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Summary
- Sydney Sweeney shines as the lead and producer of
Immaculate
, showcasing her talent in front of and behind the camera. -
Immaculate
explores horror and religion through a chilling story of immaculate conception and dark secrets within a convent in Italy. - The film takes bold, unexpected turns that leave viewers on the edge of their seats, with real evil and intense performances.
Immaculate is an exploration of horror and religion as Sister Cecilia’s life becomes a nightmare after joining a convent in Italy. Cecilia faced certain death as a child but was saved after her heart stopped for several minutes, leading to her relationship with God believing that he saved her. After joining the convent in Italy, Sister Cecilia’s life becomes a nightmare after she discovers her own immaculate conception, which not only puts her life in danger from the other nuns but also sparks the question of how this happened and what it means for the baby.
Sydney Sweeney shines in Immaculate, not only as the lead in a pulse-pounding horror movie but as a first-time producer as well. Sweeney was a leader not only in front of the camera but behind the camera as well. She purchased the rights to the script, hired the director, and was a leader on set. Sweeney is also able to show off her acting chops as the center of Immaculate, tense psychological thriller after showing off her more comedic and charismatic side in Anyone But You and her action skills in Madame Web.
How Scary & Violent Is Immaculate? Sydney Sweeney’s R-Rated Horror Movie Guide
Sydney Sweeney’s new horror movie, Immaculate, rightfully earned an R-rating, so it might not be a movie for all viewers due to its content.
During South By Southwest, Screen Rant interviewed the team that created Immaculate, including director Michael Mohan, star and producer Sydney Sweeney, and cast members Álvaro Morte, Simona Tabasco and Benedetta Porcaroli. The cast shared insight into how their characters fit into the larger mystery of Immaculate, while Mohan touched on his collaboration process with Sweeney and how this movie stands out from other religious horror movies.
Setting The Immaculate Stage
Screen Rant: Guys, this movie is immaculate. It’s called Immaculate, and it’s actually immaculate. You had me at evil nuns, and then it only gets better from there. People are not prepared. I was not prepared for this movie.Sydney, as the lead, can you set it up for us? Tell us the premise of this one.
Sydney Sweeney: Oh, my goodness. Okay, so you have Cecilia, who is from the States. She goes to Italy to an unknown convent where she meets Benedetta’s character and unforeseen circumstances happen, and she winds up becoming pregnant. She doesn’t know how, she doesn’t know why, and she finds herself trapped in almost a torture chamber.
Michael, tell us what drew you into this one. Did you go to a Catholic school? Did you have some nuns there? Are you working something out here with this one?
Michael Mohan: Definitely. Definitely working something out. No, I grew up Catholic and was the leader of our youth group and all of that stuff, and I am curious to know what my friends back home are going to think of the movie.
Can you each set up who you play and how your character folds into the story?
Benedetta Porcaroli: Yes, sure. I’m Gwen. I’m trying to become a nun, but I don’t really believe in it. I’m already in the convent when Cecilia arrives and, as Sydney said, the strange circumstances start from the very beginning of the story. Somehow, I realize that she’s in danger, and there’s something wrong in this place. I don’t like the people, and trying to save her somehow. I’m the warning person.
Simona Tabasco: I’m playing a nun; a rebel nun also. My character knows that [something] already is happening in the convent, and so she’s trying to escape… Yeah, something is happening.
Álvaro Morte: I’m Father Sal Tedeschi in the movie, who is a priest in charge of the monastery where Sister Cecilia comes. He’s a priest, but he graduated in biology, and then he’s just trying to use his knowledge to make things good in the monastery.
Immaculate Is A Big Departure For Sydney Sweeney – With Good Reason
Sydney, you set this one up a little bit on SNL. You said, “I play nun, which is perfect casting.” And the joke is obviously that this feels like such a departure from anything you’ve done. Was that part of the intent, to do something that people would think was unexpected?
Sydney Sweeney: I always like to find things that are unexpected. Character story, that’s the fun thing about acting is being someone that you’re not, and so I don’t want to play the same character over and over again. And I’ve been in love with this story and I’ve been chasing this story for a really long time and I was really happy that I was able to do it.
By the same token, this film goes to such dark, unexpected places. It’s one of the craziest movies that I’ve seen in a long time. It might be the boldest thing you’ve actually ever done.
