Immaculate – Review

A young nun prays in a dimly lit chapel on a dark night. After she finishes her prayer, she sneaks into a desk drawer near a slumbering and sickly church member, and she nabs a key ring. Grabbing a bag, she flings the door open and runs as fast as she can, stumbling through keys while trying to unlock the far property gate.

She must want out for a good reason, after all, this is a horror affair. Immaculate is a decently unsettling film when all said and done, with some solid performances helping to make up from a few weaker points.

As young Sister Cecelia (Sweeney) arrives in Italy all the way from Detroit, she is prepared for the next step of her life and to move into a new convent. Prior to that she is razzed by customs and then finds her driver which takes to her the impressive architecture of her home which she marvels at before making her way inside. Here she meets the Reverend Mother (Romano) who has been eagerly awaiting her arrival.

How will Cecelia settle into the foreign lands and strict covenant expectations? Will she stay out of the off-limits catacombs? Will she also wind up needing to make a desperate escape? As the weird and sinister shit starts to kick off, there are definitely a few good creep outs.

While this sounds like a typical horror setup, and the movie is pretty much just that, it has a decent ending as well as some good and nasty moments for fans of religious based tension and terror. Sweeney is quite competent in her role, as is the surrounding cast. Despite the movie being a bit slow (even having a short runtime), and having some familiar story beats, it is still worthwhile overall.

It probably won’t blow you away and may not develop enough to satisfy your thirst, but at least it ends on a strong note. Visually it is decent, and it covers usual religious and horror mashup tropes. I did want more from the script but thought it was okay enough also.