According to the press tour for Immaculate, Sydney Sweeney first auditioned for the film years ago. Despite not getting the role at the time, the script made a sizable impression on her. Thus, when she had enough clout, she immediately pursued it once again. Alas, for most of the jump scare-heavy but not especially frightening, horror movie, it’s difficult to understand why the script so captured her heart.
After a brief prelude that would cost Immaculate little to lose, audiences meet Sister Cecilia (Sweeney) at Italian customs. After surviving a fall through the ice in her childhood, Cecilia felt called to serve God although not sure how. When her Michigan congregation closed, the young nun felt even further adrigt from His will. However, an invitation from Father Sal (Álvaro Morte) feels like it might be her true purpose. Therefore, despite not speaking Italian, she accepts his invitation to a remote convent specializing in hospice for nuns.
Mother Superior (Dora Romano) and another novice nun, Sister Gwen (Benedetta Porcaroli), greet her kindly. The fellow Bride of Christ who makes the biggest impression, though, is Sister Isabella (Giulia Heathfield Di Renzi). She brings sharp bitterness to her first encounter with Cecilia, softening to warn Cecilia off taking the convent’s vows. When the new nun rejects the advice, Isabella doubles down on that initial attitude. The seeming professional rivalry only increases when Cecilia discovers she’s pregnant despite being a virgin.
Given Immaculate’s short running time—under an hour and a half, including closing credits—the attempts at vague foreboding that mark Cecilia’s arrival at the convent feel like unnecessary tire spinning. Viewers already saw Sister Mary’s (Simona Tabasco) fate during the prologue. They know this place is bad news. Let’s just get to the scares.
Sadly, even when the scares kick in, they’re lackluster. Jump scares and the occasional well-rendered sight of gore end up as the only tricks in this film’s horror bag. Some moments suggest a push further into the lurid would better serve Immaculate. It isn’t as though the film is unaware of the fetishistic nature of other nunsploitation films or Sweeney’s physical gifts. The director, Michael Mohan, previously teamed with Sweeney on the very good erotic thrilled The Voyeurs and proved he could showcase the sleazy and physically alluring without robbing characters of intelligence or humanity.
To be fair, it isn’t as though this movie is without glimpses of his better instincts. There’s a scene where Sweeney puts on her vestments for the first time, which plays like both an excuse to show the audience some skin and a superhero donning her costume for battle. Later, he frames a scene of the young nun kneeling before Father Sal and Cardinal Franco (Giorgio Colangeli), hinting at a far different scenario than receiving a blessing.
Mohan, with cinematographer Elisha Christian and production designer Adam Reamer, also delivers some visually satisfying moments beyond the lurid. For example, the convent initially looks gorgeous and well-maintained. But, as Cecilia becomes further ensnared, scenes increasingly unfold in cramped rooms with faded and peeling wallpaper or dusty rock-exposed walls. Another standout moment has the audience witnessing Sweeney finally unleashing some satisfying over-the-top wailing, only for a camera shift to reveal we’d actually been watching a reflection in a mirror, not the scene itself. Unfortunately, the increasingly rotting architecture never rises above an occasional easter egg. The reflection scene, no matter how well-shot, feels purposeless.
Immaculate only truly comes to life in its climax, which finds an increasingly feral Sweeney dispatching her colleagues turned captors with a series of religious items. This is the only time Andrew Lobel’s script realizes the film’s capacity for dark humor. Plus, it shows how satisfying a punchline, a moment of taking the Lord’s name in vain, can be when done at just the right time. It all closes on a screaming, snorting Sweeney’s face in a moment that leaves one thinking, “Oh, there’s the movie we should have been watching from the start.”
Immaculate takes its vows in theatres on March 22.