‘Immaculate’ Review — Sydney Sweeney stuns in shocking, sleazy nunsploitation flick

A review of the new horror film, in theaters March 22nd

We seem to be in a golden age of nunsploitation right now. Paul Verhoeven’s 2021 film Benedetta is a gleefully profane exploration of a lesbian nun who begins having prophetic visions. Mickey Reece’s Agnes is about a nun who’s possessed and the men who step in to save her. There’s The Little Hours, a movie where Aubrey Plaza plays a nun, and of course, The Nun and The Nun II, the nun-centric spinoffs of The Conjuring universe.

Then there’s Immaculate, a new horror film from The Voyeurs director Michael Mohan. The movie is about a young nun named Sister Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney), an American who has just arrived at an ancient convent in Italy. She’s still working on her Italian, but she’s looking forward to finally finding a place where she fits in. After all, as her new Sister Gwen (Benedetta Porcaroli) says, everyone at the convent is a bit of a broken bird.

Shortly after taking her vows, Cecilia begins to suspect that something strange is going on at the convent. When she comes upon a prostrate nun laying flat on the ground in supplication before a religious icon — a nail, said to be one that nailed Jesus to His cross — Cecilia blacks out. Soon, she’s…