Mother Mary (2026) – The Film Buff Review

Something is happening in cinema right now. A quiet, unsettling new strain of storytelling is taking shape — one that fuses the glittering spectacle of pop stardom with psychological horror, trauma, and spiritual reckoning. David Lowery’s Mother Mary doesn’t just join that conversation. It deepens it.

Starring Anne Hathaway as the enigmatic pop icon Mother Mary and Michaela Coel as her estranged former costume designer, the film plays less like a conventional narrative and more like a charged, intimate stage piece. Truth, betrayal, possession, and reconciliation collide under Lowery’s distinctive hand, delivered with theatrical precision, striking visual metaphor, and music that actually means something.

It may have struggled at the box office, but Mother Mary is the kind of ambitious, mood-driven A24 film that rewards patience and attention. In this review, I dig into why it feels like the next evolution of the “pop star horror” genre — following the lineage of Vox Lux and Smile 2 — and why Hathaway’s full-commitment performance makes it essential viewing.

Quiet on the set. Let’s talk about it.

Exploring the Emerging Genre of Pop Star Horror Films through Mother Mary (2026)

Summary

The video presents an in-depth exploration of the recently released movie Mother Mary (2026), directed by David Lowery and produced by A24. The discussion situates the film within an emerging new genre that blends elements of pop stardom with horror and psychological drama, a domain A24 has significantly contributed to developing. The host reflects on the influence of other pop star-centric films such as Vox Lux (2018) and Smile 2 (2024), positioning Mother Mary as a continuation and evolution of this theme.

Anne Hathaway’s performance as a pop star confronting moral reckoning and inner demons is underscored, alongside Michella Cole’s impactful supporting role. The film is described not just as a narrative but as a “sketch” or theatrical piece that explores truth, reconciliation, and possession metaphorically, with innovative cinematic techniques like fabric-based exorcism scenes.

While the movie underperformed commercially (earning $3 million against a $20 million budget), it is praised for its artistic ambition and depth, elevating the pop star movie into a nuanced genre that blends horror, fantasy, and drama. The video also briefly touches on the significance of the music and choreography in the film, as well as David Lowery’s broader filmography establishing his reputation as a distinctive filmmaker.

Finally, the video host signals ongoing engagement with genre analysis by teasing upcoming content related to the Green Lantern franchise.

Highlights

• 🎥 Mother Mary (2026) is part of an emerging genre blending pop stardom themes with horror elements.
• 🌟 Anne Hathaway delivers a transformative performance, showcasing singing, dancing, and deep emotional complexity.
• 🎭 The film employs theatrical, sketch-like storytelling that feels intimate and stage-play oriented.
• 👗 An innovative exorcism scene uses fabric as a metaphor for possession and self-reckoning.
• 🎶 Music and choreography play a pivotal role, elevating the film’s emotional and artistic impact.
• 💰 Despite a $20 million budget, the movie earned only $3 million at the box office but still holds critical artistic value.
• 🎬 Director David Lowery’s unique vision links Mother Mary to his previous acclaimed works, reinforcing his auteur status.

