Immaculate

Full of screenwriting/dramaturgical weaknesses, Immaculate is a mostly consumable horror B-movie that, given the number of holes in the rather incoherent plot, apparently suffered major labour pains during its inception, just as its main protagonist did. However, there are two factors that give rise to a certain degree of entertainment value. The first is the narrative twists in the story, which is divided into thirds in line with the number of trimesters in a pregnancy, through which the film gradually transforms from offering hints of ghost horror to sectarian/satanic horror and then to a spectacularly brutal exploitation (or rather nunsploitation) slasher flick in which traditional religious objects are used as lethal weapons. The other factor is the extreme similarity of Immaculate to the better-written and filmed horror movie The First Omen from the same year, which starts with an identical initial situation (a young American novice travels to Italy to serve God and miraculously becomes pregnant). Immaculate shares with that film a lot of other plot and thematic elements, but only until roughly the midpoint, because it then becomes the perfect antithesis to The First Omen in the second half, not only with respect to the work with the Christ and Antichrist characters, but also with respect to the contradictory behaviour of the main characters. Otherwise, it offers what seems to be the established standard in recent horror movies featuring nuns, with expansive cloisters, hospices and orphanages enhanced with adjoining cellars, attics, vaults, catacombs and other forbidden places. (08/24/2024)

Immaculate means no ejaculate! You're right, Cecilia. Take them all out; San Pietro up there will sort them out. A technically decent revival of nunsploitation, which already makes me uncomfortable just by its setting. But when it turns out that the convent uses sonogel not just for candles but for its primary purpose - except for the trick with the chicken - the ways of the genre's Lord are no longer unpredictable. Apart from the nipples showing through the nightgown, Sydney Sweeney didn't reveal much, and to me, she's like Troy McClure—someone who’s been in many films and series, but I’ve barely seen any of them. The long shot of the bloody face during childbirth was quite cringe. At least the intrusive insurance agent who tried to push commercial insurance right after got hit with a rock. (04/26/2024)

I hadn't given Boo! rating in 3 and a half years (!!), and now I’m doing it with gusto. Nunsploitation, the naughty stuff the Italians used to regale us with in the 1970s, a genre that, together with Nazisploitation, is one of my only two hated ones (otherwise, at the age of 52, I can swallow anything), a monstrosity that was resurrected by Michael Mohan – I saw an interview with him on YouTube, where he wondered why nobody goes to see his film, since he made it so wonderfully (his own words). Yes, indeed, the 2nd half is proper Nunsploitation splatter as if from the pen of an Italian production, but I'm more annoyed by the ideological framework of the whole thing. No, I have nothing to do with the Church machinery, I'm agnostic, I'm bothered by the opulent property of the Catholic Church, including those lavish cathedrals that were deliberately intended to appeal to the emotions of the commoners, but I resent when nuns are made out to be some kind of Satanic evil. I know a few of these women personally, specifically the nuns in Štěken, and they are honest hard-working ladies who do not in any way parasitize society, women pure in spirit who have chosen their path in life because they are convinced of it deep down. It's utterly stupid to mock that, to make stupid jokes about them, and it's utterly perverse to demean their approach to life, or even to put them in the role of absolute evil, as this film does. I'm a tolerant person, I would even say that nothing is sacred to me and I can make fun of everything, but I have my limits too and this is one of those uncrossable ones (along with other crap like animal violence or holocaust denial for example). Those ladies have my respect. (09/09/2024)

Compared to The Omen it's as expected two levels worse, but it has my sympathy for the R-rating – had it been PG-13 I'd go for maybe a 2. Sydney Sweeney looks ordinary for the first time, she doesn't show her beautiful boobs in a mini dress and has no make up, she's no sex goddess, but an ordinary girl. Visually it's pretty average, the story is ordinary, though I appreciate it's not a ghost story, but it goes in a slightly different direction. The jump-scares didn't work for me, but the bit of gore was nice. All in all a watchable average but easily forgettable. 5/10. (04/17/2024)

The quality is exactly what I expected, but the idea is definitely beyond my expectations, because I thought it was a ghost story from a monastery, something we have seen lot of and it’s not impressive, but it ends up being something completely different, and I'm actually quite happy about it. I have to praise the idea, which although nothing ground-breaking is certainly a better choice than the spooky ghost, and also the absolutely amazing Sydney Sweeney, who for me is quite possibly one of the best actresses of the younger generation and who not only acts like a goddess, but is also nice to look at – all the more so when she walks around the monastery in a see-through dress for the whole film. I would also like to point out a couple of good scares, but I guess that's the end of my praise and it's time to criticize the film a bit. For one thing, as much as some scenes succeeded, twice as many failed, ranging from a couple of dozen jump-scares that you see coming miles ahead, to a muddled and predictable script, to a silly ending and a lot of other nonsense that was sort of expected from, but still disappoints. In the end, it's just another generic bullshit movie, the kind that has been produced annoyingly enough lately, and I'm actually getting a bit tired of the endless waiting for the next hit in the horror genre, which just refuses to come. Plus points for Sweeney, which got my attention 100%, but the rest is just bland. Seen as part of a special screening, otherwise I probably wouldn't have spent the money on this... (03/20/2024)