Coming to pronounce her vows in a convent in Italy, an American nun finds herself pregnant by immaculate conception.
Having been rolling for around fifteen years, star of ultra-popular series, including The Handmaid’s Tale, Euphoria And The White Lotus, Sydney Sweeney has everything to become an essential movie star. It is, however, a shame that it sets its sights on films whose quality leaves much to be desired, such as Anyone But You And Madame Web.
At Michael Mohan, who directed her in the series Everything Sucks! And The Voyeurs, a thriller that does not break the house, the blonde actress gives body and soul in the role of Cecilia, a young American who comes to pronounce her vows in a convent in Italy. Provoking the jealousy of the young novices with her angelic air and her pre-Raphaelite virgin beauty, the novice barely gibbering the language of Dante soon arouses the interest of Father Sal Tedeschi (the dark Álvaro Morte, seen in The House of Paper), especially when she finds herself pregnant by immaculate conception.
The greatest mystery ofImmaculate (Immaculate, in French version) lies in the will of Sydney Sweeney who, 10 years after having auditioned for this horror drama where we try to bring the nonnesploitation film up to date, became the producer, asked Andrew Lobel to rework his script and hired Mohan to direct it. Besides the pleasure of playing an innocent girl who transforms into a violent fury during a few very dripping scenes, which provoke more laughter than fear, few elements of the feature film prove worthy of interest.
Certainly, the dilapidated appearance of the medieval decorations and the noxious atmosphere which reigns there, as well as the disturbing figures which circulate there, have nothing to envy of The Devilsby Ken Russell, at The Demonsof Jesús Franco, nor even to Benedetta, by Paul Verhoeven. Where the problem lies seriously is in Lobel’s screenplay, from which pages seem to have been torn out. Unless certain scenes were sacrificed for no reason in the editing room. Or that no one in the group has mastered the art of the ellipsis.
In fact, if Michael Mohan acquitted himself of his task rather well, he seems to have cared little whether the story was coherent or not. After a prologue where a young nun finds herself buried alive, a suicide in broad daylight and a suspicious disappearance, the story of this lost sheep in the middle of the Italian countryside unfolds so laboriously thatImmaculate seems to be a long trailer where the moments intended to be frightening were glued together. And to top it all off, we are given a finale that is as abrupt as it is laughable.
Indoors
Check the movie schedule
horror drama
Immaculate (V.F.: Immaculate)
Michael Mohan
Sydney Sweeney, Simona Tabasco, Álvaro Morte
1:29 a.m.