Written and Directed by Edoardo Vitaletti
Starring Stefanie Scott, Isabelle Fuhrman, Rory Culkin, and Judith Roberts
Runtime: 1 hour and 29 minutes
Exclusively on Shudder January 20th

by Whitley Albury, Staff Writer

Sometimes I feel like Stefan from Saturday Night Live when I try to give a rundown of elements of a film, and this one has all of my key checkpoints for a movie. It has everything: a queer main story, religious trauma, historical fiction, and body horror!

The Last Thing Mary Saw opens in Southold, New York, in 1843, with a quote from John Calvin (yes, the one who started the Calvinism branch of Christianity): “All events whatsoever are governed by the secret counsel of God.” We see Mary (Stefanie Scott) with a blindfold covering her eyes, blood running beneath it. So already, I am personally squirming, because eye stuff just does that to me. She’s under interrogation. We don’t know yet if the blindfold came from the constable questioning her, but the constable and the other men he’s with are terrified of her. The story is told a little out of order, but it’s pretty clear that Mary is relaying the events leading to this moment.

Mary is in love with Eleanor (Isabelle Fuhrman), her family’s maid. The family is very much aware of this fact. And they’re furious. They cannot handle the fact that these two are openly lusting after each other, despite the fact that, obviously, it’s not actively harming anyone. So it’s much like a lot of blatant homophobia here in the year of our nonsense 2022, but with beards and indeterminate accents (Mary’s father is Irish, the Matriarch, played by Judith Roberts, has a hint of Dutch accent… it’s fun!) So Mary and Eleanor sneak off to hold hands and gaze longingly at each other often.

Things come to a head when Mary’s little brother, Matthew (Elijah Rayman), accidentally spies on the two and offhandedly reveals their secrets. To prove they’re not possessed by lustful demons, the girls are forced to participate in bizarre rituals, like being forced to kneel on rice in their bare knees. There’s one particularly wild scene in a chicken coop with Mary, Eleanor, and the Matriarch that blurred the line of “am I watching just a really sad queer love story or a real horror film?” After that scene, we’re finally introduced to The Intruder (Rory Culkin), relaying a story about monsters.

It’s hard to go into more specifics without spoilers, but after that, shit just gets weird from there on. It’s a gorgeous film, but there are several scenes that were far darker than needed, and it was hard to really appreciate subtleties. And that’s this film’s key strength: pure subtlety. It’s not an in-your-face kind of slow building horror. It’s more about drawing on those traumas that many of us face, from compulsory heteronormativity to religious trauma. Because that’s the main point at the heart of this story: two girls fall in love, in a time period and region where it’s considered a sin. I wish that Theodore’s (P.J. Sosko) story was a little more developed. He plays such an important role in the film, but we know next to nothing about him. He’s the guard of the family home, and there’s an explanation as to why he has a limp (trying to run away), but it never explains why he tried to run. He’s the only one who isn’t repulsed by Mary and Eleanor’s love for each other, so maybe that implies something about his own sexuality? Maybe there’s an extended cut somewhere that explains more about him, but he’s by far my favorite in the entire film.