'Immaculate' (2024) Reaction

Religious horror has been a staple in horror for over half a century, with films like The Exorcist (1973) and The Omen (1976) being extremely popular early examples. Over the decades, the subgenre started having its own subsections within itself, from exorcism films to “nunsploitation” movies. There’s no shortage of productions under this umbrella, with several new releases each year, all varying in quality. While some tend to be forgettable or just subpar in general, there’s always one or two that stick out from the rest and make their mark on the genre.

Immaculate, released on March 22, opened to rave reviews from both film critics and horror fans, and is a fantastic example of making something memorable in a genre that’s become so formulaic and oversaturated with each new film. One of the most important things to say right off the bat is that it’s best to go into this movie as blind as possible, which is why I won’t dive too deep into the plot here (and never do whenever I write about new movie releases) — I knew almost nothing about this film when I walked into the theater to see it, and it ended up being one of my favorite movies I’ve seen this year so far. However, to provide a small amount of exposition for the sake of awareness, the official logline states, “Sydney Sweeney stars as Cecilia, an American nun of devout faith, embarking on a new journey in a remote convent in the picturesque Italian countryside. Cecilia’s warm welcome quickly devolves into a nightmare as it becomes clear her new home harbors a sinister secret and unspeakable horrors.”

At just under an hour and a half, Immaculate takes its time with establishing its characters and environment, but it’s far from a boring slow-burn. It doesn’t take long for the film to pick up during the later half, and the finale easily sticks with the viewer as one of the most unsettling horror endings in recent memory. It’s not an extremely gory film, but it certainly has its graphically disturbing moments — it’s more of a character-driven movie, but the practical effects during the visually shocking sequences keep the viewer in the moment with how convincing they look. One of the best aspects of the movie, however, is its ability to create an immersively dark and perturbing atmosphere for the viewer, with a lot of that stemming from the cinematography — the film itself looks dark and bleak, with a fair amount of the film taking place either at night or in darklit indoor spaces, and the colors in the daytime have more of a grayish tone to them. Overall, it’s photographed extremely well, with the framing and color choices perfectly setting the tone from scene to scene.

Immaculate is also a film that comes off as well-researched — director Michael Mohan and star Sydney Sweeney have done several interviews in which they state their love for the genre, and their influences definitely come through in their movie. Whether they’re subtle, obvious, intentional or completely coincidental, fans might notice a few narrative and aesthetic nods to films like Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Carrie (1976), Inside (2007), Possession (1981), and several others. Additionally, there’s a multi-leveled approach to how the film scares audiences, from the suspenseful atmosphere and genuinely shocking material to relying on jumpscares — some people, myself included, prefer the former over the latter, but it’s still nice to see a film that can do both, especially when it’s effective.

Musically, Will Bates composed a fantastic score that utilizes an array of instrumentation, from classical strings to synthetic sounds to choral layers. What’s also important is that the film also knows when to be silent and not have any non-diegetic sound in certain scenes — the absence of music is what made films like The Exorcist so impactful, and it does the same with Immaculate. However, it feels like there’s much more music in Immaculate than there was in The Exorcist, making it feel like the moments that have no music don’t discredit the amazing work that Bates did.

As far as the characters themselves go, everyone in the cast excels in bringing their characters to life in a way that’s convincing enough to the point that the viewer is emotionally invested in what actually occurs throughout the course of the film’s events, which is also a testament to the writing of Andrew Lobel. The supporting cast is incredible at fulfilling the roles of their individual characters, but if there’s one main takeaway from this film, it’s the undeniable acting chops of Sydney Sweeney. Her performance in Immaculate is one of the most convincing I’ve seen in a long time, and will easily go down in horror history as one of the best ever. It’s also interesting to know that this is a role she’s been preparing for for a decade — having first auditioned for the role in 2014 when Lobel’s script was much different from what we have today, Sweeney eventually acquired the rights to the screenplay and chose Immaculate to be her first film as a producer. It’s great to see how she took matters into her own hands and made the film her own, with such an impactful end-result. As someone who didn’t know a lot about her and never saw any of her work before this movie, Immaculate instantly turned me into a fan of hers, and I hope to see her in more horror films because she did such an amazing job with this film.

All in all, Immaculate is a movie that seems unassuming at the start, but will leave you rattled and endlessly thinking about it by its conclusion. As someone who occasionally feels jaded and desensitized by horror films, this is the first movie in a long time that stuck with me to the point that I walked out of the theater wondering what I just saw and had a hard time not thinking about for days after seeing it. In a year that’s already had such abysmal releases like Night Swim and Imaginary, Immaculate feels like a breath of fresh air and comfortably sits as one of the best horror films of 2024.

For more information on Immaculate, click here.

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