Immaculate (#530)


Do you know how to spot a horror film in previews?  The screen is dark, there is silence and then loud music snd louder discordant sounds slam your ears, punctuated by screams. IMMACULATE was a horror film, and i should have been more discriminating when I saw the title.  I really should have known what was coming.  I thought the movie was blasphemous and sacrilegious and yet another nun-basher.  This ridiculous film stars Sydney Sweeney, whom critics describe as a superstar and whom I saw recently in a very silly romantic comedy, as a novice American nun about to take her vows in a remote, picturesque convent in Italy that purportedly takes care of aging and sick nuns, caring for them in their final days.  In what I believe is an unprecedented situation, the convent is not run by nuns, but by an older priest or bishop and a young handsome and seemingly helpful and kindly younger man.  Things quickly go to pot when something bizarre happens to Sweeney, and I leave the rest to your imagination.  Superstar or not, she wins my plaudits for the art of screaming.  In one scene she screams unimpeded for what seemed like five minutes, and I pity her vocal cords.  Gratefully, the film lasted for only 1 hour and 20 minutes or thereabout.  Frankly, I can’t imagine what possessed 72% of critics to grace this one with a thumbs up, accompanied by 57% of audiences.  What  nonsense is Hollywood going to inflict on us next?  I wonder if I have to go to confession for watching this one. 

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