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.
