This movie leans very heavily into nunsploitation, and your appreciation of the film will be entirely contingent on how much you admire Sydney Sweeny’s appreciable assets. In the runcount, I would estimate a third of the film features Sweeny in translucent or gossamer attire, with the tantalizing notion that you can almost see her nipples. The rest of the film leans heavily into sexy-nun tropes, but overall the film is decent in execution. The settings are nicely gothic and creepy, there’s plenty of disquieting atmosphere and imagery, and the horror elements provide a lot of expected body-horror and copious gore. There is little here you haven’t seen before, but Sweeny does possess an innate charisma and intensity that anchors the film’s more outlandish notions and developments. Her performance is the standout in what is otherwise a rehash of similar religious horror films, augmented by some gorgeous locales and an effort to have many of the characters speaking italian to augment the main character’s sense of alienation and isolation. Despite this, the story is pretty threadbare, a bit too campy, and would be far more forgettable without Sweeny’s contributions.
Immaculate (2024)