Parents' Guide to The Last Thing Mary Saw

This is a haunting if slow-paced period drama that combines elements of thriller twists and horror imagery. The Last Thing Mary Saw is an appropriately dismal evocation of a dreary Puritanical village in 1843 New York state, where the men sadistically enforce the strict interpretations of Scripture, and an elder matriarch unleashes the harshest penalties on everyone. Against this backdrop and cinematography heavy on the browns and grays, young Mary has fallen passionately in love with her family's maid Eleanor. What follows are ugly forms of a kind of "conversion therapy," a primitive book of erotic stories blamed by the adults for what's transpiring around the house, and as Mary and Eleanor desperately plot their escape, an intruder with a scarred face and a lapsed moral compass shows up to make matters even worse.

In some ways, it's surprisingly good horror tale unless one is expecting a gory bloodbath with not much story. There is indeed a story here, but too much of it. It's trying to be so many things at once, but the central premise of a lesbian love affair amidst joyless austere Puritans is more than enough. The intruder character is as intriguing as any of the other characters if not more so, but in terms of the story, the character comes across as a little too convenient. The supernatural elements don't really heighten suspense that hasn't already been heightened. It's certainly not what anyone would call a lighthearted romp, but the movie is at its best when focused on Mary and Eleanor as they try to survive a drab reality in which their love is viewed by those around them as the workings of Lucifer.