After viewing Michael Mohan’s film “Immaculate” starring Sydney Sweeney this past weekend, I got to thinking about the components that make a horror movie great, and unfortunately, “Immaculate” fell short of the mark.
“Immaculate’s” story follows a nun by the name of Cecillia, played by Sweeney, who travels to Italy to work in a convert in the countryside. A couple of odd things happen to her before she finds out she is miraculously pregnant. In the Catholic Church, being “Immaculate” equates to being free from sin just like Virgin Mary. From this point on, Sister Cecillia learns why she was invited to serve there in the first place.
I’m sure there was a deeper meaning to a majority of the plot, but from the perspective of someone who doesn’t house any prior knowledge of the film, I found the overall storyline difficult to truly enjoy. I checked my watch multiple times throughout the viewing and left the theater feeling unfulfilled. I love Sydney Sweeney, but did not enjoy listening to her scream for five minutes straight.
To complete the experience, I did what every film geek does after watching a movie and took a trip to Letterboxd. This website was made for film discussion and I find myself spending a lot of time on it. Naturally, I got caught up in scrolling through reviews when the comment of a user by the name of George Carmi caught my eye.
“…I truly just can’t stand a horror film that tries to get by with cheap jump scares.”
This statement was conspicuous to me for a number of reasons, one being that my general conception of horror movies is all jump scares. When something abruptly pops up on screen we’re bound to jump or react in a certain way that exudes fear. Right?
When I think of the horror genre, I think of gore and screams. But, most importantly, I think of jump scares. The feeling you get leading up to one of these scenes is foreboding, and without that fear of future evil there’s nothing to be scared of. I’m not saying that ‘Immaculate’ was an amazing movie, but what I am saying is that it successfully did its job in the jump scare category.
There were some plot holes that could have been filled but overall ‘Immaculate’ accomplished making me scared at certain points. If you cannot stand gore, I do not recommend this movie.
