Immaculate Movie Review

Immaculate (2024) Movie review

One of the breakout stars in recent years has been the wickedly talented Sydney Sweeney. Sydney Sweeney’s stocks in Hollywood continue to skyrocket as she continues to diversify her impressive resume with amazing roles in different genres, dancing between the big and small screen. Some of her work in recent years includes her role as Cassie in Euphoria, Olivia in season 1 of the White Lotus and in Blumhouse’s ‘Nocturne’ and ‘The Voyeurs’ and Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’. In 2024 alone, we have seen Sweeney in four films: ‘Reality’, ‘Madame Web’, 'Anyone But You’ and now ‘Immaculate’. Her versatility as an actress is seeing her take on a variety of different genres to great acclaim, but ‘Immaculate’ sees Sweeney really sink her teeth into this role and may just be her best work in her brief, but already, impressive career!

‘Immaculate’ follows Cecilia (played by Sydney Sweeney), a woman of devout faith, who is warmly welcomed to the picture-perfect Italian countryside where she is offered a new role at an illustrious convent. But it becomes clear to Cecilia that her new home harbors dark and horrifying secrets. The film boasts an amazing lead in Sydney Sweeney and enlists the talents of an up-and-coming horror director Michael Mohan (who previously worked with Sydney Sweeney on The Voyeurs), who clearly has an eye for atmospheric and creepy horror with clear inspiration from Victorian, gothic cinema. I was very excited to see Immaculate for the above reasons, but also because I am a major horror cinephile. I am pleased to report that this one actually frightened me, got under my skin and didn’t leave me after the credits rolled, which is high praise coming from me.  

First, I should clarify, I am a sucker for atmospheric horror. A young Nun walking around creepy, dark hallways in the Italian Countryside, sign me up! My conceited bias toward this film aside, I really did have a great time with ‘Immaculate’. In recent years, we have not seen many horror films taking place in this setting. It’s been almost 10 years since we have seen an effective horror in this vein, ‘The Witch’ in 2016 is really the last that saw both critical and commercial success. The brooding atmosphere really does make you want to curl up under a blanket and hide under the covers. It's genuinely creepy and well done. Director Michael Mohan does a great job here hiding a lot of the horror in the shadows, relying heavily on reaction and the psychological horror from the events and setting. It's an old-school approach to the genre and I really loved what Michael Mohan did here to subvert these tropes. He’s a talent to watch and I can’t wait to see what he does next in the genre!

Sydney Sweeney also shines here as Cecilia. She does a great job of reeling the audience in to follow her through this journey. She has the hopeless optimism that everything is going to be okay, she’s offered a great new life in the Italian countryside, but her faith is quickly brought into question as the dark, grizzly and disturbing secrets of this covenant are brought to life. With another actress in the lead, this dramatic shift, especially in the films third at (I promise no spoilers here), may not work, but Sweeney sells the character beats proving she is incredibly talented and may have a knack for horror!

‘Immaculate’ was a pleasant surprise and a truly memorable horror film. Whilst it may not be for everyone, the film does a great job of establishing tone, suspense, and whilst subverting many genre tropes to create a truly captivating horror film. As I have discussed in this review, we really don’t get these types of horror films anymore. Seeing a big celebrity like Sydney Sweeney tackling a less glamorous, dark and at times, disturbing horror flick was refreshing and bodes well for these smaller horror films moving forward. This is a must-own for horror genre fans and those looking for a good scare! Secure your copy on DVD or Blu-Ray from Sanity today!

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Buy Immaculate on DVD or Blu-ray here

Christopher Pattison wrote this blog post for Sanity. See more from Chris here