Saint Maud: A damning indictment of societal collapse

Saint Maud from debut director Rose Glass might be advertised as another jump-scare horror film, but in reality it’s a complex allegory and at its core, a damning indictment of our society. (Warning – spoilers ahead!)

Maud (whose real name is Katie) is a young woman who started her a career as a palliative care nurse at St Afra’s hospital. We later find out she lived a promiscuous lifestyle during this time, using sex as a temporary outlet for her stressful job and loneliness. After a traumatic incident, which it’s inferred is the result of overwork and lack of support, she loses her job and starts working for a rich private client (Amanda) who is dying from cancer.

After losing her first job, Katie is left isolated in a cockroach infested bedsit without a support network, and begins her transformation (or descent) into Maud (which means ‘powerful battler’). She becomes a devout Catholic who believes she can speak to God directly (he speaks Welsh, of course). According to Maud, Amanda is living in sin as a lesbian and must be redeemed before she dies. Maud is mocked by Amanda’s friends for her exaggerated religious devotion, which is seen as an anachronism in our debauched, secular society. After being relentlessly taunted by Amanda, she lashes out and loses another job, which is her only connection to other people.

Further loneliness and isolation only exacerbate her mental illness, and she descends into full blown psychosis – believing that through physical pain and suffering she can get closer to God. Her odd behaviour is of course overlooked by strangers – emphasising the lack of community in today’s society. Those without friends or family are simply forgotten and left to fend for themselves. A former colleague reaches out half-heartedly, but still no action is taken to get Maud the help she needs.

Eventually this leads to a dramatic conclusion, as Maud believes Amanda is the devil and stabs her repeatedly with some scissors. Then there is the catastrophic spectacle and finale of Maud’s self-immolation on the beach of this bleak seaside town. Bystanders only notice her when it’s too late.

This is the tragic story of mental illness going unchecked, resulting in murder and suicide. This happens every day in our society – year on year cuts to mental health services mean there is very little support available for those in need. Waiting lists for counselling can take months, but early intervention is exactly what’s needed to prevent this sort of tragedy. Maud’s story is even more timely today, considering the countless traumatic experiences that many of our NHS workers will have had over the past year. Are they getting the mental health support they need now? What do you think?

While Western society is heavily criticised here as a Babylon of the modern world, with our lack of community, moral values, cuts to vital services, alcohol dependence, abandonment of the most vulnerable etc – organised religion doesn’t get off lightly either. I wasn’t surprised to find that Rose Glass went to a Catholic convent school. Her fluency in Catholic dogma and iconography is clear to see. The name of Maud’s former employer, St Afra, is particularly significant. St Afra was a prostitute who converted to Christianity, which mirrors Katie’s transformation into Maud. Under Roman emperor Diocletian she is said to have been condemned to death by fire for her beliefs, as she refused to sacrifice to the pagan gods. Christianity endorses this type of martyrdom – the world’s most famous martyr himself is used as a marketing tool to convert people.

“Saint Maud is sacrificed on the altar of NHS cuts and a society on the brink of collapse”

Aside from the many religious analogies at play, the bigger message here is that Saint Maud is sacrificed on the altar of NHS cuts and a society on the brink of collapse. We experience Maud’s psychosis – see what she sees, and how frightening it must be to lose your grip on reality. We see she’s not a monster, and in fact psychosis could happen to any of us given the right circumstances – traumatic experiences at work, lack of a support network and a genetic predisposition are all that’s needed. As more and more of us experience these contributing factors – how long will the ‘social contract’ last, before civilization descends into chaos?