There have been plenty of horror films set in the Old West and the Old South, as well as eras of religious inquisition in the Old World.
“The Last Thing Mary Saw” goes where relatively few have gone before, however, by taking place in the still-new United States’ “civilized” rural East, where an industrial age had yet to penetrate and mores remained none too distant from the earliest European settlers’ harsh Puritanism.Most obviously comparable would be 2015’s sleeper hit “The Witch,” though this first feature by writer-director Edoardo Vitaletti is not as vivid in atmospheric or suspense terms.
Still, it’s similarly distinguished by a strong sense of a particular cultural epoch’s comingled faith, fear and oppression, even if “Mary” is set more than 200 years later.
Perhaps more rewarding in the end as straight, downbeat period drama than as an occult thriller, it was acquired by genre platform
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