Review: Immaculate

Directed by: Michael Mohan

Written by: Andrew Lobel

Starring: Sydney Sweeney, Álvaro Morte, Benedetta Porcaroli, Dora Romano, Giorgio Colangeli

Rating: [2/5]

Being part of something important in world history exists as something people strive to achieve. This can be the discovery of something new or in the case of Immaculate, the second coming of Jesus Christ. In its attempts to be shocking with its narrative, this feature unfortunately repeatedly trips over itself and in the end it results in a movie that has nothing terribly interesting to say. 

Arriving in Italy to take her vows and formally become a nun, Sister Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney) encounters some resistance amongst her peers but sees some strange things happening at the convent. After a strange occurrence she learns that she is now pregnant; a shocking revelation given she has never had intercourse. It is proclaimed she now symbolizes another instance of an immaculate conception, which must be the second coming of Jesus Christ. 

At its core, Immaculate has some good ideas buzzing around when looking at what it would look like for an immaculate conception to happen again in our lifetimes. A miracle that should indicate something quite significant and for it to happen specifically to a nun, who vows a chaste life makes it all the more meaningful. While it should cause a celebration by all involved, this feature displays there are some darker reasons as to why this all has happened to Sister Cecilia and we see this specifically with the way she interacts with the other nuns. 

From the very start, this strange mystery hangs over this convent. It surely helps when the cold open of the feature involves something terrifying. It darts out of the gates questioning what in the world transpires at this convent and what danger awaits our protagonist. When Sister Cecilia gets revealed as the new iteration of Mother Mary, the film surely does not shy away from depicting her in that very imagery. How she then gets treated after that says a plenty about the other characters in the film but then the narrative needs to go somewhere and reveal its true horror elements and where it goes completely falls flat and is outright bad. 

Now, Immaculate has plenty on its mind as a film from its criticism of the Catholic Church to its very pro-choice ideals with Sister Cecilia’s journey but the way it navigates this through its narrative and how cartoonishly bad it gets does the film no favors whatsoever. This mostly transpires when the film seeks to explain how everything with Sister Cecilia’s pregnancy gets revealed. Honestly the film would have worked better if it just left it all as a mystery. The reveal demonstrates something so ridiculous that it veers into insulting, which only gets worse when the most intriguing elements of the horror, specifically involving some weirdly hooded nuns, gets paid smoke as well. Bad decision after bad decision just completely deflates whatever impact this film sought to achieve. 

A film that fumbles its narrative to this degree could normally get a lower score but the saving grace of it remains Sydney Sweeney’s performance. When dabbling in serious roles, Sweeney continues to prove her talents and she does just that in attempting to carry this film on her shoulders. She has all the qualities of a scream queen and she delivers all the emotions Sister Cecilia goes through in this gruesome experience. All of it culminated in a final scene that displayed the very best the film had to offer and allowed Sweeney to reach the pinnacle of what this role had to offer. Unfortunately, as good as she did with this role, the material she worked with just did not match up to what she managed to make of it.

Plenty of promise but painfully uninteresting as it navigates past the main hook of this story, Immaculate just does not have the goods. While often buoyed by its lead performer, this film seeks to deliver something meaningful but every decision it makes ensures it never accomplishes that goal. It cartoonishly navigates through its plot points and when it lands at the ultimate reveal it does nothing but elicit a laugh because of its sheer ridiculousness. At that point nothing could provide even the slightest bit of fear, which is the worst thing that could happen to a horror film.