Key Insights

• 🎞️ Emergence of the Pop Star Horror Genre: Mother Mary represents a new hybrid genre merging the celebrity-pop star narrative with horror and psychological thriller elements. This genre, seen earlier in Vox Lux and Smile 2, explores the dark underbelly of fame—possession, trauma, and the cost of stardom—pushing the boundaries of traditional horror and music biopics.
• 🌟 Anne Hathaway’s Artistic Evolution: Hathaway’s role showcases that established actors can transcend typical musical biopic portrayals by blending intense emotional storytelling with singing and dancing. Her performance elevates Mother Mary beyond mere storytelling into a performative art piece that commands attention in the genre.
• 🎭 Theatrical and Sketch-Like Narrative Style: The film’s structure, described as a “sketch,” focuses more on atmosphere and thematic resonance than strict plot mechanics. This approach allows Mother Mary to operate more like a psychological and spiritual conversation, emphasizing themes of truth, betrayal, and reconciliation. It challenges traditional cinematic storytelling by embracing minimalism and suggestion.
• 👗 Innovative Use of Symbolism in Horror: The exorcism scene’s use of red fabric as a representation of possession and release is a notable artistic device. This metaphorical interpretation of possession moves away from clichéd horror tropes, offering a more subtle and emotionally meaningful depiction of internal struggle and trauma.
• 🎶 Music and Choreography as Narrative Tools: Music is not just a backdrop but an active element in storytelling, enhancing character development and thematic depth. Hathaway’s on-screen singing and dancing sequences heighten the emotional stakes, reinforcing the immersive and performative aspects of the film’s world.
• 💸 Commercial Performance vs. Artistic Ambition: The stark contrast between the movie’s modest box office returns and its $20 million budget highlights the tension between artistic filmmaking and commercial viability in contemporary cinema. Mother Mary serves as a case study for how critically ambitious films often struggle in mass markets despite strong creative vision and production value.
• 🎬 David Lowery’s Auteur Signature: The film fits firmly within Lowery’s body of work, which often combines the fantastic with intimate human stories (The Green Knight, Pete’s Dragon, The Old Man and the Gun). His ability to create atmospheric, genre-blending narratives is on display, reinforcing Mother Mary as a distinct artistic statement within his filmography.

Here is the transccript of The Film Buffs review of Mother Mary.

00:00:01
Quiet on the set. >> Grammar speeds down production stage one action. >> Good morning and welcome back to the show of shows. My aka patterns Peter Auca here. We’re talking Mother Mary 2026. This movie just dropped on HBO Max. It’s produced, made by, distributed by A24. A24 does a lot of things around their movies that other film studios don’t. They call it the A24 cult. And the A24 has a laundry list of must-see movies. And for me, here’s here’s the crazy thing. A lot of times I’ll see a cast,

00:00:52
I’ll somewhat be aware of a concept of a movie, see the poster, a trailer or two, and I’ll get interested. And time and time again, these movies turn out to be A24 movies. I had to watch this movie as soon as it Here’s the crazy thing. Last night when I saw that this was live on HBO Max, I watched this Overwatching Lanterns. I pushed Lanterns uh episode 2 to the back burner and watch this. And why is that? Because we have here what I feel is a emerging genre. And I I do believe this is why we all

00:01:37
hang out on the show. My aka Patters Also, Peter A. Duca here coming to you from Philadelphia, PA. Uh, sorry that I I didn’t do the full intro just because I I get so excited to have some of these conversations with you. So, the emerging genre, let’s touch on that real quick. 2018. This is a movie that I randomly played that blew me away that I had never heard of. 2018 Bradley Corvette. Do we know where this is going? Bucks locks, Natalie Portman, Jude Law. broken up in chapters very much like

00:02:31
what Bradley would later do in the brutalist Vox Locks. Sorry, I might be pronouncing I might be butcher. It’s Voxlux Vox. I can’t even pronounce it. Vox Lux. That’s the That’s the movie. This is a movie. This is a portrait of a pop star. It has the lighting. It has the dancing. It has a level of presentation that I I feel at one time would have been a much more expensive movie. Recently, we have one of the great sequels of our time, aka Patter, the 2024 Smile 2 that I believe we skipped for one of our 31

00:03:16
days of dread. Maybe it’s because we we did recently do Smile. I It’s just to touch on it real quick. Smile one or Just Smile. The ending of that movie, the final shots are haunting. They don’t leave you. And I I feel make the movie. And that movie made gang busters, right? I think it was 200 million. Smile too. It’s one of the the best sequels. Smile 2 depicts a pop star. So there we get the like the video setting. We get the stage, the giant LED screens, the dance sequences, and the music. So now we have Bucks

00:04:04
Locks and Smile 2 with uh I believe like some of the best recorded music of a recording artist recorded for a movie that we’ve ever seen. I I do believe Bradley Cooper’s Star is Born set this crazy standard that we’re just realizing. The music for both of these movies too, by the way, is unbelievable. And then we get Mother Mary 2026. As soon as I saw that Anne Hathaway was playing a pop star, this movie became everything for me. And this is also I mean a an absolute calendar year for Ann Hathaway. We we

