Much of Mother Mary, David Lowery’s eerie new pop drama, takes place in the cavernous workshop of Michaela Coel’s Sam Anselm, the former fashion designer and former friend of Anne Hathaway’s eponymous pop star. The two of them have reunited after Mother Mary parted ways with her longtime designer after her pop career took off. It only took a horrific accident, in which Mary took a hard fall (unintentionally or intentionally) from a floating stage during one of her performances, to bring them back together. Mary, who has finally recovered, is planning her comeback, and the only one who can make her the right dress for her performance is Sam.
The first half of the movie plays out as an intimate chamber piece between Mary and Sam, the two of them rehashing long-buried grudges and betrayals, as we get occasional flashes to Mary’s extravagant concert performances. But then, Mother Mary takes a turn. Mary shows Sam the dance choreography for her new song, “Spooky Action,” which she had written about a preternatural experience she recently had. As Mary silently dances to the song, she seems to become possessed, writhing and convulsing in a frightening display of overwhelming emotion. This kind of scene almost always calls to mind the subway scene in Andrzej Żuławski’s polarizing 1981 horror film Possession, in which Isabelle Adjani becomes overtaken by a fit of unadulterated mania. Was this an intentional homage? Yes and no, Lowery tells Inverse.
