Immaculate - or Immaculately Flawed
- Viktoria
- Feb 9
- 5 min read
Director: Michael Mohan
Country of origin: United States, Italy
Spoiler status: Light spoilers
Sub-genre: Psychological horror
Immaculate delivers a fairly familiar story, at least at first. A young nun joins a convent in the Italian countryside where she uncovers the nuns' dark secrets, but the darkest of them all is yet to come. The movie's eerie mood is set early, but the usual nun tropes break the focus. It's hard to feel dread when all one can think about is the lack of originality. Unfortunately, the visuals weren't helping either. In some scenes, the screen was so dark that it was fairly hard to see what was happening. It's a general rule that horror movies need to be dark for mood, but there's a limit to everything. Thankfully, the movie had some redeeming qualities. The acting was great. Sweeney's portrayal of a person in distress is without fault. Her emotions seemed real and raw, evoking dread in the viewers.
If you like slow-burn horror movies with deep, dark secrets and don't mind squinting from time to time to see what's happening on the screen, you will definitely like this one.
A Deep Dive Into The Dark
Horror movies dealing with the topic of nuns, the Church, or anything related to Catholicism usually go in the direction of the supernatural. Dealing with curses presented as miracles is something fans of the genre grew accustomed to. The movie plays into this genre trope, at least at first. We're led to believe that what's happening to Sister Cecilia (played by Sydney Sweeney) is something otherworldly and holy. It doesn't take too long to realize that something more sinister is going on in the background. People who rock the boat tend to turn up dead, and usually, there's a perfect explanation for it. At this point, the convent looks more like a cult than a religious organization, which only adds to the movie's already dark and gritty mood.
From people being buried alive to the very last murder, the feelings of anxiety and unease are ever-present. These feelings, paired with gore, give the audience a perfectly balanced experience. The story progresses very slowly, giving the viewers enough time to drink in all the details and create their own theories about what's happening within the walls of Our Lady of Sorrow. The director then breaks down all those theories and expectations, one by one, creating an even better plot twist. The only thing breaking the otherwise perfectly built-up mood is the soundtrack. The angelic church music breaks the scenes' dark and gritty image, softening their blow. Every time the story comes to a high point in the plot, the soft tunes deflate the scene. But the unfortunate choice of soundtrack isn't the only thing diminishing the emotional weight of the narrative.
The uneven lighting in some of the most important scenes is an issue that needs to be addressed. Understandably, the director wants the darkness in a horror movie. Usually, it adds to the feeling of unease because evil likes to exploit the advantages it brings. It also tends to represent the lack or loss of hope in characters. In this case, the lack of light didn't help advance the story. It took away from important moments, making it nearly impossible to see what was happening. This was definitely an error that should've been avoided for the sake of storytelling. Luckily, Sydney Sweeney's impeccable acting pulled the story back on the right track.
Sweeney's depiction of Sister Cecilia was beautifully raw. Her character was written as a sweet, caring person appalled by the unsettling happenings at Our Lady of Sorrow. She embodied all the right emotions and conveyed them to the audience perfectly. Her acting was balanced; there were no redundant tears or over-the-top reactions. She made Sister Cecilia feel like a real human being whose faith was slowly but surely extinguished in the worst possible way. Another notable presence that needs to be mentioned is Father Sal Tedeschi, played by Alvaro Morte. The audience realizes very early on that Father Tedeschi isn't what he pretends to be, which is a sweet and understanding person one can turn to. Morte's depiction of the character is pleasingly unsettling, making it one of the most memorable ones in the film. The writers did a great job of twisting faith in God and religion into something unnatural and depicting the two sides of the coin through Sister Cecilia and Father Tedeschi.
On one side, we have the Father, who believed so much in the cause that he was willing to murder for it. On the other side, we have Sister Cecilia, who, throughout everything that's happened to her at the convent, is driven to the sin of taking multiple lives. She mentioned that to her, becoming a nun wasn't a decision. One could conclude that this lifestyle came as naturally to her as breathing, yet at the end of the movie, we see her love for it turn into pure hatred. Her faith and religion were used against her in the most twisted way possible, making her transformation that much more powerful. She grew from a sweet, somewhat naive person into a resilient and dangerous one, giving us plenty of gore-filled scenes.
From bashing someone's head in with an ornate cross to a person cutting into a baby bump, this movie has lots of disturbing imagery. Gore was definitely present throughout the scenes, but the movie is still a psychological horror. The subtle nuances in the lighting and the use of silence in some of the more important scenes definitely elevate the feeling of unease, making those segments more memorable. The fact that there are barely any jump scares adds to the psychological dread. Unfortunately, the ill-matched soundtrack and the unnecessarily dark scenes deflated the whole experience.
Final Verdict
Immaculate is a great story in theory, but the execution was somewhat flawed. It definitely included too many tropes of horror movies about Catholicism, like the rebel nun or the nun who followed all the rules to a T. Using these tropes spoils the fun for viewers, because in many cases, it's obvious what's going to happen. Nonetheless, the story was still enjoyable, and the main plot twist was definitely a fresh take on the idea of immaculate conception.
People who like religion-related horror movies will most likely enjoy this one, even with the obvious faults. It's dark, gritty, and subtly haunting; everything a fan of psychological horror could wish for.
Rating: 🕯️🕯️🕯️
This movie deserves a 3/5. The story is solid, and the actors did a great job. I subtracted one candle for the tropes. I don't like feeling like a medium when watching a movie; being so obvious with characters is a big no-no for me. The other candle was subtracted for the bad soundtrack and the uneven lighting. Other than that, I quite enjoyed the story.
If you're interested, the trailer is below:
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