Immaculate review
Sydney Sweeney makes a bold, interesting career move with Immaculate. It pays off with a blood curdling scream.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Immaculate
Directed by Michael Mohan
Written by Andrew Lobel
Starring Sydney Sweeney, Simona Tabasco, Álvaro Morte, Benedetta Porcaroli, Dora Romano and Giampiero Judica
Immaculate Review
The box office success of Anyone but You points to a public ready to embrace Sydney Sweeney as a rom-com star. Her efforts to bring Immaculate to the screen, and her success in the role, may reveal that her heart lies elsewhere. Sweeney read the script for Immaculate a decade ago. There was no movement in production for years. Once she started to break out in industry…Sweeney returned to writer Andrew Lobel and requested an updated script. Then she produced the thing herself.
It’s not a role you would expect a budding star to play…let alone carry a decade’s worth of passion towards. Her Sister Cecilia is a completely unglamorous role. The content of the story will prove controversial to devout Christians. Sweeney’s desire to make this movie is something to applaud. While the above points to reasons that young stars don’t seek out this type of material…Sweeney’s performance reveals something else. An actor who is willing to get her hands dirty to create a role she can sink her teeth into.
Sister Cecilia (Sweeney) heads to a convent in Italy to take her holy vows. She’s been recruited to the order by Father Sal (Álvaro Morte) when her own American parish shut down. Cecilia is looking for her purpose in life. She’s been doing so since she died many years ago only to be brought back to life. Convinced that God saved her for a reason…Cecilia is certain that becoming a nun is the right thing to do. It proves to be a difficult adjustment. Even more so when she becomes pregnant despite keeping to her vow of chastity.
The first act of Immaculate is a fish out of water story. Cecilia finds herself far from home in a place where she doesn’t speak the language and struggling to fit in. That changes when the sisters believe her pregnancy is a miracle. Up to that point, Immaculate could easily be confused with a drama. At least, it could be if not for an opening that shows us there is something explicitly wrong in the convent. Make no mistake…Immaculate is a horror film. A horror film that slowly builds to a bloody, wild finish and ends with an incredibly bold performance from Sweeney. Anyone who watches this movie won’t be thinking about her part in Madame Web. Or, for that matter, Anyone but You.
There is a conspiracy afoot, of course. It is slowly revealed over the course of Cecilia’s three trimesters. After her water breaks…all hell breaks loose. Sweeney does a fine job with the fish out of water part. She does a better job with the suspicious, worried victim part. She kills it with the bloody vengeance part. The convent may have considered her a miracle from the moment she returned to life…they missed the bigger picture. Cecilia is a survivor.
Sweeney is well suited to the changing role. Her large expressive eyes do a lot of heavy lifting for a part played quietly until it’s time to rage. When I say this is an unglamorous part…I mean in more ways than wearing a conservative nun outfit sans make-up. It isn’t a showy performance. Until it is. The work that Sweeney does by the end of Immaculate is as challenging, compelling, and brave as anything you’re going to find in modern horror. She is incredible in those big moments.
Everything builds to a moment that deserves to become iconic. That moment is all in the performance. A kind of risk that most young stars wouldn’t go near. That Sweeney sought it for so long…and forced it through herself…opens an interesting potential path forward. The rom coms are sure to continue. Hopefully, we see a future with a few more stops in the horror realm. She proves uniquely suited for some important aspects of the genre. Fearlessness, first and foremost.
Fittingly, for a story that she was passionate about from the start, Immaculate is Sweeney’s movie completely. It’s well made…and has some interesting visual horror ideas. But it lives and dies on Sweeney’s performance. Like the character she plays…her performance proves to be unstoppable.
Scare Value
Sweeney deserves to be commended for bringing Immaculate to the screen. It is easily the most interesting movie she appears in this year. She delivers in front of the camera with a bold, unglamorous performance. A slow burn that stays interesting long enough to become a bloody good time. This isn’t the type of story you usually see a budding superstar gravitate towards. It’s good that she did.
4/5
Immaculate Link
In theaters now – Fandango
