A lot of things about the world changed in 2020. For A24, that meant releasing their lowest level of output to date. While they assisted in helping to legitimize AppleTV+, they also missed awards season and had to move other titles around the docket. As 2021 approached, theaters were opening back up and it was business as usual. The first title to celebrate this return was one that had originally been intended for an April 2020 release. Rose Glass’ debut Saint Maud (2021) was a horror film in which a woman deals with loneliness and a complicated relationship with faith. Given recent events, it felt a bit on the nose. Even then, it proved to be effective, continuing the studio’s eye for quality indie horror that truly left a mark.
The story begins somewhere around 2014. Glass was working on her M.A. at the National Film and Television School. As she was graduating, she had this idea of exploring a woman’s relationship to voices in her head. Having been raised Catholic, she had a curious relationship with faith that emerged in her adult years. She became intrigued by how certain behaviors can tie someone to cults or develop mental illness. A lot of factors came into play as she eventually determined that the story she wanted to tell would center around two symbolic healers: a nun and a nurse. The titular Maud is new to faith and it’s not clear if she’s actually devout or if it’s something approaching delusions. During interviews, Glass suggested that this was similar to Joan of Arc’s story, of which later researchers claim that she might’ve been suffering from an embolism.
The idea took a while to take hold. Before finding the bigger idea, she had settled on making comedic shorts with her friends. By the time of Saint Maud, she had attended film school and wanted to strike more of a balance. This meant that despite dark subject matter there would be scenes of levity and awkwardness woven in. What may be the most interesting part of the crafting portion of the journey is that Glass hadn’t written it as a horror film. It wasn’t until she had shown her script to someone that they suggested it fit within the genre. Given that films like The Exorcist (1973) explored a corrupted view of faith, it made sense for Rose to lean into things.
One of the key details that came with painting Maud’s portrait wasn’t to make her predictable. She was in a high-stress job as a nurse, which meant that she was constantly exposed to traumatic patients. In interviews, Glass noted that she had a nurse friend who she would get notes from. Among the more horrific was the story of the friend helping a patient in cardiac arrest in which his staples became loose midway through her procedure. The good news is that the friend liked the film. She would also draw inspiration from portraits by Henry Fuseli which were very dark and supernatural. Similarly, she borrowed inspiration from Cindy Sherman’s “Film Stills” series which she believed reflected the interiority of women.
From there, it was important to help paint the duality between Maud and her patient. While some could read it as a stereotypical “repressed urges” queer story, Glass desired a story more defined by a more platonic bond. They grow closer together, but it may just be because Maud is seeking to redeem her. She speaks to the unseen character of God who doesn’t have an audio appearance until the closing stretch. While God was said to have played a bigger role in the earlier drafts, they were whittled down for dramatic impact. Similarly, the patient was said to be much older initially but slowly grew younger to allow for a more interesting dynamic among women of contemporary environments.
A major complaint that the film would receive is that despite centralizing around faith, there isn’t a lot of specificity. It’s also there in the mental illness depiction. Glass claims that she avoided specificity in order to help make the film more subjective. Had she chosen passages from the bible or said Maud suffered an embolism, she believed that it would deter the impact. However, actress Morfydd Clark said that she related to Maud because she was neurodiverse and, in an alternate world, could’ve been her. Glass was hyper-aware of not giving into familiar tropes, even claiming to avoid making Maud’s rape plot line into a revenge fantasy.
With small tweaks here and there, Saint Maud was completed by 2019. Of the most noteworthy, the aspect ratio changed. She had shot it as 1.66:1 in order to add more darkness around the actors and make them appear taller. However, this was changed in post with the help of digital effects and altered to the more conventional 2.39:1.
It would have its world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival in September of that year to mostly great reviews. Given that Clark had two additional releases at the festival, it helped to catapult her reputation and have critics praise her versatility. It was here that A24 and Studio Canal acquired the rights for distribution. As prizes racked up, it also received praise from other filmmakers like Wash Westmoreland and Danny Boyle for how hauntingly it updated the possessed woman plot line. Everything was shaping up for a proper release in April 2020. A24 had major plans for it and wasn’t going to budge. However, the COVID-19 pandemic closed theaters and made it risky to release anything before a public audience. Desiring to release it on the big screen, A24 withdrew it from their 2020 line-up in America. It would receive a late 2020 release in The U.K. but wouldn’t make an appearance stateside until January 2021. It was here that it earned a respectable $1.6 million at the box office.
The love for the film wasn’t just among filmmakers. According to critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, the film would earn a 92% approval rating. Aja Romano of Vox led the cheers by suggesting, “St. Maud marks a stunning feature film debut for writer-director Rose Glass. Understated yet opulent, measured, and intensely creepy, it's a tour de force in balancing uncomfortable levels of tension and suspense with deep pathos.” Dallas King of Flick Feast shared the sentiment when claiming, “Similar to the voice in the head of Saint Maud that guides her, there is a new voice in British horror that will cause people to stand up and pay attention. That voice is Rose Glass. Whose debut feature is a bone-chilling masterpiece.” The few who disagreed included Richard Brody of New Yorker who detested, “In providing the jolts that Maud's terrifying actions and fantasies provoke rather than the taut and complex web of life that they wrench apart, the movie suggests less interest in Maud than in images of Maud which, as a result, feel nearly empty.” Overall, the film had a solid fan base, even ending up on critics’ Best of 2021 lists, including David Ehrlich’s Top 10. The film would go on to earn two BAFTA nominations.
For a film that was met with some pushback less from controversy and more situation, it was a miracle that Saint Maud became the hit that it did. Following a solid theatrical run, it appeared on streaming and Epix where it found more of an audience. Some have even suggested that Kendrick Lamar’s “N95” music video pays tribute to the film’s finale. With the buzz around Glass reaching a fever pitch, she announced that she was working on more projects. As of 2023, it has been said that she’s doing another A24 film, this time collaborating with Kristen Stewart. Little is known about it at the time of this publication.
All in all, Saint Maud proved to be the best way to get people excited about cinema again. After a strange and meandering 2020, A24 was ready to return to their game of releasing as many surprises as they could. By subverting the familiar, they managed to find a new name to add to their horror line-up. Then again, things were only getting started. While none of their 2020 films would make it to Oscar Night, there was one major contender that remained on the horizon. Due to some law changes, Minari (2021) would find A24 joining the race in a late edition hit that was a favorite with audiences and critics. Their 2021 may have only been a month old, but it was shaping up to be another great year.
Coming Up Next: Minari (2023)
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