Catholic priests have recently had an easy time in horror movies. Films such as The Exorcism of Emily Rose and The Pope’s Exorcist portray the Vatican as supporting heroic figures who vanquish demons, despite the actual institution being entangled in problems reported by Spotlight.
By pitting a virtual novice against a malevolent hierarchy that seeks to take advantage of her for the sake of the faith, Immaculate modifies the formula. Similar to Rosemary’s Baby and The Omen, Immaculate uses a supposedly more well-meaning scheme to bring about the Second Coming in order to foil the evil plans of those movies to call for the arrival of the Antichrist.
Sweeney’s blood-smeared to-camera look is the quintessential face of horror in 2024.
Sydney Sweeney, who co-directed The Voyeurs with Michael Mohan, puts a lot of effort into Immaculate, nearly pulling it out of the corny religious horror film genre. Devoted to her superiors, no matter how harsh, brutal, or callous, Sister Cecilia attempts to obey them, taking her vows seriously. She is truly a virgin. Up until the moment when her attempts to flee break her meekness and more severe punishment is meted out. The Italian convent she lives in is a magnificently Gothic setting, complete with sternly fanatical priests, a Frankensteinian birthing suite decorated with bottled mutants, some mentioned early, off-limits catacombs that are sure to figure in the third act, and a sinister sub-order of red-masked torturer nuns (cue the unsettling reuse of a track from Bruno Nicolai’s score for the 1972 Italian horror film The Red Queen Kills Seven Times).
Although the high concept of Immaculate isn’t totally original—some significant story points were borrowed for Stuart Urban’s 2001 picture Revelation—Mohan’s delivery of it is frank and viciously powerful. In its earlier, more subdued moments, the film does a better job of criticizing the church’s treatment of women, as Cecilia is simultaneously regarded as a potential saint and as disposable wrapping paper for the gift that the church elders truly desire. However, the influence is seen during the difficult last stages, when Cecilia, who is severely pregnant, abused, and experiencing a spiritual crisis, resorts to drastic — and highly contentious — means to elude God’s will. Sweeney, with his blood-smeared to-camera look and soul-cracking scream, is the quintessential 2024 horror face.