Film Talk: Horror in a habit as Sydney Sweeney leads convent cast list in Immaculate
The nights are getting lighter, so it’s time we darkened them up with a lovely touch of horror.
There’s something perpetually disconcerting about religion as a theme and plot device in the scariest of flicks, and this is doubtlessly why it is so often used as such by particularly devilish directors.
Take the greatest of examples, The Exorcist – an absolute spine-tingling triumph of a horror movie with Max Von Sydow and Jason Miller’s respective clerics at its centre. 1976’s The Omen used the combination of a child’s ‘innocence’ and Christian lore to terrify us to the core, and more recently, The Nun and its sequel have placed the holiest of ladies in the forefront of our nightmares. The obliteration of traditional ideas of purity is a delicious way to produce the most twisted horror flicks, and topping the bill this week is a film that has been well and truly built around this notion.
Starring Sydney Sweeney, director Michael Mohan’s Immaculate follows the tale of a young, virgin nun who inexplicably becomes pregnant and comes to realise that her world is far more sinister than she realised. But if you’re looking for something lighter this week, you can happily turn to the only exorcists on the planet who could have put Von Sydow and Miller to shame.
With almost all of the original gang back together again (RIP Harold Ramis) after the success of 2021’s Afterlife, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has finally landed, and proton packs across the land are ready to cross streams this weekend.
With the new-gen cast led by Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace also returning, fans know exactly who they’re gonna’ call for a mid-March cinematic jolly. Let’s take a look...
IMMACULATE (UK 18/ROI 16, 89 mins)
Released: March 22 (UK & Ireland)
According to the good book – the dictionary – “immaculate” is an adjective that can be used to mean perfectly neat and tidy or spotlessly clean.
While the unwanted pregnancy in director Michael Mohan’s psychological horror could indeed be deemed immaculate by conception, there is nothing perfectly neat or tidy about Andrew Lobel’s script set in a remote Italian convent nestled on top of ancient catacombs, which we are informed from the outset are “off limits”.
You don’t need divine intervention to scent skulduggery in this isolated religious order and when the beleaguered heroine stumbles upon the shocking truth, her faith is tested as robustly as our credulity.
“If this is not the will of God, why does He not stop us?” coldly argues a perpetrator.
Explosions of gratuitous, stomach-churning gore, which don’t serve an increasingly demented plot, punctuate a young nun’s descent into paranoia and delusion with nightmarish echoes of Rosemary’s Baby and Suspiria.
Rising star Sydney Sweeney from Anyone But You and Madame Web wears two habits as producer and lead star, fully embracing the escalating madness of her character’s bewildering predicament. Her soul-piercing screams of anguish cut through the overblown melodrama, which relies heavily on jump scares rather than creeping dread to keep audiences teetering on the edge of their seats. Following a near-death experience in childhood on a frozen lake, Cecilia (Sweeney) fixates on the idea that God saved her for a higher purpose and she studiously dedicates herself to becoming a nun.
Scientist-turned-priest Father Sal Tedeschi (Alvaro Morte) kindly extends an invitation to Cecilia to take her vows of poverty, chastity and obedience at a picturesque 17th-century Italian convent.
Without any emotional anchors to keep her in Detroit, Michigan, the novitiate relocates to a European country where she barely speaks the language to serve the Lord under Cardinal Franco Merola (Giorgio Colangeli) and an imposing Mother Superior (Dora Romano).
Cecilia is warmly welcomed by Father Tedeschi but fellow nun Sister Gwen (Benedetta Porcaroli) cryptically urges caution: “He has a talent for sniffling out broken birds.”
Shortly after her arrival, Cecilia falls ill and a visit from Doctor Gallo (Giampiero Judica) confirms she is with child. However, Cecilia is a virgin.
Catapulted to overnight stardom by virtue of her miraculous conception, Cecilia senses something unholy festers inside the convent’s walls. Structured as trimesters of Cecilia’s unwanted pregnancy, Immaculate relies on Sweeney’s full-blooded central performance to successfully carry a loopy premise to full term.
