Worth: $14.00
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Cast:
Sydney Sweeney, Álvaro Morte, Benedetta Porcaroli, Dora Romano, Giorgio Colangeli, Simona Tabasco
Intro:
… if you’re keen for a slick, well-acted and engaging little horror thriller set in a convent, you’ll probably have a solid enough time, although one that’s unlikely to make you want to convert.
If you’re a horror fan, you’ve likely pondered the question “who has produced the most consistently horrific imagery?” You might think it’s John Carpenter with the likes of The Thing or Halloween. Perhaps you reckon it’s David Cronenberg, with The Fly or Videodrome. Or maybe you opine that it’s one of the loopy Italians, like Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci or Michele Soavi with the sumptuous visual horror of Suspiria, The Beyond or Cemetery Man.
All notable guesses, friends, but all wrong. The creator of the ghastliest iconography is the Catholic Church and it’s not even close. Dripping with blood, suffused with suffering and downright obsessive about torture, the Catholic Church was giving peasants nightmares before the notion of cinema was even a twinkle in the eyes of the Lumière brothers. This is a fact that has been well mined in genre cinema and Immaculate, the latest film from current It girl Sydney Sweeney, uses it to vivid if inconsistent effect.
Immaculate is the story of young nun, Sister Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney), who has received an invitation to an exclusive convent in Italy that acts as a sort of retirement home (aka God’s waiting room) for nuns who are nearing the end of their lives. At first, things are odd but mostly benign, with Cecilia slowly adapting to the convent’s strange rhythms, but when the wide-eyed bride of Christ – who is a legit virgin – finds herself up the duff … things take a turn for the surreal and the dark secret of the convent begins to reveal itself.
The film has all the right ingredients in place. Effectively creepy central location, sterling performance from Sydney Sweeney (who continues to impress in literally every film that isn’t called Madame Web) and lush, atmospheric direction from Michael Mohan (who directed Sweeney in The Voyeurs). However, the central mystery is a bit predictable, and the runtime doesn’t leave a lot of room for a slow burn build or mounting suspense. The result is a film that’s fitfully effective but never quite gets under your skin as much as one might hope. There are moments that are shocking, others that are creepy, but it doesn’t hang together or feel like a cohesive whole.
So, if you have a hankering for a solid slice of nunsploitation like Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta or the classic of them all, Ken Russell’s The Devils, you’ll likely be disappointed. On the other hand, if you’re keen for a slick, well-acted and engaging little horror thriller set in a convent, you’ll probably have a solid enough time, although one that’s unlikely to make you want to convert.