Sydney Sweeney: Wow! Thank you. I like to make bold choices, so I hope so.
Let’s talk about just sort of the idea of finding horror in religion. It’s well-mined in Hollywood, with a grand tradition from The Exorcist to Rosemary’s Baby. Why is there such good horror to be mined in religion?
Michael Mohan: Yeah, absolutely. I think the difference between our film and a lot of the more recent religious horror films is that ours is not supernatural. In our case, the evil is real. The evil is man. The events in this story could happen. And to me, that’s when I look back on the horror of the early 1970s, I think that the difference between that and today is that they’re much more visceral. There’s always going to be horror to be mined from spirituality, but here we try to do it in a different way.
This film takes such wild turns. What was your experience like watching this for the first time?
Benedetta Porcaroli: I was traumatized. I couldn’t realize when I was shooting that the thing was so real and so… That’s the thing. It’s not unnatural. Everything is absolutely embodied by human beings. So, I was moved by her performance, which is incredible. I think it was the right effect he wanted to provoke. It’s a beautiful film actually.
Simona Tabasco: I wanted to watch it in a cinema, so I’m going to watch it tonight for the first time.
Álvaro Morte: Yeah, me too. I didn’t have a chance to watch it yet, so it’s going to be the first time for me tonight.
Sydney Sweeney: This is a film you have to see on a big screen. I think that’s why we’re so excited that it’s going to theaters because you get to feel with the audience, and you want to hide and you can’t hide.
Sydney, as producer, you’re actually giving notes; you were helping form this thing. Can you talk about that aspect, Michael, and what Sydney brought as a producer?
Michael Mohan: She’s a great producer. Sydney and I have been working together since she was 19, on a Netflix show called Everything Sucks. RIP. Even back then I saw her, she’s a cinephile. She would sit with the ACs and learn about lenses when we made Voyeurs a few years ago.
It’s so nice to have a collaborator who helps you inspire the crew to do their best work, and that’s what we wanted to do here was to make something that really where the craft of the filmmaking felt like you said, like immaculate, where it’s really beautiful and you see the language of the cinema devolve as we see her character descend into madness.
Immaculate Vibes Despite Dark Content
How would you guys describe what the vibe was on set of this film? Because it is such a dark, intense film, but are you keeping things, are you trying to keep things light?
Sydney Sweeney: I was running around. We’d laugh. It was fun.
Benedetta Porcaroli: It was fun. The opposite of the story. We were very delighted and having fun.
Michael, I would love to hear sort of your cinematic inspirations for the look and feel of this film.
Michael Mohan: It all hearkens back to the American new wave of the early 70s. Those films like Rosemary’s Baby, for instance, are so intimate, but at the same time so cinematic. And you look at a film like The Exorcist, where back then, people were unafraid to make really bold choices and show imagery that almost feel inappropriate. But it’s so memorable and The Exorcist is a classy movie despite that, and so I think that balance of the lurid with just general higher-end filmmaking aesthetic is something we were going for.
Sydney, you’re just having a hell of a year. Madame Web came out, and I’m really appreciating what a great sense of humor you guys seemed to have about that film. It’s never easy when a film doesn’t reach expectations, but what have been the positives you’ve taken out of this experience?
Sydney Sweeney: Well, I built such amazing relationships and friendships with Celeste and Isabela. I went home and I screened the movie for my family and my little cousins dressed up as little Spider girls. That’s why I did it, and that’s what is meaningful and beautiful about the entire process.
Immaculate
arrives in theaters on March 22.
Source: Screen Rant Plus
Immaculate
Immaculate is a 2024 horror film directed by Michael Mohan and stars Sydney Sweeney. When a devout woman named Cecilia is offered a position at a prestigious convent in Italy, she takes it with little hesitation. However, Cecilia’s world is turned upside down when she discovers the terrible secrets hidden within her new place of faith.
- Director
- michael mohan
- Release Date
- March 22, 2024
- Studio(s)
- Fifty-Fifty Films , Black Bear
- Distributor(s)
- Neon
- Writers
- Andrew Lobel
- Cast
- Sydney Sweeney , Álvaro Morte , Benedetta Porcaroli , Dora Romano , Giorgio Colangeli , Simona Tabasco
- Runtime
- 89 minutes
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