Immaculate
Year: 2024
Director: Michael Mohan
Starring: Sydney Sweeney
Runtime: 89 mins
BBFC: 18
Published: 05/04/24
Director: Michael Mohan
Starring: Sydney Sweeney
Runtime: 89 mins
BBFC: 18
Published: 05/04/24
I hadn’t seen any trailers for Immaculate, but I saw the poster and thought how peculiar it was for Sydney Sweeney to be starring in a horror film. But positive reviews and some very favourable comparisons to the likes of Mother!, Midsommar, and Saint Maud had me eager to see what Immaculate could offer up to the tired trope of nun based horror. The answer, sadly, was very little.
When Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney), a young nun, is invited to join a convent in Rome by Father Tedeschi (Alvaro Morte), she is given a less than warm welcome by some of the other sisters.
But when Cecilia shows signs of immaculate pregnancy, she becomes a symbol of hope for all at the convent that she will bring about the second coming of Jesus.
From the synopsis Immaculate seems like your typical Nun based Christian horror flick. Assistant you’re being taken through the story’s setup you do get this feeling of having been there and done that before. It’s so by the book in fact that you wonder why it exists at all, why bother to make this film when there are so many others that are practically identical.
Then if you’ve been keeping up with other critics’ opinions of the film you might hear that the final act changes everything entirely, flipping the narrative on its head and presenting a truly fresh and inventive spin on the genre. But I walked out of Immaculate wondering if I saw the same third act as everyone else. Whilst the final two minutes of the film certainly strive to shock as much as possible, considering the film went hard for an 18 rating from the BBFC you see surprisingly little and so the shock feels diluted.
In fact the 18 rating rarely ever feels warranted. The few moments it pushes shows something exceptionally nasty feel out of place and unnecessary. I think had the gore been dialled back a notch and the film gone for a 15 rating then it actually would have been a bit more impactful and tonally consistent.
When Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney), a young nun, is invited to join a convent in Rome by Father Tedeschi (Alvaro Morte), she is given a less than warm welcome by some of the other sisters.
But when Cecilia shows signs of immaculate pregnancy, she becomes a symbol of hope for all at the convent that she will bring about the second coming of Jesus.
From the synopsis Immaculate seems like your typical Nun based Christian horror flick. Assistant you’re being taken through the story’s setup you do get this feeling of having been there and done that before. It’s so by the book in fact that you wonder why it exists at all, why bother to make this film when there are so many others that are practically identical.
Then if you’ve been keeping up with other critics’ opinions of the film you might hear that the final act changes everything entirely, flipping the narrative on its head and presenting a truly fresh and inventive spin on the genre. But I walked out of Immaculate wondering if I saw the same third act as everyone else. Whilst the final two minutes of the film certainly strive to shock as much as possible, considering the film went hard for an 18 rating from the BBFC you see surprisingly little and so the shock feels diluted.
In fact the 18 rating rarely ever feels warranted. The few moments it pushes shows something exceptionally nasty feel out of place and unnecessary. I think had the gore been dialled back a notch and the film gone for a 15 rating then it actually would have been a bit more impactful and tonally consistent.
Sweeney does give a noteworthy performance in the leading role though, and that’s really about the only thing in Immaculate that’s worth highlighting. It’s not impressive enough that it’ll be a contender for my end of year awards, but perhaps because the rest of the film was so stale, she shone through. She’s doing the best with the material she’s got, but considering this film had been a passion project of hers for some time and was one of the main people responsible for it even being made I don’t feel like that’s much praise either.
Immaculate does release at an interesting time though considering the current political climate in the U.S (and how that’s also encroaching on other areas of Western society) wherein women are being stripped of bodily autonomy.
Cecilia is stopped from seeking medical assistance by the superiors at the convent when she discovers her pregnancy, even when her own health becomes at risk. It’s an apt representation of the dangerous pro-life agenda being pushed by right wing politics right now.
Immaculate doesn’t really do anything new or interesting which is its biggest problem. It’s not bad, but it never tries to find an identity of its own in the genre. If you’re after something to shock without requiring much thought, Immaculate will scratch that itch. But it failed to live up to the expectations I’d had set by many others.
Immaculate does release at an interesting time though considering the current political climate in the U.S (and how that’s also encroaching on other areas of Western society) wherein women are being stripped of bodily autonomy.
Cecilia is stopped from seeking medical assistance by the superiors at the convent when she discovers her pregnancy, even when her own health becomes at risk. It’s an apt representation of the dangerous pro-life agenda being pushed by right wing politics right now.
Immaculate doesn’t really do anything new or interesting which is its biggest problem. It’s not bad, but it never tries to find an identity of its own in the genre. If you’re after something to shock without requiring much thought, Immaculate will scratch that itch. But it failed to live up to the expectations I’d had set by many others.