culprit. This would have made a great short film.

I fully believe there’s an audience for this film (as evidenced by all the positive reviews) so I’ll just chalk this up as a miss for this guy. Mostly a miss. But also partly a hit too. There’s enough here to give a tentative recommendation.

Score: 75