Fantastic Film Festival Australia Report 1: Two British Genre Filmmakers Make Their Debut

Australian genre film festival, FFFA 2020, has kicked off, and here at Film Inquiry we will be taking a look at the best the festival has to offer. First up are the debut features of two talented British directors.

Saint Maud (Rose Glass)

British director Rose Glass’ debut feature, Saint Maud, is a tale of unholy religion in the wickedness of contemporary life. Set in a grimly bleak Northern English seaside town, the film follows Morfydd Clark’s titular Maud, a newly pious nurse who believes she has an unusual (to say the least) connection with God. After a horrendous accident, she is tasked with caring for terminally ill ex-dancer Amanda (Jennifer Ehle), and Maud becomes dangerously obsessed with saving her patient’s soul.

Perhaps the most anticipated film from this inaugural Fantastic Film Festival Australia line-up is A24’s new horror. It is easy to see why the popular indie studio jumped at the chance to present this film as it fits nicely into their current stable of horror hits. There are definite similarities between Saint Maud and Hereditary and Midsommar in particular, with director Rose Glass appearing to have taken some cues from Ari Aster’s first two features. There’s less clichéd jump scares here than your usual by-the-numbers horror. Instead, like Aster, Glass is more interested in creating a lurking dread and a quiet intensity which builds throughout the story. She also looks to build deep themes into her work, in a similar way to how Aster likes to create and embed mythologies in his.

That is not to say Glass’ work is a pastiche. Rather it is very original. It’s an incredibly shot, immensely acted 83-minute ride. As Maud, Clark is the centre of every scene, and she delivers a show-stopping performance. She tilts between good and evil and, much like the audience who are clung so close to her by Glass’ camera, questions which path she is currently walking down. It’s an incredibly physical role, perhaps most similar to that of Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria in recent years, and Clark ensures her internal anguish or bliss is evident through her facial expressions and body movements.

We’ve seen many original horror films over the last decade, from It Follows to The VVitch, and like the very best of them, Saint Maud will be pored over again and again by horror fanatics. It has the stellar central performance from Clark, the unnerving score that ratchets the tension up, and it tackles the big themes in a new and subversive way. But most importantly when you can’t take the dread any longer and all hell breaks loose, the film does not hold back on going full bananas in the best possible way.

A Serial Killer’s Guide to Life (Staten Cousins Roe)

A Serial Killer’s Guide to Life is another debut feature from a British director who has honed their craft making shorts. This time it is Staten Cousins Roe, and his film focuses on Lou (Katie Brayben), a self-help addict, who agrees to join life coach Val (Poppy Roe) on a tour of self-discovery. As the title suggests, Val isn’t your usual self-help coach, and instead takes Lou on a comical murder spree across the British countryside.

Brayden and Roe, who both previously worked with Cousins Roe on the 2013 short The Way Out, turn in solid work, convincing as the innocent Lou and unhinged Val respectively. They make a great pair and they carry this swift British comedy with their easy chemistry.

Credit must be given also to director Cousins Roe, who is smart enough not to overstretch when it is not necessary. Guide to Life is shot on a shoestring budget, but it is never immediately obvious and it never effects the quality of the film. Cousins Roe keeps his focus on the relationship between Val and Lou instead of big set pieces, and the film is all the better for it. It is the dry, dark, quintessentially British humour that Roe and Brayden execute so well that is no doubt the film’s greatest strength.

When the action does begin, and the mallets, rolling pins and knives get swung, the no-frills simplicity matches well with the indie British feel of the film. Guide to Life feels a little like a distant cousin to the work of great British filmmaker Ben Wheatley in that way, and whilst it never reaches the heights of the similarly-themed Sightseers, it’s an admirable first attempt.

The story may not be the most surprising, but it’s fun enough being on this twisted journey with our protagonists that its lack of total originality is never a huge issue. It is an enjoyable if not ground-breaking debut feature from the director with two great turns from its leads.

Are you looking forward to the new horror from A24? Let us know in the comments below.

Check back soon for more reviews from the festival.

Find out more about Fantastic Film Festival Australia here.

Saint Maud will be released on April 3 2020 in the US and May 1 2020 in the UK. A Serial Killer’s Guide to Life is available now on digital platforms.