The Last Thing Mary Saw – Film Review

Winter, 1843. A young woman is under investigation following the mysterious death of her family’s matriarch. Her recollection of the events sheds new light on the ageless forces behind the tragedy.

Edoardo Vitaletti‘s The Last Thing Mary Saw had all the makings of greatness. Creepy, gothic, ancient atmosphere and outfits? Check. An eerie original score? Check. Terrific performances? Check. A slow-burning feel? Check. So, what exactly happened here? Why is this film bad? Well, it’s simple really – the script is incredibly generic for the most part. This movie is eighty-nine minutes long including credits, and yet screenwriter/director Vitaletti spends nearly every minute of that running time constantly building up to absolutely nothing.

This movie really had no pay-off whatsoever by the time the credits rolled. It was genuinely disheartening to see how the film played out in the long run because it had so much potential to be a darkly chilling and deeply methodical approach to the gothic horror subgenre but instead, it ultimately ends up being a dishearteningly bland story. With the right director and screenwriter, this would’ve been great.

A lot of this film’s tone reminds me of Robert Eggers‘ The Witch. Both films come complete with dark, moody atmospheres and feature some seriously dark themes and subject matter. The difference is that Eggers crafted an excellent script that perfectly complimented the film’s overall look and feel. I feel bad for Vitaletti because I’m sure he was incredibly passionate about this project – after all, what director wouldn’t be passionate about their project? – but it definitely needed a lot more time to develop.

Characters here don’t get the exploration they deserve. They just kind of feel like pawns in the overall story. I get what Vitaletti was going for – he wanted to make every single character as mysterious as possible – but it just didn’t work for this kind of story. It’s kind of hard to be sucked into somebody’s life if you don’t even know them.

And it’s a shame that these characters get underdeveloped because their respective actors deliver terrific performances. Stefanie Scott is absolutely wonderful in the role of the title character. She was asked to do a lot for this film and she made it look tremendously easy. Similarly great is Isabelle Fuhrman who delivered one of the creepiest child performances I’ve ever seen in Orphan. It’s strange that she isn’t in a whole lot of movies because she is an incredibly talented actress with tons of range.

If you want to cast her as a creepy, intimidating person, she’ll deliver. If you want to cast her as a sad, emotionally devastated but layered character, she’ll deliver. At this point, I’m just convinced that Fuhrman can do it all.

Everything was great here except for the story, which is obviously the most important aspect of any film. The Last Thing Mary Saw had the potential to be something truly creepy and thought-provoking, but the bland script from writer/director Edoardo Vitaletti prevents that from coming to fruition.