Immaculate
Photo Courtesy of NEON
Religion & horror often go hand in hand. Add in one of the hottest movie stars on the planet & you'd think Immaculate would be a surefire hit.
Set within the walls of a remote Italian convent Immaculate sees Sydney Sweeney playing Sister Cecilia, an American looking to explore her faith further. Sister Cecilia does this by devoting her life to caring for elderly nuns in their dying days. However, as beautiful & idyllic as the convent appears there is an eerie veil of uneasiness & secrecy that lingers over the place.
The disturbing nature of the convent is only heightened by the use of flickering candlelight throughout & peering eyes seemingly lingering around every corner. It's not until the virgin Sister Cecelia suddenly falls pregnant that the true sinister nature of this place reveals itself.
Much of Immaculate plays out slowly throughout three chapters, aptly echoing pregnancy trimesters. Just like pregnancy, this slow build culminates in an overwhelming, painful climax. Sweeney's performance as Sister Cecilia wonderfully conveys this to the audience, with a vast majority of the film relying on subtle facial experience or eye movements from the star. In these final climactic moments though Sweeney rockets herself into the annals of scream queen lore with one scene that will be seared into your memory forevermore.
Where the film does fall short though is in the pacing, with much of the poignant & impactful moments happening in the final 15-20 minutes of 89 minute runtime. An over reliance on the stereotypical horror tropes such as; squeaky wooden doors, masked shadow figures, candlelight, jump scares & towards the later part of the film body horror prevents the films from reaching the potential height of the genre.
Overall, Immaculate's exploration of themes surrounding female sexual objectification, bodily autonomy, & religion is subdued but effective. While entertaining this new film, carried by Sydney Sweeney's immaculate performance, relies too heavily on predictable tropes & thus fails to deliver the second coming of great Catholic horror.
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