IMMACULATE – Review by T.J. Callahan
Immaculate: Get thee out of this nunnery.
Immaculate is a conception of the blasphemous kind that takes place in a convent where young women enter, but they never leave.
Set in a remote abbey in the picturesque Italian countryside, Immaculate tells the story of Sister Cecilia, an American nun who decides to leave the tragedies of her childhood behind to start a new life serving with a well established order. However, she soon learns “Satan himself often masquerades as an angel of light.”
Sydney Sweeney, the new “It Girl” (despite being in Madame Web), dons the habit as Sister Cecelia. If anyone could bring a twinge of sexiness to a woman of the cloth, it’s Sweeney. She may have been cloistered, but she isn’t confined under her gown…if you know what I mean.
Immaculate is a by the Good Book religious horror film. The convent is dark and old, there are forbidden catacombs, the priests have ulterior motives, the score is eerie and there’s an over dependence on jump scares. Still Sweeney, as the conduit for the second coming of Christ, sinks her teeth, literally, into this role and delivers on all Stations of the Cross providing enough cringe worthy moments to make horror film virgins repent.
Sweeney wanted this part badly enough to take on the role of producer as well as acquiring and revising the original 2014 script, hiring a director and selling the film to Neon. Sounds like a Mother Superior to me,
Immaculate is in English and Italian with some subtitles. Say three Hail Marys before entering the theater and hang on for an unCONVENTional thriller. The TeejFlixometer gives it a 6 out of 10.
