Less than a month after a horror saga as long as The prophecy premiere prequel (The first prophecy) hits theaters Immaculate. And the coincidence is most curious because their arguments are enormously similar, twins. Both films place us in gloomy Italian convents where a young novice arrives with the desire to become a nun (Nell Tiger Free and Sydney Sweeney), and both films evolve in such a way that the protagonist becomes mysteriously pregnant, according to sinister powers that are inspired in the Bible and long for the arrival of some kind of savior. It is an imposed and directed pregnancy, which mercilessly exploits the woman’s body.
In the US this coincidence has already generated reflection. Bilge Ebiri, in Vulture, relies on the fact that horror fiction always tends to be born from the concerns of the immediate present to link both films with the repeal of the Roe vs. law. Wade in June 2022, according to which the right to abortion no longer has constitutional guarantees throughout the country. So much The first prophecy as Immaculate They would refer to a state of collective anxiety in which women lose control of their bodies at the hands of ossified and patriarchal hierarchies, although they would do so in different terms. At the level of tone, in the way of organizing the terrifying stimuli, Immaculate It is a very different film from The first prophecy. “Immaculate “She is absolutely thuggish,” says Álvaro Morte.
The actor of The Money Heist interprets in Immaculate to Father Tedeschi, the villain who has orchestrated this “immaculate conception.” Morte rules out, for his part, that Immaculate “I want to send a message.” “We don’t want to make art, we want to make a film so that people go to the cinema and have a great time,” she says. “Let him say ‘how afraid I have been, how much I have laughed.’ It is the only claim, although if later there is someone who says ‘how interesting that they have put this on the table’, then fantastic.” Even assuming this disdain for communicating with the present, Immaculate It is not born from nothing, because behind it a whole wave of religious terror is emerging that goes beyond it and The first prophecy.
Around the 70s of the last century, horror films experienced their first nunsploitation: the emergence of films about nuns, who unprejudicedly took advantage of their life circumstances to generate discomfort and get creative with religious iconography. Maybe The demons by Ken Russell is its flagship, but the movement hit hard especially in countries with a deep-rooted Catholic tradition, such as Italy or Spain. Our country, without going any further, has already signed this second nunsploitation that seem to champion Immaculate and The first prophecy: last year Paco Plaza premiered Sister Death.
These three titles, together with the blockbuster films of The nun within the saga Warren expedient either Agnes’ Possession In 2021, they show that there is an interest in resuming habits. For Morte it makes sense because she considers that there is something very disturbing about the nuns, something that intensifies the terror “as everything has happened since the confinement.” “A convent is already closed, as are the cells, but the habits also lock up the nuns. Everything takes us inward and you wonder what you can find at the end, but how can you see it, if everything is covered? “That claustrophobic mystery makes for an amazing game.”
Seeing women subjected to both physical and spiritual confinement can symbolize an extrapolation of patriarchy against which to rebel—it does not seem coincidental that, parallel to the nunsploitationthe subgenre of exploitation of the women in prisonset in women’s prisons—but above all it emanates from an imaginary that is very useful for terror from any point of view. Immaculatelike The first prophecyachieves many chilling moments with the mere visualization of certain ecclesiastical rites, without necessarily involving esoteric forces.
It is what leads us to a conclusion that Morte happily shares, and that is that there is something deeply disturbing about Catholicism. “Ecclesiastical imagery is often based on suffering,” he says. “The Nazarenes, as we call the people with the hood during Holy Week today, were known in their day as disciplinarians. They self-inflicted discipline through punishment, with whippings, and that is very scary at first. We are not making the Church terrifying, we have not done anything because the Church itself is. Those wonderful and baroque works of art, the steps of Holy Week… everything is based on that suffering of the passion of Christ, which is a very powerful and solemn image.”
