Rose Glass discusses the horror influences of ‘Saint Maud’
Rose Glass’ feature-length directorial debut, Saint Maud, was another perfect blend of religion and horror, those two contrasting elements that just seem to marry so well together. The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2019 and was released a year later.
The film tells the story of a Christian nurse named Maud (played by Morfydd Clark) who is sent to look after a terminally ill patient called Amanda, who lives something of an opulent life despite her illness and ridicules Maud’s devout faith.
While discussing the film’s tale, Glass told Bloody Disgusting: “I wasn’t interested in telling the story of a young woman who gets embroiled in a community of religious people. Technically yes, there are Christian building blocks, but she’s essentially created her own. It’s as much about self-care and survival and making sense of the world as about faith, I guess. The more she becomes detached from reality, the more it becomes dangerous.”
While making her film, Glass took inspiration from classic horrors such as Roman Polanski’s Repulsion, Rosemary’s Baby, and Ken Russell’s The Devils. Certainly, this is where Saint Maud gets its visual style, language and tone from. However, Glass also noted “things like [Martin Scorsese’s] Taxi Driver, but that’s not a horror film.”
Ambiguity also plays a key role in Saint Maud. Seeing as Maud is a new convert to the Christian faith, she seemingly picks from its teachings as she sees fit. Glass said, “The relationship between Maud and God is where the whole story originated from. Originally, you heard the voice of God more, and it was a whole fleshed-out character, but I became more interested in exploring that through Maud’s perspective. I wanted her relationship with God to be tangible and relatable in a weird sort of way. I know it’s weird, but her faith is not a cerebral, psychological, or theological thing. It’s an instinctual, sensual one.”
Maud interestingly interacts with God through the medium of a cockroach in her flat. Glass claimed that the cockroach ended up being called Nancy, and Nancy became of her favourite plot devices and characters in the film. She said, “Nancy’s my hero; she’s my favourite cast member, outside of Morfydd maybe.”
She added, “We tried some shots where Jennifer [Ehle, who plays Amanda] is talking to Morfydd with Nancy crawling around on a pillow next to her. In the end, it didn’t work. It looked like a half-baked idea, which it was. We ended up cutting Nancy out. But later on, I realised I needed a scene where God kind of appears to Maud later on, and we had to decide what form God would take. I knew exactly who to call.”
