Immaculate has a classic horror set-up: a convent hiding dark secrets under its supposed holiness. You may suspect you’ve seen all this before but, courtesy of one of Sydney Sweeney’s best performances to date, it’s an unexpectedly stand-out experience.
Sweeney plays Sister Cecilia, a young American nun invited to become part of a reclusive cloister in rural Italy. Cecilia’s devotion to God and the Church leads her to abandon her birth country in favor of a life of duty and servitude in an institution dedicated to caring for older sisters bound to their deathbeds. Disconnected from civilization and rooted in archaic notions of suffering as a gateway to salvation, the convent is the perfect hiding place for evil forces. As Sister Cecilia soon discovers, danger is lurking in her new home.
While Immaculate has a premise that sounds ideally suited for a horror movie, the execution leaves something to be desired. Unfortunately, that’s where this falls short, with a script that never evolves beyond its main plot points and a direction that never commits to a tone. The saddest part is that Immaculate had the potential to be much more memorable than it is, as we can see glimpses of brilliance in the moments where the movie is not afraid to subvert genre expectations.
For starters, during her stay at the secluded convent, Sister Cecilia meets a cast of supporting characters who feel like cardboard cuts instead of real people. This isn’t the fault of Immaculate’s cast, which includes the extremely talented Benedetta Porcaroli (Netflix’s Baby). On that note, Porcaroli is the best example of how tragic it is to have good actors in shallow roles, as not even the star’s mesmerizing energy can save her Sister Gwen from being utterly wasted.
Immaculate is more successful when it comes to exploring its setting. Hollywood has a tragic tradition of misusing foreign languages, but the movie turns linguistic barriers into powerful tools for secrecy and misdirection. Since Sister Cecilia moved to Italy without learning the local language, she feels isolated in a world she literally cannot understand. So, by removing subtitles in key scenes, Immaculate allows you to share Sister Cecilia’s confusion. Furthermore, since the unknown is the primary source of fear, being unable to understand the potentially creepy things other people talk about contributes to the movie’s general atmosphere of paranoia.
That said, it’s essential to underline Immaculate doesn’t have many surprising reveals. In fact, the plot unfolds quite predictably, which wouldn’t be a problem if the movie was not so upfront about how the mystery at its core is the most crucial aspect of the story. So, when masks fall and the reasons for the disturbing things in the cloister are revealed, it all feels too bland and obvious for you to care about it.
One final aspect where Immaculate disappoints is how it handles the story’s subtext. While the belief in a God (or many) is not problematic in itself, no one can ignore how religious institutions have historically favored the oppression of women. That’s not different in Christianity, which can still promote the twisted idea that women’s bodies are only needed for housework and reproduction. For centuries, institutional religion has reduced women, framing them as tools instead of people with their own desires and ambitions, a reality that Immaculate fails to portray correctly.
While movies should not necessarily worry about the social issues derived from their narrative settings, Immaculate explicitly incorporates the discussion into the story. So, the film cheapens its story by failing to deal with the subtext with the care and sensitivity it deserves.
All in all, Immaculate could be just another forgettable horror movie that genre fans could quickly toss aside. Yet, the casting of Sweeney in the leading role elevates the production to the point where the movie offers a disturbing emotional experience that lingers long after the credits roll.
Sweeney is no newcomer to the genre. In fact, one of the star’s first Hollywood roles was in John Carpenter‘s The Ward – and we can’t forget her appearance in the box office bomb Spiders 3D. Still, Immaculate is the first horror movie in Sweeney’s prolific career that depends entirely on her acting skills. Sweeney uses the opportunity to deliver a breathtaking performance, keeping you glued to the screen despite Immaculate struggling to find its footing. Thanks to Sweeney, it doesn’t matter that much that the plot is so barebones, as her emotional journey as Sister Cecilia is all the spectacle you could wish for.
Sweeney is the rare actor who has an enviable control of her microexpressions. She knows exactly how to depict complex emotions without the need to usher a single word. That helps Immaculate to keep its high emotional stakes during the entire runtime. There’s something incredibly moving in the way she can look directly at the camera, letting her eyes reflect the fear, sadness and despair of Sister Cecilia as she realizes she’s fallen into a dangerous trap.
Finally, Hollywood has a habit of casting Sweeney as shy, awkward, or secretive young women. Rarely does she get the chance to unleash her anger and despair as she does in Immaculate. As Sister Cecilia, Sweeney is free to release all the repressed energy she’s forced to keep as a subservient nun, and the result is nothing short of astonishing. If we were to judge Immaculate for that final scene alone, the movie would deserve to rank among the best horror projects of the last decade. That’s all due to Sweeney’s incredible emotional range and director Michael Mohan’s inspired decision to close the movie by focusing on her and her alone.
As a final word of warning, Immaculate doesn’t pull its punches when it comes to the depiction of explicit violence. These gory scenes can be uncomfortable for more sensitive moviegoers, so be prepared to witness some vomit-inducing images of blood and guts. Ironically, the most violent act of Immaculate is more suggested than shown, but it is precisely the thing that will make your skin crawl. So, while the movie is flawed for many reasons, Immaculate is still an excellent choice for horror fans and Sidney Sweeney aficionados.
