REVIEW: Immaculate

"If God didn't want us to do this, why does he not stop us?"

Famous last words that should apply to every fictitious geneticist. In this case, the brooding priests behind 2024's Immaculate. 

The film centers on Sydney Sweeney's Cecilia, a naive new addition to an ominous convent in Italy. Her happy moments are short lived, as strange behaviors abound, and an elder is shown to have holy brands on her feet.

Cecilia is soon preggo via Jesus, or so the elders say. The film strangely sidesteps a lot of potential to dive deep on the essence of faith, or the psychological impact of finding one's self in Cecilia's position. Instead the film opts to take the horror route, which gets no complaints from me, but I just wish the ride wasn't so slow. The surprises along the way aren't very surprising either.

I rather liked the twist as to what is the root of Cecilia's pregnancy, in addition to what it means for the leads of the convent.

Some of the imagery, in particular some horror visions of masked nuns, work to good effect, but they are too few and far between. This is one slow burn.

I would have thought Rosemary's Baby would be the big comparison here, but instead I'm reminded of Ti West's 2009 slow burner "House Of The Devil". Both films chug their way to the inevitable horrific finale, but I found the ride in House to be much more superior, with splashes of terrible satanic imagery amongst an otherwise ordinary house. In Immaculate, the whole damn setting is creepy looking, so the random punches never seem to hit so hard.

Sydney Sweeney as Cecilia is terrific casting. She has the appropriate Doe eyed innocence the role calls for, and can also hit the darker notes when things get hairy. I only wish some scenes didn't call for shrill scream after shrill scream. While she's got the chops for scream queen status, I just found it a little grating over time. 

The final act is appropriately bloody, but inappropriately laid back somehow. The final moments in particular made me feel as though a few sneaky peeks would have been nice, but I am grateful to the film for not copping out on the dark themes, especially those involving sacrilege. A lesser filmmaker may have taken the easy way out with many of these scenes.

In the end, I'd say the film isn't a poor entry to the subgenre of religious terror, but it definitely has superior competition. Not all Immaculate religious babies are destined for the throne I suppose.