Since Dolly the sheep’s cloning in 1996, the new movie “Immaculate” was probably inevitable. Most of us already knew of the other half of the equation. Items associated with and even some bones supposedly remaining from saints have been displayed in European churches which then benefit from the gifts of pilgrims.
The number relics and the weakness of some of their histories has prompted a lot of commentary. Supposedly Calvin said one could assemble a ship out of all the “pieces of the true cross” on display in different churches. But genuine biologic remains could, of course, contain the genetic codes of long-deceased religious figures.
Actually “Immaculate” also makes use of the relatively recent scientific process called “in vitro fertilization.” These references to science give the film’s story additional interest. Without them it would have to rely on the star power of Sydney Sweeney.
This young American actress is known to movie-goers for her turn in “Madame Web” and her lead role in “Anyone But You.” She was apparently the power that rescued Andrew Lobel’s screenplay and saw that Michael Mohan made it into a film. She also stars in it, playing the nun Cecilia.
The movie was filmed in Rome, and for some reason Cecilia is an American. She has come to an ornamented and picturesque Italian convent operated as a hospice for members of the order she joins. The institution has one of the nails used to fix Jesus to the cross — a relic.
One nun Cecilia meets, Isabel, is stiff and unfriendly. Later in the film she will rant that “it should have been me” and will throw herself off a balcony to her death. Another nun who is also about Cecilia’s age, Gwen, is friendly and curious. So is Cecilia. She takes a couple of night walks and sees all sorts of odd things: a prostrate worshiper at the altar whose face is covered with a red mask; a locked drawer with newspaper clippings about her own near drowning years before; and a primitive lab full of what seem to be specimen human fetuses.
By this point in the film, the viewer may be thinking back to the before-the-credits attempt of a young nun to escape the institution and her subsequent burial while she was still alive. Then, too, we have older nuns who seem to adore Cecilia. This becomes more frequent when the convent’s doctor announces she is pregnant, though a virgin.
Now, gentle reader, this has told you all you need to know in order to work out the story. Except for one thing. Cecilia, not unreasonably, changes as she experiences all these things. She becomes suspicious of a few of the officials attached to the institution, and asks for a medical examination in a hospital. This request is denied. One of the plot’s false steps, if you’ll excuse the pun, is that the biologist priest brands the sole of Cecilia’s foot with a red hot cross. After that the nun starts expressing her displeasure in violent ways.
The film doesn’t ever waste time, but its developments don’t always seem interesting enough to keep the viewer engaged. Then the last third of the movie rolls along fine and has some shocks in it as well as some previously prepared twists and a whole new run of settings.
And the plot does play with serious contemporary questions associated with new scientific procedures. Not that it does more than remind us of the issues. “Immaculate” is only trying to be a scary movie. It may only be creepy, but it will hold its crowd’s attention through its brief time on the screen.
