The story
Maud, a home nurse, moves in with Amanda, a famous dancer weakened by the disease that keeps her cloistered in her huge house. Amanda is first intrigued by this strange young woman who is very religious, who distracts her. Maud is fascinated by her patient. But appearances are deceptive. (CriticalSense) 
Technical fact sheet
Director and Screenplay: Rose Glass Country of production: United Kingdom Genre: Horror thriller Duration: 83 minutes Release: 2019 Cast : Morfydd Clark, Jennifer Ehle
Impressions
Shocking, disturbing. Like many psychological films that claim to be horror, Saint Maud takes time to wake up. It's about making a whole atmosphere work that, alas, sometimes lasts too long, for the impact, often placed during the last half hour of a psychological horror film, to be more frightening. For a first film, Rose Glass was able to portray a very meticulous atmosphere and fully coordinated with the plot. But this search for perfection seems limited by a fear of missteps. As if the director knew the basics but did not dare to let go of her fantasies. It becomes a fairly flat screen that would have been happy with some small scares dotted in this solid but too transparent scenario. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeO4ILdEuzA The influences of other films of the genre are felt, a bit as if we had drawn right and left. Carrie, The Exorcist or Grip, where Bil Paxton says he is charged by God to destroy demons. The story is based on three subjects inherent in human questions, in our primal fears: religion (and what flows from it), addiction and that old age that awaits the least of mortals. This interaction with the viewer could definitely be the film's savior point. We appeal to our emotions. We could even identify with this woman "who was" and who struggles to maintain her dignity. Or to this fervent young woman who believes she is a delegate of an ultimate goal. The latter, a nursing assistant, is a mixture of Carrie and Carrie's mother all by herself. Heavy burden for such small shoulders. The feeling of numbness intensifies as you capture a frame without too many surprises. It seems that it is fashionable to explore several key topics in the same film, as is the case with the last Almodovar. Here a young woman who falls in love with the person she cares for, is possessed by a mysterious entity that likes to take her footing. We do not really know what feeling it is but their relationship is very ambiguous. 
This could hide something even more terrifying than the voiceover that gives him orders. The mistreatment of certain members of the nursing staff towards dependent people? The emphasis on those people who want to help others so much that they only impose their own vision of aid? Amanda, alone and terminally ill, needs companionship, to be treated with dignity in the last moments of her life. She doesn't want Maud's obsessive goal of saving her. But since she is so dependent, she can only suffer. A blatant parallel with the dangerous relationship that can develop between the caregiver and the fragile person in his care. Is this film a denunciation? To believe. Or maybe. Saint Maud will not leave you indifferent. If we ignore a rather subtle clumsiness and the detachment of Maud's ground, the film will manage to captivate our attention and give us some chills.