00:04:51
loved her. We spoke about her in Devil’s Project 2. We spoke about her. We loved her in the Odyssey. She’s in this movie. And then I believe she’s in um what is it? Cloverfield Lane. The dinosaur. She’s in the dinosaur movie right now. I forget the name of that one. Uh Poppy Street. The end of Poppy Street. Something like that. This movie is written and directed by David Aari. We drill into the Wikipedia. He I love it. He cites He cites Taylor Swift. He cites Beyonce. David here. We like his movies. 2026,

00:05:35
2016, excuse me. Pete’s Dragon for the liveaction remakes. Uh, Pete’s Dragon is one of the best from Disney. Ghost Story 2017 2018, a movie. Keep in mind, as much as I love this guy, we have not, we’ve only spoken about one of his movies in the past. 2018 though, The Old Man and the Gun. Great movie. 2021. A film long overdue for this very show. The Green The Green Knight 2023. Yet another underrated. People didn’t know what to do with this movie. Peter Pan and Wendy. Another live

00:06:21
action remake from Disney. People don’t know what to do with the live action remakes. I don’t know why. And then 2026, he is here for Mother Mary. Mother Mary, I hate talking about it. Budget was 20 million. Box office was three million. Who’s our backup mic? Pun intended. Michella Cole, I love her. This girl’s voice is just awesome. I don’t know. Like, does she get work? Her cheekbones seem extra elevated. Let’s get into I love that she has a theater background, too. The Christophers, Black Panther,

00:07:05
Wakanda, Forever, Been So Long, Star Wars, Last Jedi, Monsters, Dark Continent. Jeez, I got I got to get back to to Monsters, National Theater Live, Media. She plays a nurse. Lots of television roles. Here’s the crazy thing. This girl, Michelle Cole, I just went through her filmography. I thought she was in more movies. That’s how impactful she is to me. And and I’m more of a movie guy. You guys know it’s the film buff. It’s not the TV buff show. But she’s standout in this. And we get this moment

00:07:46
in this movie where she explains to Anne Hathaway how she was betrayed and what that did to her. And we get this other moment where her where she sees Anne Hathaway life and the music uh transforms her and uh I think there’s like some self-inflicted damage in that scene. I’m just teasing it for you. And then we get a Hathaway who is trying the the frame that she’s trying to walk through in this movie is truth and reconciliation. There are sins that have to be rectified. There are sins that must be

00:08:34
corrected. Do we get there? We do. KK Patters. And what David Lowry does, he I want to call this movie a sketch. I don’t think he illustrates it. I don’t think he quite draws it. He sketches us a ghost story, a possession story. This is what fame does to a lot of these individuals. I feel like this is a little bit of a fantasy from the filmmaker. I believe we get that in Smile Too from Parker Finn. I feel like we get that from Bradley Corbel from Vox Locks. And I don’t think we’re at the end of

00:09:28
these films. We’re in a new genre, the pop star movie. Now, the two of these three movies are pop star horror movies. Now, in the past, we’ve had uh what’s it? Uh pop star never stopping. Never stopping. It’s a comedy. We’re going to get into a little bit of of of the realm where pop star movies are more serious. And yeah, like given Smile 2 is a horror movie, but Smile 2 gives you the fame aspect in such a way. It really does. It sells it so well. Mother Mary does that. And there are times in Mother Mary where

00:10:15
Anne Hathaway and Michelle Cole, Anne Hathaway’s character too, by the way, is Mother Mary, they are conversing It’s a conversation. It’s a back and forth. It’s a question. It’s an answer. It’s a stage play. It reads and feels like we’re sitting in an audience. We’re in a small auditorium and we’re watching two actresses give us a story. I was not expecting that with this movie. the music in Mother Mary, the choreography. Uh Annne Hatheraway does this sequence

