Religious horror movie places cinematography above story
Genre: Horror
Newly released horror movie, Immaculate, is easily one of the most interesting religious horror movies to be released in a long time with storytelling so good that it is impossible to tear your eyes from the screen.
Sydney Sweeney, who also produced the film, truly shines in the lead role. Her portrayal of a devout nun is very different to the other roles she has played previously on productions like Anyone But You and Madame Web, as these roles kept Sweeney confined to the comedy and drama genre.
This film marks Sweeney’s debut entry into horror, evidencing her versatility as an actress.
Cecilia (played by Sweeney), a woman of devout faith, is welcomed to the picture-perfect Italian countryside where she is offered a new role at a convent.
It soon becomes clear to Cecilia that her new home harbours dark and horrifying secrets, when she finds herself pregnant, with the anti-Christ. With no answers to her many questions, Cecilia is thrust into a fight for survival, before the arrival of the unborn baby demon.
Sweeney carries the film from start to finish. Many of the scenes rely heavily on how her character reacts to the bizarre twists in the plot and her empathetic and nuanced portrayal lends the film an emotional resonance that intensifies the horror.
At first, the film moves at a steady pace, building up the tension with revelations about the characters that are disturbing. In correlation to the increasingly strange scenes, the level of violence escalates as the film approaches its tense R-rated climax.
The final act is by far one of the creepiest and possibly most controversial moments of the film, and draws its goriness from close-up shots of nothing more
than Sweeney s face. The subtlety in the’acting and the cinematography employed in this scene is one of the most creative storytelling elements and redefines the limits of portraying horror on screen.
The film’s only critique is that cinematography may have been prized above the writing, as the plot is riddled with factual errors and holes related to the convent and its past, but this largely does not detract from the film’s enjoyment.
Overall, Immaculate is a decent film that pays satisfactory homage to the genre and is sure to impress devout horror movie fans with an engaging plot, interesting cinematography and insightful acting.
Immaculate is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.