Immaculate: Sydney Sweeney masterful (review)

The cast of Euphoria continues to successfully transition to the big screen. After Reality and Everything But You, Sydney Sweeney is trying her hand at horror this time…

Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney), a young American nun, is taken in by a convent in the depths of Italy. As she becomes part of the group and cares for the dying sisters, she observes a strange atmosphere, which reaches its climax when a miracle occurs: although a virgin, she is said to have become pregnant. Concise and effective, this feature film surprises at first glance with its storyline. While one might expect the horror to have its origins in spirituality, and the film to be just another variation of the possession film, Immaculateee deviates from this clear-cut program and instead calls into question the patriarchal structures and confinement of women, symbolized here by this convent headed by a man (Álvaro Morte, the professor of The House of Paper).

By this return to the fundamentals which made the success of the nunsploitation in the 1970s, in addition to a few screamers dispensable, the film turns out to be a real surprise when it becomes clear that pregnancy will be its decisive issue. By transposing the codes of the horror genre rather well to a systematic oppression of Cecilia, both body and psyche, the film surprises by asking completely contemporary questions such as the fate of an unwanted pregnancy. And impresses with the solution he provides (which one would have thought unimaginable in American cinema), in a staggering final sequence, where the violence is matched only by the talent of interpretation of Sydney Sweeney.

Nicholas Moreno

Of Michael Mohan. With Sydney Sweeney, Simona Tabasco, Álvaro Morte… Duration 1h29. Released March 20, 2024