Horror Movies Have Long Preyed on Female BodiesSaint Maud Changes That – Vogue.com

I lost my appetite for horror movies last year. Maybe the reasons are too obvious to point out, but its still a little curious to mebecause Ive always watched scary movies, for pleasure, for relaxation, no matter what was going on in the world. Horror offers a very specific kind of escapism, one perhaps best not examined too closely by those of us who enjoy itbut whatever those pleasures are or where they come from, they all but disappeared for me amid the (all too real) horrors of 2020.

As did theaters of course, and maybe thats the explanation right there. Horror at home, on the small screen, just isnt the same as the collective thrill of a crowded, darkened cinema. In fact, the very last time I set foot in a theater (it was a screening room, not the same thing) was to see a kind of horror film, Saint Maud, the mesmerizing debut feature from a 31-year-old British filmmaker named Rose Glass. That was last March and Saint Maud had attracted buzz on the film festival circuit and was set for an April release. Then the lockdowns hit and the release was pushed, and pushed again. Its only now playing in theaterswhere theaters are openand will come to Epix on February 12th.

See it. Even if, like me, youve lost your appetite for horrorbecause Saint Maud is the perfect post-horror horror movie. Meaning its as empathetic as it is disturbing, as gorgeous to look at as it is joltingly indelible. Its a film about warring realities, about delusiontimely subjects in 2021and is imbued with darkness end to end, but youre never going to leap out of your chair. The violence is pretty minimal. I dont want to call it gentleyou wont soon forget Saint Maud (especially the ending)but you can take it.

It tells the story of an isolated, introverted hospice nurse played by Morfydd Clark (insanely good) who is hired to care for a once-famous dancer named Amanda (Jennifer Ehle, sexy, imperious, doing an impeccable American accent) dying of cancer. Were in one of those dreary English seaside towns where the sun never comes out and the beachside attractions, pubs included, have long been drained of all glamour. Maud has had a violent episode while working at a hospitalnever fully explainedfrom which she has emerged pious and locked-down. Amanda, on the other hand, is an atheist and a troublemaker, and especially ruthless when it comes to younger women obsessing over herwhich Maud promptly does.

More here:
Horror Movies Have Long Preyed on Female BodiesSaint Maud Changes That - Vogue.com