This is the so-called “twin film“ of The First Omen, even though the script for Immaculate was already written way back in 2014. Sydney Sweeney was 17 when she auditioned for the film to play an aspiring nun. Nothing much happened after that and the film fell into development hell. What a fitting situation for a nun film. However, the script stuck with Sweeney and after some well-earned money after being in the hit TV show Euphoria, she bought the rights to produce the film herself. So this clearly became a passion project for her. She hired Michael Mohan to direct, who she’d worked with on the erotic thriller The Voyeurs (2021), and got a distribution deal with Neon.
The film starts with a spooky opening scene with a young nun who fails to escape from a secluded convent, a place we, of course, are going back to later. As she’s about to get through the locked gates, she breaks her leg and gets captured by a group of obscure cloak-wearing persons who then… bury her alive. God bless.
Then we’re introduced to the rookie nun Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney) who’s just moved to Italy, all away from Detroit, to devote her life to her great Savior. Because when she managed to survive after drowning under the ice of a frozen lake, and being clinically dead for seven minutes, she swallowed the shiny Christian pill and never looked back.
The first act is pretty straight forward. She settles in the convent where she meets a variety of nuns. Some are young, some are old, and then we have those you’d stay far away from. The convent is also far in the middle of the countryside where the sense of isolation starts to creep in sooner than later. The language barrier is also strong, as she can hardly speak Italian. But if she did, the film would’ve had to require subtitles. And Americans are too lazy to bother with such a thing, so …
While she does the best she can to blend in, she starts having nightmares and sees creepy visions in her bedroom. And after taking a bloodtest, she finds out that she’s – pregnant. Just out of the blue. Huh. The staff is, however, ecstatic as they now see her as a Virgin Mary with a gift from God himself, and against her will, hold her captive in the convent during her trimesters. From here on, the similarities to The First Omen goes in their separate directions, where Immaculate serves its own unique little spin on the nun/pregnancy horror sub-genre.
Director Michael Mohan does a pretty good job, considering this is his first horror film with primary romcoms under his belt. A big leap, for sure. Solid camerawork all the way through with tasty visuals where the inspiration from classic Italian horror films really shines. While there are some cheap jumpscares shoehorned in here, the film relies mostly on mood and atmosphere where we have the isolated eeriness of the convent to creepy catacombs, all shot on locations in Rome and the outskirts. No frontal nudity here, unfortunately, just to make that clear. Sydney Sweeney is, for some, known for two things, but she’s also a top tier actress who conveys layers of intense emotions with her eyes alone – while she carries the whole film with a big bucket of blood to the s h o c k i n g ending.
Director: Michael Mohan
Writer: Andrew Lobel
Country & year: USA/Italy, 2024
Actors: Sydney Sweeney, Álvaro Morte, Simona Tabasco, Benedetta Porcaroli, Giorgio Colangeli, Dora Romano, Giulia Heathfield Di Renzi, Giampiero Judica, Betty Pedrazzi, Giuseppe Lo Piccolo
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23137390/
