A young woman exacts bloody retribution in Mitzi Peirone’s hugely enjoyable Saint Clare.
A mystery with psychological horror elements embedded in it, this feels like what something like Riverdale ultimately aspires to be – a blend of trendy high-school drama with dark horror vibes. In this case, however, the interior wranglings of its protagonist add an additional layer of strangeness in a screenplay written by Peirone and Guinevere Turner (who co-wrote American Psycho) based on Don Roff’s novel, Clare at Sixteen. Peirone is playful with her tone, which veers from fantastic to the procedural with varying success but is anchored by a finely calibrated performance from Bella Thorne and is consistently very good fun.
The plot follows college student Clare Bleeker (Thorne) who, despite her tender years, has a skill for making men who abuse women disappear. Having been exposed a gruesome tragedy as a young girl, she has subsequently come to take violent action against such men, believing herself on a mission from God, and feeling a kinship with Joan of Arc. Having tried to subdue her impulses since moving in with grandmother, Gigi (Rebecca De Mornay), a chance encounter at a bus-stop with a guy claiming to be looking for directions, leads Clare to find herself being investigated by local detective Timmons (Ryan Philippe), and uncovering a long line of missing women in the area.
While this might be an exercise in the heightened genre fare, it is clear that Peirone has much that she wants the film to say, particularly about the ease with which systematic abuse of women can be ignored because it is unpleasant – or worse still, inconvenient – to talk about. Of course, the scenario in her film is exaggerated, but its underlying message is a pointed one. In the case of Clare – again, a hyperbolic vision of this – she places a protagonist who becomes the person attempting to speak out for and stand up for those without a voice. Clare’s anger might be channelled into her own conception of violent retribution, but its causes of righteous.
All of that is presented through the mindset of a young woman who genuinely believes she has been ordained for this task by a higher power. Although Peirone’s film has transplanted her to college and played down the religious nature of her school, the original story was effectively about a Catholic schoolgirl serial killer and those elements still remain. The most notable of these is in the form of mailman Bob (Frank Whaley) who Clare was unintentionally involved in the death of six months prior. He now comes to her at night, claiming to represent her conscience and offering advice about living a normal life and counsel to remind her that Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. Peirone and her cinematographer, Luke Bazeli, also revel in playing with the religious insinuations of the premise, constantly placing Thorn in the centre of the frame or lighting her in chiaroscuro to represent the internal conflict she feels.
Additionally, Thorne is regularly shot in extreme close-ups, lit spectacularly in a flood of colour or with the frame edges out of focus around her. It puts the audience very much in Clare’s position and tries to convey the sensations of her psychological state – the viewer is not just told that she has disassociated from what is happening around her but also feels that, creating the same tension and uncertainty in the audience as Clare feels.
If all of this sounds like a lot, it is. This is maximalist filmmaking that leans into its bold aesthetic and narrative choices and there are times that the tonal variations don’t quite mesh or, indeed, where they seem to take more of a backseat to allow the narrative to progress unencumbered. It can make Saint Clare feel uneven at times but it is usually held together by Thorne who is impressive in the lead. She manages to carry herself with a weirdness that – a glazing of the eye, awkward small talk, murderous intent – that mean even in a scene that feels strait-laced, she brings a little surrealism to it. It means that even in its less successful moments, the film remains utterly engaging and should prove a blast for lovers of genre fare while having something to say.
Director: Mitzi Peirone
Screenplay: Mitzi Peirone, Don Roff, Guinevere Turner
Cast: Bella Thorne, Rebecca De Mornay, Ryan Philippe, Frank Whaley
Producer: Arielle Elwes, Joel Michaely, Thor Bradwell
Cinematography: Luke Bazeli
Editing: Patrick Sanchez Smith
Music: Zola Jesus, Philip Klein
Production Design: James Wise
Art Direction: Katie Blackburn
Costume: Lisa Norcia
Production companies: Elevated Films, Balcony 9 Productions, Dead Rabbit Films, Lucky 13 Productions, Screen Media (USA)
Venue: Oldenburg Film Festival
In English
93 minutes
