Mary (2019)

(On Cable TV, June 2020) Over the decades, Gary Oldman has gone from playing Sid Vicious to Winston Churchill and has, along the way, become an elder statesman of movie acting—the kind of highly respected actor with a successful long-life career. Seeing him pop up to headline a cheap schlock horror film like Mary is a surprise, and he definitely lends far too much gravitas to what remains a down and dirty production. In many ways, Mary is the kind of horror film we’ve seen far too often, with a supernatural force far more interested in stylish kills than efficiently dealing out its revenge. As a result, don’t expect the film to make any sense once you get to the end—but what the film does have is a distinctive take on nautical horror, with plenty of nighttime rain as the boat is rocked back and forth and people aboard are possessed in various ways. It’s a bit tedious, although from time to time, Oldman does deliver a few speeches above the film’s level and the framing device is handled in a generally competent way.