Immaculate, the brand new horror movie that came out this weekend, stars Sydney Sweeney as a devout nun who finds herself miraculously with child despite never having sexual intercourse (hence the title, a reference to “immaculate conception”). But remember: this is a horror movie, so things don’t stay too “miraculous” for long, and the entire story culminates in a particularly harrowing and violent third act designed to make viewers very, very uncomfortable.
The film has seen mostly positive reviews from critics, with a current score of 70% on Rotten Tomatoes (a very good score for a horror film!). While the cinematography and story have been praised, much of the positive feedback has been directly for Sydney, who does a genuinely impressive job in such a challenging role.
However, not all moviegoers have felt this way.
Given the religious theming and the absolutely gnarly third act, many devoutly religious and conservative people have expressed their disgust with the film—and, in particular, their disgust with Sydney being in the film at all.
Why? Well, for those not in the know, Sydney has become somewhat of a talking point after her recent appearance on Saturday Night Live, with some conservatives claiming that her (and her cleavage) spell doom for “wokeness.”
This posturing of the actor has likely added to the shock of the anti-religious, violent nature of the film for these moviegoers, given their outlook on Sydney in specific. As previously mentioned, these viewers have not been shy about expressing their opinions of the movie via X.
However, in a bit of a twist, the movie’s marketing team appears to be totally fine with this turn of events, taking these “reviews” and using them IN the film’s new marketing campaign as pull-quotes to further create buzz around the film.
Something else that must be said is that—despite the first quote’s claim about Hollywood “shoving” Sydney into this particular film—Sydney herself has gone on record saying she auditioned for a version of this very film 10 years ago when she was just 16 years old.
Not only that: she’s quite literally the reason the film was made.
During her recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, she said, “I auditioned for a version of this movie when I was 16 and they never made it. So, 10 years later, I decided to make it […] I called my agents, and I said, ‘I can’t get this script out of my mind, what’s happened with it?’ I contacted the writer and we rewrote it to match me as a 25-year-old. And then I attached producers to it, I took it to a financier, and I hired a director. It was the first thing I ever produced. It was amazing.”
Only time will tell if the conservative uproar helps or hurts Immaculate’s box office performance. Amen and whatnot!
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