THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
We really don’t know what we sign up for these days.
PLOT
Immaculate follows young Sister Cecilia going to an Italian convent to turn to Christianity. Due to surviving a drowning in a frozen lake, she believes god saved her for a purpose and becoming a nun will be her said purpose. At the convent, she’s invited by Father Sal Tedeschi to join Our Lady of Sorrows that tends to dying nuns. After taking her final vows, she befriends Sister Gwen (Benedetta Porcaroli) who became a nun to escape an abusive relationship. However, things start to become strange beyond compare as she sees one nun have cross shaped scars on the soles of her feet and finds the convent contain a relic said to be one of the Holy Nails used to crucify Jesus himself. After having nightmares of hooded figures, she briefly becomes ill only to discover she’s pregnant which confuses her since she claims to be a virgin. With the convent choosing to believe her, they see this as a blessing to the point where they call her the new Virgin Mary. Around the time of her second trimester, she gets attacked by another nun out of jealousy who then kills herself for such feeling. When she is denied going to a proper hospital, she chastises how everyone is approaching what is more of an abnormality. She later finds a written note of 2 Corinthians 11:14 that further implies something is not right. She gets confirmation when finding a file on her containing information about her accident, hinting they’ve always known of her for a long time. Shortly after this revelation, she finds Gwen get her tongue cut off in an inquisition. One nun then confronts her claiming she’ll never escape. Wanting to change her fate, Cecilia fakes miscarriage with a dead chicken to get out of the convent, hoping to get to a hospital. Just when her cover is blown, she tries to run away only for Tedeschi to capture her. Back at the convent, he explains to her used his work as a geneticist to artificially inseminate her with the DNA from the Holy Nail, wanting to birth a new messiah. He even shows a lair of past attempts which leaves her in shock. By the third trimester, Cecilia calls out the Cardinal Merola (Giorgio Colangeli) of how she was targeted the whole time and tries another escape after killing Mother Superior (Dora Romano) with a crucifix. But by the time she gets moving again, her water breaks. After she strangles the cardinal, she takes the relic and is confronted by Tedeschi in her attempt to destroy the laboratory. She’s able to douse the place in ethanol with him in it, but he escapes with a fire extinguisher. Cecilia then heads to the catacombs to continue her escape and just when she reaches the end, Tedeschi catches up and tries to enforce a C section when cutting her stomach open with a scalpel. She stops that from happening when fatally stabbing him with the Holy Nail. Once outside, she gives agonizing birth and cuts the umbilical cord herself. Although the baby is not visibly seen, she finds herself in final shock of its appearance as it makes strange animalistic noises. Knowing how dangerous it is, the film ends with Cecilia killing the baby by crushing it with a rock.
THOUGHTS
If you’ve made it to the year of 2024, you know possession horror, specifically stories of the Antichrist’s birth. But with each tale, they deliver in all the mesmerizing shock value. Writer Andrew Lobel & Director Michael Mohan were aware of this and are able to still make the experience no matter how sure you know where it’s going. The cinematography by Elisha Christian and production design by Adam Reamer were so surreal in making a convent of all places the most dangerous to be. And because of that, each jump scare lands and you know this is gonna differ from others when seeing a nun get buried alive in the cold open. Overall, I find this better than other familiar horror flicks (Apartment 7A and The First Omen specifically) because it’s got the most pure take on the oppression women feel in most patriarchal systems if not all. This is a case where sanity is tested after reality is broken and agency is taken. Actress Sydney Sweeney gives her most raw performance to date as Cecilia who grew up a natural devout due to how she thought she had a higher purpose. With a grim truth coming out, it felt like everything she had done was meant for nothing. Nevertheless, it doesn’t stop her from wanting to keep on living. Sweeney goes on a clinic in the birth scene because with the everlasting scream, you start to think you’re feeling all her pain. And you can’t deny Cecilia did the right thing in slaying her baby because whether it was the antichrist or a mutant of science, the world would not prepare for what would come from it. As you would expect though, this creation does not become possible had it not been possible for those who took advantage of her. Álvaro Morte was dead on great in tricking us to believe Father Tedeschi was an honorable guy when he was in fact a calculating psychopath to think it was a good guy to inseminate a messiah without the consent of the host. One factor is already one problem, but both make it worse. He’s already twisted in using his talents for something sinister, and then it’s leveled with those around him who support the idea. If Cecilia wasn’t so observant, the convent likely would’ve succeeded with their ultimate goal. With it thankfully not happening, we can only hope the young nun can continue her escape from hell because killing the beastly child is only the beginning of the journey. In short, Immaculate is another hit for the horror genre due to having the great pace from appearing subtle to become batshit crazy in giallo style. If that kind of horror is up your alley, see this now.
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