Movie Review: ‘Immaculate’
Director: Michael Mohan
Cast: Sydney Sweeney, Álvaro Morte, Dora Romano, Benedetta Porcaroli, Giorgio Colangeli, Simona Tabasco
Plot: Sister Cecilia has been a devout Christian from a young age, and has accepted an invitation to take her vows at a convent in Italy. Shortly after her arrival, Cecilia finds herself pregnant despite being a virgin, an event that inhabitants of the convent declare a blessing from God.
Review: There’s been something odd hovering over Immaculate. This low-key psychological/theological horror movie ran the risk of being overshadowed by star Sydney Sweeney being hailed not as the bearer of immaculate conception but the icon of ‘anti-woke’ rhetoric. If you’re unfamiliar (lucky you), the term ‘woke’ is the ultra-right wing knee-jerk response to anything they don’t like. For example, if something stars a woman, a person of colour, a queer person or in any way fails to pander to the middle-aged straight white male demographic, then it is ‘woke’ and can be dismissed. Those who espouse this narrow worldview have, for some reason, declared that actress Sydney Sweeney’s physical appearance is somehow ‘anti-woke’. By fitting their ideal of attractiveness, declaring your attraction to her really sticks it to the ‘woke’ crowd.
You may be finding this line of thinking confusing (that’s ok, Sweeney also finds it confusing). How a woman’s body became so politicised is a sign of the weird culture-wars that many people are intent on using their media platforms to yell about. You may also be wondering what exactly this has to do with Immaculate. As Sweeney’s last two films, Madame Web and Anyone But You, elevated her star status, the new line of thinking was that Woke Hollywood was forcing Sweeney into this Satanic Woke Movie in order to tear down her role in destroying the Woke Crowd.
This entire claim is astonishingly barmy, even if you put aside the logic that this movie wasn’t written, produced and distributed in a week. We wanted to include it here simply because trying to understand that mindset is more of a psychological nightmare than anything this movie throws at us.
To get to the movie we’re actually reviewing here, Immaculate feels very much like a European thriller from decades past. The religious themes, isolated setting and themes of oppression and body horror makes this a solid revisitation of an era of cinema past. Sister Cecilia (Sweeney) enters the story feeling uncomfortable, being questioned by border officials and getting some chilly welcomes from those at the convent. Not knowing the language, feeling out of place culturally and encountering some who are outward hostile makes her feel isolated. Some unusual aspects of the convent, such as an elderly nun having cruciform scars on the soles of her feet, add to the unsettling air of the place.
When Cecilia discovers that she has become pregnant through mysterious means, it is viewed as a blessing, even a miracle. Having survived a near-death experience at a very young age, Cecilia and many others believe that she was protected by God for this role. The situation becomes more sinister as Cecilia’s health worsens, another nun attempts to kill her and there’s messages warning her away from the convent. Upon discovering that there is someone manipulating events, Cecilia realises that she needs to escape.
At the outset, it appears that the main drive of the story would be the ambiguity as to the nature of the pregnancy. Whether this truly is a divine miracle and Cecilia is carrying the second coming of Christ or something else gets resolved surprisingly early in the film. Stop here if you want to avoid spoilers, but a priest in the convent has been secretly impregnating nuns using DNA taken from what he believes to be a nail driven through Jesus’ hand during his crucifixion. That’s an interesting concept, but it does take the mystery out of the story for the most part, and we shift to a story of imprisonment and torture. After a number of escape attempts, Cecilia resorts to violence just as she goes into labour.
Immaculate is a solid thriller, with some good body horror thrown in make us squirm. Themes of religion and reproductive autonomy are mostly window dressing, and don’t get explored in great detail. Once the reveal about the pregnancy is given, much of the mystery is dispelled, leaving us with the escape attempts. It’s a decent film, but it doesn’t give us anything new.
Rating: SIX out of TEN
