Anne Hathaway’s Forgotten Horror Movie Is Officially the Biggest Film on HBO Max

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Published Oct 27, 2026, 7:01 AM EDT

Shrishty is a decade-old journalist covering a variety of beats between politics to pop culture, but movies are her first love, which led her to study Film and TV Development at UCLAx. She lives and breathes cinema and sometimes wakes up with the close-up shot of Ryan Gosling's hands playing piano in La La Land, in her head.

She has worked with numerous media outlets, including Burda Media (MSN News), DKODING Media, The Voice of Fashion, Hindustan Times, and more. Throughout her career, she has interviewed an array of people, from CEOs and politicians to filmmakers and farmers.

Anne Hathaway has given us some of the most iconic characters of recent decades, from Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises and Dr. Amelia Brand in Interstellar to, of course, Andy Sachs in The Devil Wears Prada. Fans got to see plenty of Hathaway on the big screen this year, starting with her return as Andy in The Devil Wears Prada 2, then as Penelope alongside Matt Damon’s Odysseus in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. She also co-led David Robert Mitchell’s The End of Oak Street, alongside Ewan McGregor, where she faced off against dinosaurs in the twisty sci-fi mystery.

Among her many performances this year, there’s one feature that did not get its due. The performance in question is in the psychological drama, Mother Mary. Directed by David Lowery, the feature sees Hathaway as a troubled, global pop icon and Michaela Coel as her estranged former costume designer and lover. While the audience is accustomed to a tense character study when it comes to a pop star's story, the narrative pivots into haunting surreal supernatural horror. We follow Mother Mary (Hathaway), who flees her life in Los Angeles after a highly public, emotional breakdown backstage during her tour. She arrives uninvited at the remote estate of Sam Anselm (Coel), her former lover, and the visionary designer who originally built Mary’s public identity and mythology. When Mary begs Sam to design a "resurrection dress" for a career comeback concert, the two women work together. But soon their deep resentment, guilt, and artistic obsession surface, and the film quickly shifts from a tense psychological battle into a gothic metaphysical fantasy.

Lowery directs from his own script and touches upon the themes of the cost of fame and modern stardom; through Mary and Sam, we explore the blurred lines between the muse and the creator, examining whether an artist can ever truly possess their own identity. With its music-video-inspired cinematography, high fashion costuming, and compelling performances, the movie earned a 69% Rotten Tomatoes rating. However, it proved a commercial disappointment, earning $3 million worldwide on a relatively high $20 million budget.

Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes What Is Your Biggest Horror Nightmare? Elm Street · Chucky · Scream · The Conjuring

Four horror franchises. Four completely different ways of scaring you. One waits until you fall asleep. One makes sure nobody believes you. One is already in your group of friends. And one is in the house with your family. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually watch horror, and find out which nightmare was built for you.

😴Elm Street(Freddy Krueger)

🧸Chucky(Child's Play)

📞Scream(Ghostface)

🕯️The Conjuring(The Warren Files)

FIND YOUR NIGHTMARE →

Which horror scene makes you cover your eyes? Four classic images. One of them is worse than the others for you.

ASomebody falling asleep when they really should not. BA toy that has moved, and nobody touched it. CA phone ringing in an empty house. DA child talking to somebody who is not there.

NEXT QUESTION →

You are home alone and you hear a noise. First thought? Everybody has one. It arrives before you have decided anything.

AI am exhausted and my mind is playing tricks on me. BSomething in this room is not where I left it. CSomebody is in here with me. DThis house has never felt entirely right.

NEXT QUESTION →

Which horror movie rule would you break first? Everybody thinks they would survive. Almost nobody actually does.

ANever fall asleep. BNever leave it out of your sight. CNever answer the phone. DNever go down to the basement.

NEXT QUESTION →

Something genuinely frightening happens. What do you do? Not in a film. In your actual living room, tonight.

AConvince myself I imagined the whole thing. BTell someone, and brace for them not believing me. CWork out which person I know could be behind it. DGet everybody in the house into one room.

NEXT QUESTION →

How do you actually watch a horror film? Be honest about this one. Nobody is checking.

AFine during. Wide awake at two in the morning. BShouting at the screen that nobody is listening. CCalling the twist out loud before it lands. DThrough my fingers, holding on to something.

NEXT QUESTION →

Somebody offers you serious money. Which do you still refuse? The amount does not matter. There is one on this list you are not doing.

AFall asleep in a room I have never been in before. BKeep an old doll on the shelf facing my bed. CAnswer every unknown number that calls after midnight. DSpend one night alone in a house with a history.

NEXT QUESTION →

Which feeling stays with you a week after the film? Good horror does not stop when the credits do.

ANot wanting to turn the bedroom light off. BNot trusting one particular object in my house. CLooking twice at people I have known for years. DFeeling like something came home with me.

NEXT QUESTION →

Something wakes you at 3am. What is the worst possibility? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your nightmare.

AThat I am still asleep, and it knows it. BThat the thing nobody believed me about is here. CThat somebody with a key is downstairs. DThat something is in the doorway, watching us sleep.

REVEAL MY NIGHTMARE →

The Lights Just Went Out Your Nightmare Is…

Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting underneath your skin. This is the one built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what it would leave behind.

Elm Street

Your nightmare does not wait outside the door. It waits for you to close your eyes, which you are going to have to do eventually, because nobody has ever won that particular argument.

Freddy is horror's cruellest idea: a threat that lives in the one place you cannot guard, cannot lock, and cannot avoid forever.
You are the one who is fine during the film and wide awake at two in the morning. Your own head is where this does its damage.
These films understood exhaustion as a horror engine. The kids on Elm Street do not lose because they are weak. They lose because they are tired.
You can lock every door in the house. You still have to sleep.

Chucky

Your nightmare is not really the doll. It is the face of the person you tell, and the way they decide, very kindly, that you have imagined all of it.

Chucky works precisely because he is absurd. That is the trap: the more accurately you describe him, the less anybody is going to believe you.
You are the one shouting at the screen because the characters are not listening. You know that feeling from real life too.
The franchise is at its best when the adults in the room are the real obstacle, and you have met those adults.
By the time somebody finally believes you, you will have handled most of it on your own.

Scream

Your nightmare has your number, knows your name, and has almost certainly been inside your house before. The worst part is that you already know them.

Scream is the only one of these where the killer takes the mask off and turns out to be somebody who was at the party.
You are the person who calls the twist out loud before it lands. You watch people the same way you watch films.
The franchise made the rules of horror part of the plot, which means the survivors are the ones paying attention. You would be paying attention.
Everybody is a suspect, including the person who just offered to walk you home.

The Conjuring

Your nightmare is not really about you. It is about the people asleep down the hall, and the feeling that whatever is here is not interested in leaving.

The Conjuring films are domestic horror. The house, the family, the perfectly ordinary room that quietly stops feeling ordinary.
Your instinct is to get everybody into one room. Your fear is protective rather than personal, which is rarer than it sounds.
This is the one franchise where belief is the weapon. The people who come through it are the ones who are not alone and refuse to be.
Whatever is here did not come for you. It came for the household, and you are the one standing in the hallway.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

'Mother Mary' Gets its Due on Streaming

Mother Mary isn’t the first movie this year that has found a global audience after box office failure — movies like In the Grey and Masters of the Universe have exploded on streaming — and it won’t be the last. Mother Mary has claimed the top spot on HBO Max’s global top 10 charts, as per FlixPatrol. The chart also includes films like Gremlins, Contagion, Evil Dead Burn, and The Northman, among others.