SXSW 2024 Review: IMMACULATE, Sydney Sweeney Does Nunsploitation
These last few years have been a dream run for it-girl Sydney Sweeney. From her breakout role TV roles in Euphoria and The White Lotus, to box office success in this year’s Anyone But You, she seems to have the world in the palm of her hands. However, she doesn’t seem to be one to rest on her laurels this spring she produces and stars in Immaculate, a religious nightmare horror film with an arthouse pedigree.
Sweeney plays Cecilia, a young girl from the mean streets of Detroit who has heard the calling and finds herself as a novice nun at a prestigious convent in the remote hills of Italy. She’s a fish out of water, unfamiliar with all but the most basic Italian, Cecilia is dependent on the kindness of her sisters and her Mother Superior. It’s clear that she’s the low nun on the totem pole, but also that she is somehow special, though it’s difficult to determine why at first.
This convent is a special one, it houses many aging nuns with various maladies who can no longer take care of themselves. It functions as a hospital, a rest home, a recovery center, and an asylum and Cecilia is among the caretakers now, though not for long. As intimated by the film’s title, a miracle is on its way and when she finds herself with child, in spite of her feverishly defended chastity, she takes on a new role: Mother of God, and things get very dark, very quickly.
Gorgeously photographed by Elisha Christian, who also lends her talents to Family, another film in this year’s SXSW lineup, Immaculate is certainly one of the most opulent nunsploitation films ever made. Combined with Will Bates score – augmented with an amusing Bruno Nicolai needle drop that will definitely please Italian horror fans – Immaculate is determined to present the convent as a home of grace, a place where daily life is to be spent in service, although service to what end is sometimes unexpected.
Sweeney had her hands in this film on multiple levels, both in front of and behind the camera as a very involved producer. She’d been given the script years ago, but it was unable to get off the ground, so with her newfound success she pushed it through and you can definitely tell that it is a passion project. Cecilia has the sort of glossy look that a lot of Gen Z kids do, it works well in her initial presentation as a young woman untouched by the world, her huge eyes attempting to drink it all in, not knowing where to focus. As her predicament becomes clearer, Cecilia’s optimism and innocence are taken from her, not unlike her womb has been stolen as the vessel for a child she never wanted.
There are fair criticisms to be laid at Immaculate’s unwashed and scarred feet, it relies heavily on jump scares to engage the audience, its plot liberally borrows from any number of religious horror films, etc., however, it is definitely remarkable that a film this insane got made on this level. It takes a good forty minutes for Immaculate to finally unveil itself as an out and out horror film, but once it does, it’s off to the races. Comparisons to Rosemary’s Baby or even Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta are not completely off the mark, but Immaculate – for all of its sumptuous visuals – isn’t aiming that high. This is a straight up horror that owes as much to Blood and Black Lace or the Italian nunsploitation films of the ‘70s as anything, and that’s a good thing.
There are twist and turns in this film that can only be described as silly, and for a film with such a pristine veneer, that’s a choice in and of itself. Immaculate doesn’t shy away from the kind of torture, aberrant sexuality, and over the top performance that typifies the nunsploitation genre, it’s just given the stamp of approval of one of Hollywood’s biggest young stars. Sweeney, for her part, knows the role she’s playing and she plays it to the hilt. Her performance in the final act as everything comes to an ecstatic head is hysterical in the most enjoyable way.
Cecilia is tasked with bringing an unwanted, unasked for life into the world, and the pain – both physical and emotional – is evident on her face. She’s a woman removed from society, yet still at the mercy of the patriarchy as it exists in the church. Even as she freely gives her obedience, her poverty, and her chastity to the convent, they still manage to keep taking, removing any agency that remains in the service of cruel male masters. As the film ends with a cathartic scream from a Cecilia who has been put through the ringer; violated, scarred, and exhausted, we all feel a sense of relief. It may not be exactly freedom, but it is resistance and sometimes that’s a victory in itself.
Immaculate is destined to divide audiences, those with lesser tolerances for its dafter plot contrivances are going to roll their eyes, and that’s okay. For a seasoned fan of this type of film, there is a lot to enjoy, and for a fan of high-falutin’ silliness, there’s even more. When the big reveal is made toward the end of act two, I couldn’t help letting out a laugh at just how ridiculous it was, but that’s exactly what I wanted out of this film. Terrifying on multiple levels, both as an assault of Cecilia’s bodily autonomy, but also a criticism of the patriarchal structure of the church, Immaculate is one of the year’s most surprising films in that it is a miracle that it even exists, and even more so that it occupies the rare air of an arthouse release. It may not be a masterpiece or the second coming, but it’s certainly a very naughty film, and I am in.
