April 26, 2026, 7:23 p.m. ET
Spoiler alert! We’re discussing major details about the ending of “Mother Mary” (in theaters now). Stop reading if you haven’t seen it yet and don’t want to know.
Nothing mends a friendship quite like an exorcism.
In “Mother Mary,” Anne Hathaway plays a pop superstar who, after a near-fatal stage fall, is desperate to reconnect with her old self. She despondently shows up at the front door of her estranged pal, a fashion designer named Sam (Michaela Coel), and pleads for her to make a new dress for her next concert.
Through an evening of winding conversation, they discover that they’ve been haunted by the same ghost – a rippling, smoke-like spirit known as the Red Woman, which is the physical manifestation of the years-long rift between them. And so, they realize that the only way forward is by cutting each other open and letting it out.
The metaphorical drama ends with a surreal sequence of the women pricking their fingers, before Mary plunges a pair of scissors into her own chest. As they both bleed out, Sam pulls the crimson ghost from Mary’s body and uses it as fabric for her gown. Mary, meanwhile, walks away with visible scars, although the real healing was all internal.
“It’s a movie that people instantly realize takes a bit of time to process, whether they love it right out of the gate or they aren’t quite sure what to make of it,” filmmaker David Lowery (“The Green Knight“) says with a grin. “There’s no way to talk casually about it.”
What is the meaning of the Red Woman?
“Mother Mary” is, at its core, about the breakup of a friendship, although the intensity of their reunion suggests something even more intimate. While it’s not a full-on horror movie, Lowery wanted to use the language of the genre to express how it feels to be hurt by somebody you love. Even when Sam and Mary are no longer speaking, they are still tethered together by deep resentment and pain.
Mary and Sam were once-inseparable creative partners. But as Mary’s fame ballooned, she cast Sam aside and surrounded herself with the trendiest designers and collaborators. Devastated, Sam vowed to never listen to Mary’s music or think about her again.
“When someone else gives you their negative energy, it can really become a burden,” Lowery says. “One of the worst things you can do to somebody you care about is to transfer whatever negative energy you have onto their shoulders. I wanted to find a way to visually represent that. As such, turning that negative energy into a ghost made the most sense.”
In the script, the Red Woman was described as “vaguely humanoid,” almost like a scarlet mannequin sprung to life. But that ultimately felt too literal, and so, Lowery came up with something a bit more fluid through various sketches and clay models.
“One of the key reference points that I found was the T-1000 falling into the pit of molten lava at the end of ‘Terminator 2,’ where it’s just wildly cycling through all of the different versions of itself,” Lowery says. “It’s sad and beautiful, and made a huge impression on me. I never thought I’d have a ‘Terminator 2’ reference in this, but that’s the way my brain works.”
To create the billowing Red Woman puppet, Lowery worked with artist Daniel Wurtzel and costume designer Annell Brodeur, who helped configure the spectral sheet that Casey Affleck wore in Lowery’s 2017 drama “A Ghost Story.”
“It wasn’t intentional, but I’ve definitely found myself in a very narrow niche of making ghosts out of fabric,” Lowery jokes. Making this movie, “we spent five days filming fabric blowing in the wind. It was like we were all cast into a trance, just watching this piece of fabric suddenly become something supernatural.”
How did Taylor Swift, Lorde inspire Anne Hathaway’s new movie?
“Mother Mary” features original songs produced and co-written by Jack Antonoff, Charli XCX and FKA twigs, who also plays a medium in the film. The character’s music has the religious iconography of Madonna mixed with the anthemic lilt of Taylor Swift earworms. (Hathaway and Lowery attended Swift’s Eras tour, which partly inspired Mary’s big-budget stage shows.) But Lowery was also inspired by one of his favorite artists, Lorde.
“Lorde’s ‘Melodrama’ album is one of those rare instances where I feel as if someone has tapped into my own feelings,” Lowery says. “It was very important that these songs, while incredibly catchy and fun, are also coming from an emotional core that’s undeniable.”
In the writing process, Lowery mapped out an entire fictional discography for Mother Mary spanning nearly 15 years, with tours accompanying each release. (“She’s definitely got a No. 1 hit,” he says.) Hathaway went even further, outlining everything from Mary’s childhood to what church she might’ve attended.
“Anne created a very rich backstory that would have been worthy of its own movie,” Lowery says.
How does ‘Mother Mary’ end?
When Mary first turns up at Sam’s doorstep, Sam tells her not to apologize until she genuinely means it. And so, in the very last moments of the film after they’ve exorcised their demons, Mary finally tells Sam “I’m sorry” just as she’s about to drive away.
“I really wanted to have a movie that represented how arduous and circuitous that journey toward clarity can be,” Lowery says. “And by clarity, I mean the clarity that can be achieved when one person truly apologizes to another for breaking their heart. There were edits of the movie where we had more scenes that (showed) what happened to Mother Mary after she drove away from Sam’s house.”
But as he was editing, “I was like, ‘There’s nothing else beyond this apology that will be as satisfying.’ In a movie full of words, the last words needed to be, ‘I’m sorry.’ ”