A ruthlessly efficient prologue sets the macabre tone and demonstrates director Mohan’s enthusiasm for icky make-up effects to secure an 18 certificate in the UK.
Emotion is sacrificed at the altar of splatter as Cecilia’s fight for survival reaches an overwrought crescendo.
GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE (UK 12A/ROI 12A, 115 mins)
Released: March 22 (UK & Ireland)
Following the success of the 2021 reboot Ghostbusters: Afterlife directed by Jason Reitman and co-written by Gil Kenan, supernatural hijinks continue in a fifth instalment of the franchise.
Kenan swaps places with Reitman in the director’s chair, working from a script they co-wrote, which transplants Callie Spengler (Carrie Coon), her two children Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and seismologist Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) to New York City, home of the original Ghostbusters firehouse.
Dr Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Dr Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), Dr Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) and trusty secretary Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts) have developed a top-secret research laboratory to propel the art of ghostbusting into the 21st century.
An ancient artefact unleashes dark forces and ushers in a calamitous second ice age with the potential to end mankind.
Ghostbusting generations unite in this darkest hour to protect their home and save the world.
THE PERSIAN VERSION (UK 15/ROI 15A, 107 mins)
Released: March 22 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)
The daughter of Iranian-American immigrants struggles to balance western and eastern cultures in a comedy drama written and directed by Maryam Keshavarz. Leila (Layla Mohammadi) is a filmmaker, who carries the crushing responsibility of honouring her parents Ali Reza (Bijan Daneshmand) and Shireen (Niousha Noor) as the only daughter of her fractured clan.
When Ali Reza requires a heart transplant in New York City, Leila is reunited with her eight brothers and the rest of the brood.
A secret involving stage actor Maximillian (Tom Byrne) strains the tense relationship between Leila and her mother.
Leila plots a haphazard path through cross-cultural differences back to Shireen to earn her mother’s approval and respect.
LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL (UK 15/ROI 16, 93 mins)
Released: March 22 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)
In 1999, The Blair Witch Project popularised found footage horror, reinvigorating a genre that now includes the Paranormal Activity, Rec and V/H/S/ franchises.
Written and directed by brothers Cameron and Colin Cairnes, Late Night With The Devil unfolds during a live taping of a late-night talk show hosted by Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian).
On October 31 1977, Delroy interviews parapsychologist Dr June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) about her disturbing new book, which examines a mass suicide at a Satanic church.
Teenager Lilly (Ingrid Torelli) is the sole survivor of the massacre and the focal point of Dr Ross-Mitchell’s work.
The broadcast goes horribly wrong and Delroy unwittingly unleashes evil into living rooms across America.
BALTIMORE (UK 15/ROI 15A, 98 mins)
Released: March 22 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)
Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor co-direct and co-write a political crime drama based on the true story of an English aristocrat, who rebelled fiercely against her privileged upbringing and joined the Irish Republican Army.
Heiress Rose Dugdale (Imogen Poots) is a wealthy society debutante, who harks from rarefied stock.
She wants for nothing, thanks to her lineage, but Rose is a free spirit with strong anti-establishment views, which lead her down a dangerous militant path in the 1970s.
She aligns with the IRA and becomes radicalised, conducting the biggest art heist in history by stealing 19 old master paintings at gunpoint with three comrades in arms. What should be a simple robbery turns violent and Rose faces the terrible consequences of her actions.
THE METROPOLITAN OPERA LIVE: ROMEO ET JULIETTE (UK and ROI certificates TBC, 190 mins)
Released: March 23 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)
Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducts Gounod’s lush operatic reimagining of Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers, broadcast live from the stage of the Lincoln Centre For The Performing Arts in New York.
Benjamin Bernheim and Nadine Sierra sing the title roles in director Bartlett Sher’s critically acclaimed staging set in late 18th-century Verona.
