St. Agatha

I've got mixed feelings about Darren Lynn Bousman as a director: I enjoyed the heck out of Mother's Day (2010) and Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008), and I liked his segment for Tales of Halloween (2015), but his Saw films are some of the weaker entries in the franchise, and I absolutely hated The Devil's Carnival (2012) and Alleluia! The Devil's Carnival (2016).

Initially, St. Agatha looks set to be another high point on his resumé, with an eerie set-up, solid performances, and some noteworthy scenes of nastiness (including a woman forced to eat her own vomit and another made to cut out her own tongue); however, the film takes a serious nosedive as it nears the final act with preposterous plot developments that simply don't ring true.

The film takes place in 1950s Georgia: Mary becomes pregnant out of wedlock and, with her boyfriend Jimmy (Justin Miles), a musician about to go on tour, she takes herself to the Sisters of Divinity Convent, which cares for 'fallen' women; however, it soon becomes obvious that there is something very strange going on at the convent, the doors and windows securely locked at night, the other women afraid to talk. Over time, Mary realises that the mother superior (Carolyn Hennesy, giving a truly chilling performance) is a total psycho, ruling the convent with fear and violence, aided by nuns almost as demented as she is.

When Mary revolts, she is locked in a coffin, force-fed (like a baby bird - yuck!) and repeatedly told that she is no longer Mary, but Agatha. When Mary finally acquiesces, 'Agatha' is released, and is told to send Jimmy packing when he pays her a visit (one of the nuns has a gun trained on the man, in case Mary/Agatha doesn't do as she is instructed). However, Mary's will isn't really broken - she's just waiting for the right time to make her escape.

And this is where the film starts to fall down with some spectacularly bad writing...

After discovering the dead body of Jimmy in the convent, Mary is permitted to call the police, the mother superior content that no-one will believe her. Rather than explain to the policeman what has happened in a calm and rational manner, Mary rants incoherently, thereby affirming the mother superior's story about the young woman's delusional state. The cop dismisses Mary's claims that Jimmy is dead, even though it wouldn't be too hard to check if he has disappeared. Cops sure are dumb in horror films.

But it gets worse. In an admittedly suspenseful scene, Mary sneaks out of her room and steals all of the convent's money (made by selling the women's babies to rich donors); she then proceeds to pay the mother superior's hitherto loyal nun assistants, and the dodgy doctor who delivers the babies, to betray their leader - an extremely risky move on Mary's part given how duplicitous they have been in the past. Luckily, all of them happily take the cash and stay true to their word, locking the mother superior in the coffin. Having dealt with their boss, they all partake in a refreshing glass of water and drop down dead, the drinks laced with rat poison. All of this stretched plausibility too far for me, a shame given how it was going so well for much of the running time.

Certainly nothing to write home about, but it did keep me intrigued. It's slow moving, and works up to a pretty gruesome ending. No surprise twists, and the acting is ok with a very solid performance by Carolyn Hennessy. It kind of wants to be a spin off of AHS Asylum, but doesn't quite make it. Flawed at best, I still felt like it was worth the watch. I found myself drawn toward most of the characters, despite a weak script. Give it a shot. Your might like it!

Had read very bad reviews bah it n even the ratings weren't convincing but I had hope in Bousman. The plot - A pregnant con woman seeks asylum in an isolated convent run by a bunch of outcast nuns. The woman's backstory is told through flashbacks. It doesn't take much longer to reveal to us that the nuns r short of cash, their donors r limited, they r very extreme in their torture methods but somehow they do have a doctor always ready. The set up is 50's n therefore one shouldn't question the plausibility. But what really bugs me is the rushed up ending. Although ther is decent tension maintained n the ominous music helps but the suspense is zero n the ending meh. Carolyn Hennesy as Mother Superior is top notch.

Darren Lynn Bousman has had some rough years as a director, yet his previous works, in my opinion, stand higher than this one.

"St. Agatha", as a horror, offers nothing new, original, amazing, extraordinary or even good. The writers responsible for the story and characters definitely do not deserve nor applause nor a subtle nod, maybe a little shaming. The story's fairly straight-forward, never builds up to anything unexpected, the suggested supernatural angle of the plot is not explored or explained much at all. The protagonist characters are traditionally dumb, the antagonist characters are sort of over-written, even annoying at some points. However, the acting did not bother me, given the variety of weakly written characters, the level of acting in "St. Agatha" is rather impressive.

Cinematography is decent, noticeably low-budget, but good enough to not annoy the eye of the viewer. There are a few decent, scattered scenes of violence & abuse - the short, more action-ey parts of the movie are at least average. All is accompanied by a soundtrack that's mostly noticeable only when the ominous, creepy choir voices join in. The pacing is pretty draggy, there's more lows than highs. If you don't have a strong principle of finishing whatever You've started watching, as I do, prepare for the risk of poor Agatha putting You to sleep.

"St. Agatha" is a painfully average, if not below, indie horror flick. Disappointing. My rating: 4/10.

I wish I could say there was a twist or something super exciting and unpredictable that happens but there just isn't.