Immaculate-Clunky First Half, Wild Second

Immaculate is at its best in its second half, focusing on incredible tension-building and sequences of genuinely uneasy body-horror imagery. The film's twist is predictable, but it works well to provide an array of genuinely unsettling and creepy sequences and imagery. It helps that the imagery is exquisitely shot, with visually striking lighting and uses of wide and closeup camera angles combined with slow, methodical camera movement that all help with the film's tension-building. It all culminates in the final moment, shot in one long take that's showy and brutal in all the best ways.

But to get to the enjoyably tense and unsettling second half, there's some clunkiness to get through in the first half. The film's first half features more modern horror elements and can sometimes feel a bit generic. Many of the early scares come from jump scares that feel a bit cheap and overbearing. The initial expository scenes that set up the plot can feel a bit dull and aren't always that interesting. Additionally, Sydney Sweeney's performance isn't consistent in the first half, with some of her early line deliveries feeling flat or off.

There are many issues to overcome in the first half, but it all feels worth it for the second half's wild, enjoyably tense, and uneasy body horror. With the film's relatively brief 87-minute runtime, it gets to the enjoyable grotesqueries of the second half fairly quickly. Much of what the film says about religious fanaticism and religious control of women and their bodies isn't original, having been explored in many different horror movies. However, the film's handling of these themes is nevertheless effective at providing an assortment of genuinely unsettling imagery and sequences that get under the viewer's skin. Immaculate combines the style and tone of modern contemporary and arthouse horror, which doesn't always work but still makes for a pretty terrifying film.

Now playing in select theaters in the U.S