Saint Maud (16, 84mins) Directed by Rose Glass ½ Now this is more like it. After a dismal diet of spooky house, serial killer and seaside rental horrors during the past year, here’s something truly visually arresting, unsettling and downright nightmare-inducing. Of course, the only disappointment is that this critically-acclaimed, double Bafta-nominated crowdpleaser has bypassed Kiwi cinemas, especially when its breakout star is currently making more than just a “Tolkien” visit to our shores. The success of
Saint Maud though, isn’t just down to a truly committed, breathtaking performance from Swedish-born Welsh actress Morfydd Clark, it’s also a testament to the bravura film-making skills of writer-director Rose Glass, making her feature film debut. From the atmospheric score to the clever, sometimes claustrophobic framing, off-kilter camera angles and sometimes haunting imagery,
Religion and horror are hardly novel bedfellows, but writer-director Rose Glass crafts something fresh out of the construct in her promising debut “Saint Maud.” The film follows the psychological undoing