I drove a long way to see this movie in a theater and it was easily worth it. An intimate and powerful look at a perfect storm of loneliness, mental illness and religious fervor. You could imagine it almost like throwing John the Revelator or some other religious visionary into modern urban life. It's really heartbreaking how many times things could have turned around for Katie, had she gotten emotional support from anywhere.
Rose Glass had great subtleties to her script and direction - the joke with the diegetic violin during Maud's descent back into isolation, for example, or the haunting shot of her standing in a shadowy corner as Amanda receives a birthday cake. Then the levy breaks big time at about the halfway point, and the film does not pull any punches the rest of the way. I had physical reactions in the theater for much of the 2nd half. The movie is scored brilliantly to project Maud's mental state, ranging from delicate, melancholy woodwinds, to thudding, malevolent growls that sound as though they could be from hell itself. A tight, contained thrill ride that's under 90 minutes, and one that's very thought provoking as someone who was raised devout Christian and has shared some of Maud's adult struggles.
If I were to sculpt a current 'Mt. Rushmore' of horror, it would be Midsommar, Hereditary, The Ring and Saint Maud.
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azuarc wasn't even home. he was playing Magic the Gathering at his buddy's store, which is extremely easy to verify