Richard Crouse

Done correctly, religious horror, no matter the denomination, can provide the most potent form of terror. Rooted in our prima fears, of good versus evil, of the afterlife and the absence of faith, it preys upon our most basic beliefs to scare the hell out of us.

Unfortunately, although set in a convent, “Immaculate,” a new film starring Sydney Sweeney, and now playing in theaters, is more b-movie exploitation than religious horror.

The film sets the stage with a creepy prologue of a young woman’s desperate attempt to escape from a nunnery, only to be held back and meet a terrible fate. Turns out, the convent is like the Hotel California, “You can check-out any time you like, but you can never leave!”

The horrific opening fades into the story of the Michigan born-and-raised Sister Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney). As a child, she survived a near death experience that imbuing her with faith that pointed her toward a life of service in the name of God. “God saved me for a reason,” she says. “But I’m still searching for what that reason is.”

As an adult novitiate nun, her American parish is shuttered for poor attendance and she is relocated to a convent tucked away in the Italian countryside. “I will carry myself with grace,” she says, “because I want nothing more than to be here.” Built in 1632 as a transition home for elder sisters on the fast track to heaven, it is a maze of dimly lit corridors, creaky floors and gothic architecture.

“Suffering is love,” she is told by way of welcome from the Mother Superior (Dora Romano).

After a rocky start, it’s revealed that she is pregnant, despite being a virgin. “How long until they start calling you Mary?” asks the edgy Sister Isabel (Giulia Heathfield Di Renzi). Convinced she is carrying the second coming of Christ, the nuns who once treated her with disdain, now regard her as a miracle.

For Cecilia, however, the situation is anything but miraculous. “Out of all the women in the world,” she asks, “why did He choose me?”

“Immaculate” has the look of a religious horror film, from the convent to the iconography and the stern-faced nuns but underneath its sacred façade is a button-pushing exploitation movie dressed up in a nun’s habit.

Director Michael Mohan starts things off slowly, hanging the horror on jump scares and odd imagery. Mysterious red-faced nuns appear, sowing some sacrilegious shocks, and loud sounds startle from time to time, but despite some icky fingernail trauma and branding, it isn’t until the third act that all hell breaks loose.

Sweet Sister Cecilia, pregnant and finally aware that she is in danger, finally flips the switch from meek and mild to extreme and wild. Her attempts to survive shed all pretences of piety to fully submerge the movie in a blood-soaked climax that is as disturbing as it is memorable. The extreme nature of the final moments showcases Sweeney’s ability to hold the screen, but make absolutely no sense in terms of the character. As an answer to reclaiming her bodily autonomy her behaviour makes some sort of horror movie logic, but her sudden personality shift is so jarring, it’s as if her evil twin suddenly enters the picture and takes over.

At a fast-paced 90 minutes of nunsploitation, “Immaculate” rips along, but only really delivers what fans want in its final, barmy moments.