All this symbology also seeks communication with a force capable of transcending us as human beings. In the possibility that the images of this symbology are permeated with what lies beyond human experience, horror cinema would have seen an inexhaustible vein. “There is another thing that connects religion with terror, and that is the unknown,” Morte continues. “Faith means believing wholeheartedly in something that has not been scientifically proven to exist. “Faith is based on unknown terrain where it is easy to let the imagination fly, to imagine a billion things that are behind the door.”
“Within horror cinema, that door to the unknown generates a wonderful mechanism that you can use to create fear. “It’s a perfect connection.” Being Immaculate allergic to solemnity—the film directed by Michael Mohan is more like the exploitation cinema of the 70s than the sophisticated, “elevated” horror of The first prophecy—, there is no doubt that there is an effort to squeeze out the religious imagination, and then take it along the most crazy and histrionic paths. The striking uniform of the nuns who support Father Tedeschi’s plan is an example, as is the villain’s own writing.
Faith means absolutely believing in something that has not been scientifically proven to exist. Faith is based on unknown terrain where it is easy to let the imagination fly.
Alvaro Morte
— Actor
And Tedeschi turns out to combine religious fervor with scientific impetus, in order to make possible the pregnancy of Cecilia Jones played by Sydney Sweeney through experiments with genetics. The script of Immaculate He therefore does not hesitate to disrupt the juicy iconography he has chosen, although the occurrence of his approaches did not save him from being left in limbo, without anyone to direct him, for ten years.
Saint Sydney Sweeney
Rather than arising from a renewed interest in nuns, or the need to exorcise the situation with abortion in the United States, Immaculate It was born above all from the personal commitment of Sydney Sweeney. The promotion of the film has rested on her shoulders, and not only because she is the fashionable actress right now. Years before becoming famous with EuphoriaSweeney appeared in 2014 for the casting of Immaculate. He got the role, but the film didn’t go ahead and Sweeney was left with that outstanding debt until 2020 when he founded his own production company, Fifty Fifty Films, and started talking to Michael Mohan — with whom he was then filming. The voyeurs— about the option to recover Immaculate.
Sweeney then acquired the rights, and Mohan was encouraged to direct Andrew Lobel’s script. Immaculate It comes when Sweeney maintains a warm relationship with the public, and the actress shows in each interview that she is in perfect control of her career. She was especially memorable when she was asked in GQ UK for the embarrassing failure of Madame Web —first superhero movie she starred in—and she didn’t even flinch. “If we had not done Madame Web It would have no relationship with those who make the decisions at Sony. I am not guided only by projects, but by strategic business decisions. Thanks to Madame Web I could do Barbarella. I was able to do Anyone but you”.
Barbarella it’s a future remake from that sixties science fiction film with Jane Fonda, which Edgar Wright would have tried to direct. Anyone but youfor its part, needs no introduction: it has been the first surprise at the box office of 2024, and the reason why Hollywood is now eager to resurrect the romantic comedy in style. Immaculate It therefore represents a new step in the intelligent career of Sydney Sweeney, having played – in Álvaro Morte’s own words – a much broader role than that of leading actress. “She is the great promoter, the propulsion engine of Immaculate. She alone has managed to lift the project from the position she has now.”
Producing through Fifty Fifty Films, Sweeney “has been the captain of the ship, still making decisions.” Everything made compatible with the fact that she is the absolute protagonist of Immaculate, “98% of the plans belong to her.” “I must also say that despite all this responsibility he has allowed himself to enjoy the project, and that shows a lot of intelligence,” adds Morte. Beyond his playful energy and party condition, Immaculate It is a film that shines especially for Sweeney’s delivery. The actress is crowned in a particularly inspired final few minutes.
Strengthening minutes Immaculate as a highly recommended entertainment: light, unprejudiced, committed to enjoyment in front of and behind the cameras. “We had a great time, we laughed a lot,” summarizes Morte. It’s something that Immaculate transmits from top to bottom, greatly violating a religious sobriety that has nothing to do against the glorious, and blasphemous, charisma of Sydney Sweeney.
