Inside the Supernatural Costume Exorcism Scene in A24’s ‘Mother Mary’
Anne Hathaway stars as a pop icon rebuilding her career in David Lowery's Mother Mary.
YOU NEED TO KNOW
- Directed by David Lowery, A24’s psychological drama Mother Mary stars Anne Hathaway alongside co-star Michaela Coel.
- The film follows pop icon Mother Mary seeking out her former costume designer after a traumatic on-stage accident.
- A central plot device involves a physical red cloth spirit representing commercialized trauma and celebrity exploitation.
- The film features original musical tracks composed and produced by industry hitmakers Jack Antonoff, Charli XCX, and FKA Twigs.
In David Lowery’s A24 psychological drama Mother Mary, fashion design is not merely aesthetic it is a physical, supernatural exorcism.
While the film presents itself as a story about pop star Mother Mary (Anne Hathaway) preparing for a high-stakes comeback performance, its climax hinges on a terrifying ritual executed with dressmaking shears, torn stage outfits, and a literal ghost made of blood-red cloth.
Understanding the film’s climax requires unpacking how costume design functions as both trauma and salvation within the narrative.
Throughout the narrative, both Mary and her estranged fashion designer, Sam Anselm (Michaela Coel), are haunted by a spectral figure composed entirely of flowing, lustrous red fabric.
The apparition first manifests to Sam after a tooth extraction following the explosive end of their professional relationship.
It later appears to Mary after a fan cuts her hand during a séance, eventually causing her catastrophic on-stage accident.
The red cloth ghost serves as a physical representation of the unacknowledged trauma between the two women.
Sam helped build Mary’s iconic public persona including her signature religious iconography and halos only to be denied credit and cut out of Mary’s inner circle.
For Mary, the spirit represents the suffocating weight of public worship and the literal possession required to maintain global stardom.
The red cloth materializes as the physical accumulation of that unvoiced bitterness.
Before the physical exorcism occurs, Sam refuses to play Mary’s new track, forcing the pop icon to execute her complex, high-energy stage choreography in total silence inside the workshop.
Without Jack Antonoff and Charli XCX’s production hiding her exertion, the scene strips away pop grandeur. Hathaway’s heavy breathing, violent floor impacts, & audible strain reframe stage dance as an act of demonic possession.
By removing the music, Sam forces Mary to experience the physical cost of her art in its rawest form.
The sequence culminates inside Sam’s barn-turned-workshop when Mary admits the red spirit is living inside her body. Using her tailoring tools, Sam leads a desperate, painful ritual to extract the entity.
Taking Sam’s dressmaking shears, Mary slices open her own chest, laying bare the wound where the entity resides. Sam reaches inside and pulls out yards of the blood-red fabric, unraveling the supernatural spirit from Mary’s body.
Once pulled free, the malevolent spirit loses its supernatural hold, transforming into yards of raw, workable fabric.
Instead of destroying the cloth, Sam uses the extracted spirit alongside strips torn from Mary’s past iconic costumes to stitch together a new gown with a massive train meant to be ripped away on stage.
By turning the ghost into a garment, the ending of Mother Mary argues that pop art is built on the literal extraction and commercialization of pain.
When Mary takes the stage for her comeback performance, she sheds the gown and dedicates her performance to Sam.
Whether commanding global festival circuits, stepping out in an anne disney 2026 maternity outfit during high-profile family events, or unveiling a dramatic anne hathaway dior odyssey premiere look on international red carpets, the actress consistently balances high-fashion visibility with daring artistic choices on screen.
The exorcism doesn’t erase the past; it converts mutual suffering into something tangible that can be worn, stripped away, and finally left behind under the stage lights.
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