Released: 21st March
Seen: 31st March
Religious horror is a fascinating genre when it’s done right. The concept of something holy being turned into something evil is a prime concept for horror, the catch is that there is a certain section of the audience who don’t believe in the specific holy element that the film is working with so you have to make them believe in it just enough for the horror to work. When done right you can get great works of horror like The Exorcist, Rosemary’s Baby (fuck Roman Polanski) or The Omen. When done wrong you get… well, the sequels and remakes of those three movies. Immaculate is the newest entry into the religious horror subgenre and it’s fair to say this is one of the ones that does it right, but also does it in a way that’s gloriously fucked up.
Immaculate follows the young Sister Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney) as she enters her new life living in an Italian convent where she’ll be caring for dying nuns who are living out their final days. While there are some strange things going on, such as some of the nuns seemingly having crosses burned into their feet or a secret altar where a nail from Jesus’ crucifixion can be found, for the most part, Sister Cecilia is able to adjust to her new home… until one day when a sudden case of nausea reveals that she is pregnant. Since Sister Cecilia has never had sex, that means that she is clearly giving birth to something truly holy and at that point, things start to get weird. Other sisters show violent jealousy towards Cecilia as they believe they were meant to be impregnated, important doctor appointments are being handled at the convent instead of a hospital and perhaps most strangely, there’s a bunch of nuns with red glittering masks just slipping around at night. Whatever is currently inside Cecilia, its birth can’t mean anything good.
On the surface, Immaculate takes the idea of an unholy religious pregnancy (something that informed the iconic Rosemary’s Baby, fuck Roman Polanski) and plays it as dead seriously as you can. The idea that this will all end with a birth that could end the world creates a powerful ticking time bomb that ups the tension with every scene and the more that the other characters try to stop Cecilia from escaping her pregnancy prison, the more determined she becomes and the more you root for her to just get out of there. Slowly things get more and more fucked up the more desperate our main character becomes and sure enough there’s plenty of the good old red stuff to help sell the terror until the final scene which might be one of the most insane things we’ll see in a movie this year (certainly one with a mainstream talent in the lead, I can’t imagine many other big name actors are going to allow a film to imply they shoved a dead chicken in certain areas). If all you want is an intense thrill ride, this ride starts slow and builds into the kind of shocker that’ll have you sitting back in your seat screaming “What the fuck did I just see?”
Peel back the layer of religiosity and Immaculate ends up being a timely story of a woman being forced to carry a baby that she doesn’t want to full term because a couple of powerful men decide that it’s God’s will, no matter what might happen to the mother. That’s right, we got us one hell of a powerful pro-choice anti-forced-birth metaphor going and it’s handled with the exact right amount of subtlety… none. This is such a pointed attack on the forced-birth movement (i guess they like to be called Pro-Life but… yeah, it’s forced birth) that the characters are a second away from turning to the camera and going “Do you see how fucked up this is? This is what you do, do you get it now?” and it’s kind of glorious. The horror largely comes from how Cecilia is treated, how people refuse to give her accurate information or even help her because they feel that their religious beliefs trump her autonomy. Even when they first ask her about the pregnancy, she’s denied all the information she needs before she answers their question, it’s pointedly taking the real horror that real women go through and turning it up a notch to the realm of the supernatural.
What makes Immaculate work to the level it does is Sydney Sweeney, who delivers one of the all-time greatest scream queen performances, one that’s unafraid to go from mousy to slightly sexual to just flat-out terrified. There’s not even a second where Sydney is holding back, she’s not afraid to throw herself completely into every horrifying moment and truly goes there for the more extreme moments. Seriously, the final shot is just a close-up of her face and that alone does the job of telling the whole story. It’s no surprise that Sydney is so completely committed to the performance since she produces the film as well, having bought the script to make sure it got made. The fact that she used the clout she’s been building with her work on Euphoria to make a fucked up horror film like this is one of the most badass things I could imagine her doing and thank goodness she did, I hope she does a ton more of these because she is perfect in this genre. She has that natural innocent doe-eyed look that makes it so easy to root for her but when she wants to kick ass, it’s incredible to witness.
What also helps is that every element of the filmmaking is perfect, in particular the sound design which is so pointed and specific that it demands attention. The sound design is absolutely immaculate, some of the biggest moments of tension coming from how long they let the creaking of a door linger on or the sickening sounds of something off-screen that we can only imagine. The use of choirs and hymns is certainly expected when dealing with a film set in a convent, but it creates one hell of an atmosphere here. Also helping is the stunning visuals, the filmmakers clearly understand the classic rule that if you set a horror film in a world full of blacks, whites and muted browns that the blood red will stand out and oh boy does Immaculate use that to great effect. The framing of each shot almost invites you to scan the background looking for a jumpscare, the scenes set in pitch blackness are carefully set up so you can follow the action and some of the most effective moments happen just in the background, all carefully prepared for maximum impact.
Immaculate feels like some kind of miracle, a modern religious horror movie with an important subtext made by some damn great filmmakers. It’s scary, twisted, a little funny and a unique spin on a classic concept. The final 2 minutes alone are worth the price of admission, it’s the kind of original horror movie that we need more of and hopefully will inspire companies to take the risk and do wilder things like this. Immaculate is about as close to perfection as you could hope for this kind of film, that feels like something worth celebrating.
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