Immaculate Review: A New Scream Queen is Born!

Sydney Sweeney has made a name for herself at a speed we rarely see actors achieve in such a short period of time. Her first lead TV role in Everything Sucks debuted in 2018 while her most notable character Cassie in HBO’s Euphoria was in 2019. In five short years, Sydney Sweeney has been sought after by producers, directors, and casting directors for major films and collaborations at the young age of 26. On top of that Sweeney founded Fifty-Fifty Films, her own production company working alongside Black Bear Pictures for her new horror film Immaculate.

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Immaculate marks Sweeney’s first step into the horror genre with a script that had been passed around since 2014 until she purchased the rights to it to get it made. The film follows Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney) who is invited to the Italian countryside to join a convent of nuns trying to find her life’s purpose. However, the convent has a secret being kept that has the power to change not only Cecilia’s life but mankind.

As far as religious horror films go, Immaculate is a lot smoother in its ability to take its time getting to know Sister Cecila and her motivations for arriving at the Italian convent before terror ensues. One can not help but feel just as swept up as Cecilia, admiring the gorgeous architecture with hopes of a purposeful life with her fellow sisters. Immaculate avoids a lot of cheap horror moments, using a couple of jump scares but primarily focusing on body horror and a fantastic performance by Sydney Sweeney to display the anguish Sister Cecilia feels in her predicament.

Although at times Immaculate plays by similar rules in its genre, it touches on a more modern sector of the relationship between religion and other scientific disciplines to create a commentary that feels fresh. Immaculate balances the beauty of simplicity and traditions while also making a case for the horrors that can evolve from manipulation of text and word for one’s own gain. It neither grasps or dismisses Catholicism on a surface level but allows its story to play out in a way that shows human’s efforts to use their own interpretations of biblical text for their own benefit.

Sydney Sweeney’s performance has its own range, which coincides with her initial naivety until she uncovers the darkness of the convent. This then allows her character Cecilia to break out and become a woman willing to deceive and take matters into her own hands, giving Sweeney her scream queen moments.

In the same way that Cecilia enters the convent with the best intentions only to be altered by a larger and more powerful system, it seems to speak a little on religion as a whole and certain institutions’ desire to achieve more power in a way never intended. Immaculate (2024) suffers from some small and similar conventions in the genre but it’s overpowered by its ability to speak about more modern concepts all held together by a fabulous cast.

‘Immaculate’ Rating – 3.5/5

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