Immaculate (2024)

[flotemysost]

Couldn't see a thread for this - creepy nun horror, with Sydney Sweeney as a wide-eyed new recruit to a crumbling Italian convent (which, surprisingly enough, turns out to be a bit weird).

Thought it'd be easy to write this off as a stylish but slight grab-bag of obvious influences (def shades of Suspiria and Midsommar for me), but it packed more of a punch than I expected.

Don't get me wrong, it *is* silly and not remotely subtle, the characters are 2-D and the gore is cartoonishly, OTT schlocky - but the slick façade and tight runtime underline how it's all a fairly obvious (but still effective) allegory for the bodily control, gendered violence and oppression inflicted in the name of religion and tradition. Definitely nothing deep or pensive here, but the short sharp trashiness of it worked just as well to bring those points home.

Interesting that the act of violence which got the biggest visceral "fuck that" reaction in my cinema was

Spoiler alert

the queasy focus on Sweeney's character peeling off her own fingernail in a confession booth - grim for sure, but an act the protagonist chooses to do to herself, rather than the brutality meted out by her captors.

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Was pretty gung-ho about all the blood and guts myself, but

Spoiler alert

the lingering close-up of Sweeney's screaming face at the bonkers crescendo, as her character finally gives birth to... whatever it is she's been cursed with

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- that felt pretty uncomfortable to watch (in a good way).

[non capisco]

Yeah, thought this was unexpectedly great. It had me from the opening prologue because

Spoiler alert

the thought of being buried alive, especially while impotently screaming unheard screams for help

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gives me the bad shudders more than pretty much anything else.

[non capisco]

And, agree that

Spoiler alert

Sweeney's prolonged SCREAM FACE in the last few minutes was something else, up there with Mia Goth's sustained demented expression during that bit in Pearl

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.