Since it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019, A24's horror movie Saint Maud has been one of the most highly anticipated releases of 2020. It was initially slated to hit theaters on April 10, 2020 and then July 17, 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, its U.S. release was delayed with the hopes of releasing it during the fall. As cases rose and fell, the fate of movie theaters everywhere was questioned and Saint Maud was forced to delay their United States' release indefinitely, despite its premiere overseas on October 9, 2020. With two official delays as well as one unofficial, Saint Maud has now been delayed twice without a solid explanation.
Saint Maud stars Morfydd Clark as Maud, a woman who is so grief stricken following the death of a patient that she turns to religion as salvation. Now working in palliative care, she experiences death regularly, but uses her experience as a means of bringing relief to those in their final days. When Maud becomes obsessed with saving the soul of a patient, sinister and paranormal forces threaten her from every corner. Saint Maud is the directorial debut from Rose Glass, who has already made a name for herself with how intense and unsettling Maud's story is. A24 knows good horror, as proven by Ari Aster of Hereditary and Midsommar fame, who made his feature-length debut under the production studio and the atmospheric period piece The Witch found a home with them as well.
In 2020, there have been major horror movies delaying their release dates for several reasons. As of this writing, David Gordon Green's Halloween Kills was delayed until October 2021, Nia DaCosta's Candyman was delayed until an unspecified date in 2021, and A Quiet Place Part II is now set to release on April 23, 2021. Each director and production studio has their own reason for these delays; some major releases didn't allow the pandemic to stop them at all. Blumhouse swooped in to save Halloween when they released The Craft: Legacy for VOD in October 2020 as well as horror comedy Freaky in November 2020. Ultimately, these decisions are entirely up to the people in charge, but why was Saint Maud delayed in the United States, but not overseas? And how likely is it that American audiences will get to experience the movie's horrors in the near future?
In order to identify the exact reason why Saint Maud was delayed, it's important to look at where it wasn't. In the United Kingdom, the movie had a theatrical release on October 9, 2020 after it was also delayed in March, much like the United States. It is likely that A24 was holding out for a major premiere for it, considering how poorly VOD releases have statistically performed both before and during the pandemic. There are two distribution companies attached to the project: A24 and StudioCanal UK. Each distributor has the opportunity to decide when the movie will release. Therefore, it's not likely that the director chose to delay the movie in the United States.
While some movie theaters have opened their doors in the United States, doctors and experts have deemed it to be an unsafe environment, as COVID can spread in confined spaces. This hasn't stopped other horror movies from releasing theatrically, as Freaky had its own limited run, but why did it stop Saint Maud? It is likely that A24 chose not to release Saint Maud theatrically based on how well their movies have statistically performed in theaters. The company will likely postpone its release until it is safe for everyone and anyone to enjoy going to movie theaters again. What makes the United Kingdom's release so different are comparatively lower cases of COVID.
The United Kingdom does not have the least amount of cases whatsoever, but it does fall far below the United States. It is likely that the production company saw October 9, 2020 as the ideal time to release this highly anticipated movie while cases were still relatively low. As for the United States, there was never the right moment for Saint Maud to premiere in 2020, which is why A24 has set its expected release in 2021 with an unspecified date.