Immaculate: Movie Review

Cast: Sydney Sweeney, Benedetta Porcaroli, Simona Tabasco, Alvaro Morte

Director: Michael Mohan

Re-teaming with her The Voyeurs director Michael Mohan, Euphoria and Madame Web star Sydney Sweeny plays a nun in this horror that ends up being a commentary on women's bodies and reproductive rights while adding in some scares as well.

Sweeney is Sister Cecilia, a newcomer to an exclusive convent in Italy where old nuns live out their final days before ascending to heaven. Initially finding her calling a tonic to a near death experience, she soon begins to discover oddities at the convent, including a nail reportedly used to crucify Jesus.

Soon her life is in danger in more ways than one.

Mohan's sparse story and gentle helming of this film initially yields minimal results, from jump scares to atmospheric dissonance, there's much here that feels ripped from the likes of Rosemary's Baby and the Omen films.

But gradually what unfurls in Immaculate is a film that doesn't overstate its intentions, nor overplay its journey. While Sweeney opts a lot for big-eyed horror at what unfolds, hers is a performance that feels fleshed out, offers some sense of dread and in the final moments, sees her blaze upon the screen.

Mainly a tale about the Church's desire to continue into eternity and the bastardisation of religious fervour, Immaculate's strength grows from moments that seize upon primal dread, mistrust of authority figures and the literal horror that men continue to do unpunished through the ages.

Yet while it doesn't hammer home its message, it's there for all to see and judge - but thanks to Sweeney's performance and a quietly insidious aesthetic, Immaculate emerges as something that is likely to inveigle its way under your skin in ways you'd least expect.