Immaculate (2024)
Directed by Michael Mohan
An American nun embarks on a new journey when she joins a remote convent in the Italian countryside. However, her warm welcome quickly turns into a living nightmare when she discovers her new home harbours a sinister secret and unspeakable horrors.
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3 films that influenced Immaculate
What critics say influenced Immaculate
But there are several scenes where Immaculate feels like it's spinning its wheels, with its distinct nods to other films—from Rosemary's Baby to Suspiria (both Dario Argento's and Luca Guadagnino's)—merely devolving into predictable jump scares.
One look at Cecelia’s journey into the Italian countryside, and it’s impossible not to recall the similar trek that Jessica Harper’s Suzy Banion took to the dance academy in that latter Dario Argento film; it doesn’t help that Will Bates’ score for Immaculate calls to mind Goblin’s famous Moog synthesizer music for Suspiria, either.
In that respect, I was reminded of the American dancer who joins the dancing academy of Suspiria, made in both the 1977 Dario Argento version and the 2018 Luca Guadagnino remake by an Italian rather than an American.
It won't be revealed here, but if you saw the 1988 film “The Vanishing,” it's something like that.
Mohan’s visual style is wedged between the Conjurverse’s Nun series and pensive Italian giallos, as Christian’s camera slowly and obediently rolls past cathedral pews illuminated only by candlelight. There’s a gothic holiness to Cecilia’s new residence, complete with underground worshiping chambers where congregations wearing red cloth masks gather. Immaculate aims to frighten as the mood turns from divinity to damnation, drawing influences from Dario Argento, Roman Polanski, and even Neil Marshall’s The Descent.