Why Saint Maud is a film that resonates in the present times

Saint Maud, the new British horror film, is about a traumatised and lonely girl who loses her job as a private carer. She finds solace in spirituality, but it can’t save her from her own psychological challenges. At any other time, it would be easier to chalk up Maud’s behaviour as tragic, but ultimately fringe oddity.

We aren’t living in regular times, however. The extraordinary turn seen in our collective lives this year has taken a toll on mental health. According to a BBC report, there’s expected to be a 20% rise in referrals to the NHS mental health services from the pre-coronavirus period. While the report doesn’t mention the exact causes, they aren’t hard to imagine. Pandemic distress, isolation and rising unemployment can all play a part in weighing people down.

I don’t know if the pandemic driven lockdowns inspired the film in any way or if it was already under production when Covid-19 hit. In any case, I think it may resonate more now than it probably would have in the past, even if it is quite extreme. The film starts with what looks like an ambiguous medical accident, which occurred while Maud was working as a nurse. Following this episode, she becomes a carer for Amanda, a former dancer, who is living out her final days with a terminal illness.

The women form an unlikely friendship. While Maud has taken to devout religiosity after leaving her former job and leads a solitary, austere life; Amanda is still living life to the fullest, replete with dressing up, despite her worsening state, friendships and overall enjoyment. Things take a turn for the worse when Maud tries to assume the role of Amanda’s ‘saviour’ by taking it a step too far. It all goes downhill for Maud from there.

There are multiple ways to try and understand Maud’s motivations, which makes it a piece of
cinema that you can churn in the mind long after having watched it. It is likely that Maud is just a misguided young girl looking for purpose. Equally likely is the fact that she is possessive about Amanda, and finds a religious justification for her behaviour. It’s also possible that Maud quite genuinely feels that she can save Amanda’s soul. Whatever way we look at it, her descent into her own belief system greys the line between spiritual revelations and a psychologically strained state. 

Interestingly, an exploration of this fine line is in line with questions that are being posed in the real world too. In 2013, the Daily Mail ran a headline saying ‘Spiritual people are more likely to be mentally ill’, based on a study by University College, London. The spiritual people it refers to are those that don’t have any ties with formal religious/spiritual groups. The NHS subsequently pointed out that correlation doesn’t imply causation. Among other things, it noted that people struggling with mental illness could come to have a spiritual understanding of life because of their seeking of alternative answers.

And this is the most unique aspect to Saint Maud as well - its exploration of how a belief system ties up with the mental condition. Not all those who are spiritual have mental conditions and vice-versa. In Maud’s case, however, it turns out by the end of the film that it could be so.

She believes that god communicates with her and directs her life’s purpose. The film proceeds with this line of thought, without judging her. She is seen as being overwhelmed by something happening inside her in more than one scene. Sometimes, she feels the presence of the divine entity and at other times she sees distorted faces projected when she looks at others. At yet others, she seems to go into undefined heightened states.

It can be speculated, however, that these may have something to do with Maud’s undiagnosed physical condition, which makes her clutch her stomach in pain. Or that it is linked with her psychological state. There’s no way of knowing, because much of the film is through Maud’s perspective.

Director, Rose Glass, said in one of her interviews that she’s inspired by some of Polanski’s and Scorsese’s works. Reviews of the film also draw parallels with Scrosese’s Taxi Driver, which takes the viewer through the protagonist’s lonely thoughts. The film is similar, and more. It also reminded me of Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 film, Black Swan, which also won Natalie Portman an Oscar.

Like in Black Swan, Maud is coiled tight as the movie starts. And when she comes in close contact with another woman who is the exact opposite of who she is, she first fiercely clings to her own sense of identity, then tries to convert the other and ultimately when that doesn’t work, and events pile up on top of each other, her downward spiral accelerates. Much like Portman’s Nina, she ultimately starts hallucinating with fatal consequences.

Unlike in the Black Swan, however, there is a lot of ambiguity, especially given her religious leanings. I think every viewer will interpret the film in their own way, depending on their belief systems. Watching the film to me, ultimately felt a bit like seeing some version of the Jerusalem syndrome play out, where people visiting the holy city come to believe that they are an incarnation of Jesus, or some other Biblical figure. Of course it is a temporary condition that subsides overtime. But then, who can say whether it is a person with a condition or Jesus’s second coming?

I did not find the film particularly scary, though it has a brilliant foreboding running throughout it. Morfydd Clark as Maud, and Jennifer Ehle as Amanda are pitch perfect as women at the opposite ends of the spectrum in more ways than one. That there is a lot to unpack in the film, despite its seemingly straightforward story is however, the biggest reason to watch the film.