Immaculate (2024) Dir: Michael Mohan
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I remember seeing the teaser trailers for this Michael Mohan directed religious horror and being very excited; it looked like it could be a very good horror. However, when reviews began to surface, they were pretty tepid, in part, because the film seemed to have, oddly enough, the same plot as 'The First Omen', which also came out in 2024. I liked that film, so I was hoping that meant I'd enjoy this too.
The first thing to say is that it really did have a nearly identical plot to 'The First Omen'. The only difference is that this film did not do it anywhere near as well. It didn't look as good, it didn't sound as good, and the plot was nowhere near as well constructed. There was some very good imagery, and the occasional beautiful shot, but it just wasn't enough.
The film is a shade under the ninety minute mark, but it felt a good deal longer, due to some lethargic pacing. Also not helping this film's case was how tropy it was, be it suspicious nuns, birds flying into windows or the old reliable trope of someone being stood somewhere one second and mysteriously disappearing the next.
The story wasn't bad at all - after all, it would be odd of me to not enjoy it considering how much I enjoyed essentially the same narrative in the other film I've been talking about here. I will say, however, that, much like the rest of the film, this film's story was not done quite as well, and was a fair bit less satisfying.
Sydney Sweeney's performance was rather good, in fairness. She showed her true scream queen potential at various points, although her acting towards the beginning of the film was somewhat wooden, in my view. That said, her performance in the final twenty minutes was, if you'll excuse the use of the film's title, immaculate.
Álvaro Morte and Benedetta Porcaroli provided the film with its most compelling secondary characters, but their performances weren't quite to the level of Sweeney's. I think there also were some others who warranted mentioning, for their various supporting performances; Simona Tabasco, Giorgio Colangeli, Dora Romano and Giulia Heatherfield Di Renzi.
Overall, unfortunately, this horror suffers a lot, as I have alluded to, from coming out so close to 'The First Omen', which was not only similiar, but far superior. I think I'd have liked it more if I hadn't already seen the other film. However, that's not to say that this is a bad film, or that it isn't worth watching. It's fine, it just happens to be the second best immaculate conception-based religious horror of 2024.
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