Studio A24 has now become well-renowned for bringing unique, original movies to the cinema screen like last year's Midsommar. They are also garnering a solid reputation for introducing genuinely bone-chilling horror to audiences and influencing nightmares everywhere. This looks to be continuing with their upcoming psychological horror movie, Saint Maud, for which a new trailer has just been released.

The movie follows the titular Maud, who is a reclusive young nurse whose impressionable demeanor causes her to pursue a pious path of Christian devotion after an obscure trauma. Now charged with the hospice care of Amanda, a retired dancer ravaged by cancer, Maud's fervent faith quickly inspires an obsessive conviction that she must save her ward's soul from eternal damnation, whatever the cost.

Saint Maud is the directorial debut of Rose Glass, and stars Love & Friendship's Morfydd Clark stars as Maud, with Tony and BAFTA-winning actress Jennifer Ehle from The Miseducation of Cameron Post as Amanda. Starring alongside them is Lily Knight, Lily Frazer, Turlough Convery, Rosie Sansom, Marcus Hutton, Carl Prekopp, and Noa Bodner.

The new promo evokes the likes of a variety of much-beloved horror classics, as well as some more modern movies such as 2013's Under the Skin and even A24's own horrifying smash-hits Hereditary and The Witch. In between eerily creepy shots from the movie, the promo is also loaded with rave reviews, with various critics heaping praise on Saint Maud. One critic's summary that appears in large, stark letters describes the movie as a "Nerve-shredding psychological horror". Another says the movie "Feels like a slowly tightening noose". Finally, the movie "Promises endless nightmares", which certainly sounds like the kind of experience we have come to expect from A24. Saint Maud is already sitting at a very fresh 91 percent on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 23 reviews.

So far, everything about the movie sounds very promising indeed, and it is always a morbid pleasure to have a genuinely terrifying horror movie on the cinematic horizon. The movie premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival and has already won a special film prize in the U.K. backed by the British Film Institute back in October. The jury was led by director Danny Boyle, who described Glass as "an extraordinary talent and powerful storyteller" and also spoke about the movie itself.

"Striking, affecting and mordantly funny at times, its confidence evokes the ecstasy of films like Carrie, The Exorcist, and Jonathan Glazer's Under the Skin. Her skill in successfully incorporating original elements to a genre story and finding new ways to offer audiences a thrilling cinematic journey through madness, faith and death signifies Glass as a true original."

Saint Maud is scheduled to be released in the United States on March 27, 2020. This comes to us courtesy of the A24 Youtube Channel.

Saint Maud (2020) - movie poster