Mary is a 2019 horror film about a family looking to start a charter-boat business, buying a ship that holds terrifying secrets once out on isolated waters.
Despondent and shaken, Sarah (Emily Mortimer) sits in an interrogation room across from Detective Clarkson (Jennifer Esposito), and tells of the evil embodied in the hull of the sailboat “Mary.” It’s a vessel she and her husband David (Gary Oldman) bought after he long suffered running fishing tours in Florida. It was an old relic the day he got it at auction, but a ship he saw his future aboard. Convincing Sarah the same, they cleaned it up and took to open waters with their children Lindsey (Stefanie Scott), a rebellious teen, and Mary (Chloe Perrin), a creative youngster, along with David’s boating buddy Mike (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) and Lindsey’s guy pal Tommy (Owen Teague), though once away from shore, a darkness loomed and Sarah became faced with a horror dead set on taking her family.
We’ve set sail in these straights before of course, the isolation of the ocean a perfect setting for a bit of suspense. At least director Michael Goi and screenwriter Anthony Jaswinski have a stellar cast in delivering the stale plot, both Mortimer and Oldman some admittedly surprising names to see attached to such a generic outing. Both the leads don’t go half in either, Oldman convincing as always as a weathered seafarer looking to make a name for himself after answering to others his whole life, now believing the “Mary” is his way of fulfilling his dreams. He’s matched by Mortimer, jumping headfirst into the chaos and making this if anything, the best reason to watch.
However, there’s nothing authentic about the rest of the film, the whole thing bloated with the usual supernatural calling cards that feature all kinds of transparent jump scares and thunderous orchestra booms, docking this ship into the already overcrowded lot of empty horror vessels we’ve seen before. Young horny Tommy is soon consumed by an evil mounted in the crusty old wooden figurehead, the demon in him unleashing a murderous fury. Sarah is then plagued by nightmares and little Mary sets about drafting creepy doodles. The boat becomes a home of scary clichés.
Meanwhile, we cut back and forth to Sarah’s chats with Clarkson, trying to give the mystery some sense of fate, but it’s so hokey in doing so, leaving little hope of staying involved. We’re told of some secrets in Sarah’s life, but it’s made so whisper thin in context, it doesn’t much matter, which is really too bad because that’s where the movie should have dropped its anchor. Instead, it clings to the conventions of a bland possession movie, with nary a moment of innovation or creativity, leaving two highly-acclaimed actors wallowing about in pretty shallow waters.
You would hope there might be some fun in all this, especially with the growing trend of big name talent giving the horror genre some legitimacy. However, this is not the case, Mary a mostly see-through production that takes itself too seriously while skimming the surface of some real possibilities. Try as hard as it does, this is an unfortunate pass.