The Last Thing Mary Saw Explores Homophobia, History, and Horror

This week Jason chats with Edoardo Vitaletti, writer and director of The Last Thing Mary Saw, his feature-length film debut, a Shudder Original Film premiering exclusively on Shudder Thursday, January 20.

The Last Thing Mary Saw stars Stefanie Scott (Insidious: Chapter 3), Isabelle Fuhrman (The Novice, Orphan), and Rory Culkin (Lords of Chaos, Scream 4) and follows the story of Mary, a young woman living in Southold, New York, in the year 1843.

Say the producers:

Southold, New York, 1843: Young Mary (Scott), blood trickling from behind the blindfold tied around her eyes, is interrogated about the events surrounding her grandmother’s death. As the story jumps back in time, we witness Mary, raised in a repressively religious household, finding fleeting happiness in the arms of Eleanor (Fuhrman), the home’s maid. Her family, who believe they are seeing, speaking, and acting on God’s behalf, view the girls’ relationship as an abomination, to be dealt with as severely as possible. The couple attempt to carry on in secret, but someone is always watching, or listening, and the wages of perceived sin threaten to become death, with the tension only heightened by the arrival of an enigmatic stranger (Culkin) and the revelation of greater forces at work.

Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium streaming service for horror, thrillers and the supernatural, will exclusively premiere the new Shudder Original The Last Thing Mary Saw on the platform on Thursday, January 20.

Vitaletti discusses how the film grew from his fascination with history, art, and the narrowness of acceptance in the Catholic Church and took time to praise the cast, especially a scene focusing on a newly-arriving character played by Rory Culkin.

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Jason Henderson hosts the Castle of Horror and Castle Talk Podcasts, the “Castle of Horror Anthology” series editor. The newest volume is Femme Fatales: Horror from Women about Women. He is the author of The Serpent’s Nest: Young Captain Nemo from Macmillan Children’s Books. His most recent book is 18 Miles from Town: a Midlife Crisis Thriller.