Mary (2019)

MARY in many respects resembles a lot of other modest horror films, with two big differences. One, it’s shot on actual film, which gives it a much crisper, richer look than many of its peers. This makes sense, as its director, Michael Goi, is an award-winning cinematographer, who also serves in that capacity here. 

Two, MARY stars Gary Oldman and Emily Mortimer, actors whose big-name stature suggests there will be more here than we actually get to watch online. The filmmakers unwisely give the game away at the outset with a rhyme about a witch drowned at sea who subsequently steals the children of sailors. It’s not hard to guess the broad strokes from here. We know we free download Mary from Filmxy and from the outset that there’s been a maritime disaster, because there’s black smoke billowing from a drifting sailboat. Then we cut to an interrogation room, where the distraught Sarah (Mortimer) demands to see her daughters. 

The investigator in charge (Jennifer Esposito) first wants to know exactly what happened. In flashbacks, with occasional voiceover narration from Sarah and cuts back to the interrogation, showing how Sarah’s fisherman husband David (Oldman) is drawn to purchase the sailboat Mary, which shares a name with the couple’s younger daughter (Chloe Perrin). The craft boasts a striking, ancient-looking figurehead on its bow, which may be hundreds of years old. Sarah is not thrilled with the full movie and David’s impulse buy, as he was supposed to get a tour boat instead. She’s even less happy when she learns that the boat has apparently lost three full crews at sea, including the sailors’ children. David thinks Sarah is falling prey to superstition. He insists that the family, including teen daughter Lindsay (Stefanie Scott), plus two crew members (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Owen Teale) chart a course that takes them out to sea.