Immaculate is a 2024 American horror film directed by Michael Mohan, and the cast includes Sydney Sweeney, Álvaro Morte, Benedetta Porcaroli, Dora Romano, Giorgio Colangeli, and Simona Tabasco.
In Immaculate, we have Cecelia (Sweeney), who had a near-death experience as a child when she fell through the ice on a frozen lake, firmly believes that God has a purpose for her life.
She travels to Italy to join a convent, where things take an unexpected turn when she becomes pregnant, despite being a virgin.
The Fathers at the convent are quick to declare her pregnancy as the second coming of Christ, but Cecelia and her only confidant at the convent, the rebellious Gwen, are skeptical of this claim, especially when they uncover the true extent of the mean Sister Isabelle's jealousy and malice.
I had high hopes for this movie, and I quite like Sydney Sweeney, and she delivered a good performance and was the best bit about the movie for me. (She also took on dual duties by producing it as well).
The main problem I had was I felt it just dragged, and was way too slow without it being that interesting.
Now, I don't mind slow burners when they are done well, but unfortunately it wasn't done well in Immaculate, as I didn't really feel engaged in anything that was happening, and some of the scenes felt way too prolonged, and the plot line just feels very disjointed and just leaves you feeling disconnected from it all and from what is happening.
It also suffers from a poorly written story line that fails to fully explore the complexity of its premise, and the narrative lacked depth and did not really effectively address the themes that it introduces, and ends up just feeling like a ton of horror clichés without ever standing out.
This all results in a missed opportunity to actually create a more meaningful story with some depth and character development that would have actually had some impact on those watching it, and the setting of the convent as a means to delve into questions of faith, power, and personal identity, the movie remains very superficial.
Cecelia’s journey, for instance, is a compelling starting point as a young woman who believes she has been chosen by God but finds herself pregnant in a situation that challenges her beliefs, but, the film doesn’t give her the space to evolve or grapple with the profound spiritual, emotional, and moral dilemmas that such a situation would raise, and the narrative becomes bogged down by slow pacing and a lack of meaningful progression in Cecelia’s development.
Similarly, Sister Isabelle’s role as the antagonist is introduced with a certain amount of potential with her jealousy and malice that could have been a great catalyst for drama, but unfortunately, her character never feels fully realized.
Instead, it feels like the story is stuck on a surface level and never really ventures into the deeper, more meaningful territory that could have made it stand out from the pack of similarly themed films.
On the plus side, the visual elements of the movie was good, as was Sweeney, and the cinematography worked in tandem with the setting, effectively capturing the stark, isolated beauty of the convent in Italy.
Overall though, I felt Immaculate was a rather forgettable experience as it really fails to engage and also fails to provide a coherent and compelling story line that just feels like it drags without actually doing much, even with Sweeney dragging it through the best she could.
It was just a bit dull and falls short on several important fronts and is a film that I felt was unable to leave much of a positive mark.
My recommendation is just watch Rosemary's Baby instead, or even The First Omen.
[Immaculate on IMDB] [Where to watch Immaculate]
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