00:10:57
where she’s like, “Look, uh I I I need a dress. I need it for this performance.” Michelle Ole asked for the performance and we get it. So, we get a dance sequence that’s not attached to a song. And it’s just one of those things where uh again, it’s so eyeopening. These are performers. Uh Annne Hathaway, right? I don’t know if she could sing before or after this movie, right? But she sings for this movie. She dances for this movie. Uh she is elevated uh just as a performer in this movie

00:11:35
and then we get this possession story. And how is it how is it illustrated? How is it portrayed? See, David Larry here is attempting something. And and and this this is why I call this movie a sketch. He’s attempting to show us what else a ghost could be. How else could we be possessed by something or taken by an entity that might not be good? It’s a little bit evil. It’s a lot of bit evil. It’s a red drape. It’s red fabric. Michelle Ole, her character is uh she’s a costume designer. She’s a she

00:12:24
is a fabricator. So, in this movie when she exercises the spirit, when she it’s it’s an exorcism scene, uh I think one of the cooler ones, right? It’s not it’s not uh you know strobe lights and and people screaming and and chairs getting thrown across the room. Uh that this is maybe more believable of an exorcism and it’s all illustrated. It’s all sketched out for us as a piece of fabric. But the piece of fabric is represent is representative not as Anne Hathaway’s Michelle Ole. See

00:13:10
it’s her being left behind. That’s the ghost that’s a possession that Anne Hathaway needs to exercise because she had this onstage incident that we kind of see right before the movie begins. And that’s that’s a little bit scary. And this movie is a conversation and it leads to truth and reconciliation and we exercise our demon at the end and we wear its skin. I just felt this movie was amazingly deep. I thought it was there. Uh is a general audience. Do I give a 24 credit for putting $20 million behind this

00:13:53
movie? I do. Uh it’s again uh the way we make money off of movies today. It’s it’s a weird it’s even more weird than than it’s ever been. But at the same time uh I like this trilogy. I like Vox Locks. I like Smile Too. And I like Mother Mary. What a fun trilogy or just like uh a threesome to watch. There you go. All right. AK Patter. It’s Monday. Let’s start this week now. Should I tease it? Monday nights are going to be Green Lantern nights for a little bit. So, tonight we have and it’s a

00:14:33
little bit of analysis now. Yesterday’s episode on Sunday. I did drop I I wanted to do some things at night. I I do nothing during the day on Sundays. It’s a day of rest. I I spend it with my family. But you kind of at night, you know, the mind wanders. I dropped a uh Green Lantern where I break down the franchise and and why the Green Lantern franchise is oddly unique and doesn’t quite fit the challenges of it. And that kind of leads right into uh tonight’s episode, which is uh Green Lantern First I

00:15:13
believe in 2007. The first real like Green Lantern story like solo story we ever got. Now, it does precede the movie with Ryan Reynolds, but it yeah, we we watched this then we waited for the Ryan Reynolds movie. Hyped. And well, we have an episode on the Ryan Reynolds one. I’m not going to spoil any of that for you. All right, AK Patter. Mother Mary, this is a movie. Full recommendation. I love you guys. Rock and roll. Okay, that’s a wrap.

Mother Mary is the kind of film that rewards sitting with it — a quiet, ambitious entry in the emerging pop-star horror space that traces a line through Vox Lux and Smile 2, delivered with David Lowery’s distinctive sketch-like style and anchored by Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel. These are the conversations I live for: the ones that dig past surface reactions and into what a movie is actually trying to do.

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PETER A DELUCA AKAPD

AKAPAD is a versatile thinker known across Philadelphia, Europe, and even in the vast Multiverse as The Electic One. By day, he excels as an IT Mastermind, assisting individuals, both big and small, with a wide range of simple and complex solutions. In contrast, he is also a talented illustrator, a passionate comic book enthusiast, a creative content creator, and an active live streamer. Additionally, his podcast, “AKAPAD The Film Buff Podcast,” boasts an impressive catalog of over 500 episodes available on nearly every major platform.