Sydney Sweeney dominates as a scream queen in the intense horror film "Immaculate," filled with gory scenes featuring nuns.

Some actors become overshadowed by their characters, but not Sydney Sweeney. The actress known for her roles in Euphoria and Anyone But You has such a strong presence in pop culture that it can overpower her characters. This is partly due to Sweeney’s consistent use of her distinct millennial accent and her endearingly self-aware demeanor, which blurs the line between her public image and the characters she portrays.

This could be harmful in certain films, but Immaculate, an entertaining and creepy nod to Rosemary’s Baby and Italian giallo movies like Suspiria, benefits from it. Sweeney, who had gone without playing a typical horror film heroine for a long time, takes on the role of a pure and innocent nun. Sister Cecilia, her character, inexplicably becomes pregnant and is subsequently confined by a fanatic convent that believes she is carrying the reincarnation of Christ.

The film primarily centers on malicious individuals feeling justified in claiming ownership over a young woman’s physical appearance, and forcing their own interpretations upon it. Sweeney, with her strikingly idealized figure, is able to deliberately embrace this role. However, her breakout performance in the emotionally intense Euphoria serves as both a statement on objectification and adds to her objectification – with reports stating that she had to resist some of the numerous nude scenes written for her by creator Sam Levinson.

Earlier this month, Sweeney performed on SNL and poked fun at how people tend to look at her body, specifically her chest, during a skit where she played a Hooters waitress who excels at her job for obvious reasons. A conservative columnist even took ownership of Sweeney’s body, stating in a right-leaning Canadian newspaper that her attractiveness was the downfall of progressive thinking. It seems that those on the left, who promote diverse standards of beauty, cannot handle anything larger than a B-cup. Despite this, Sweeney’s fight for bodily autonomy against religious extremists in the movie Immaculate goes beyond the screen, a feat that many B-movies aspire to.

Sweeney’s Sister Cecilia is introduced while she journeys to Italy and encounters two male border agents who immediately appraise her appearance. They exchange comments in Italian, expressing disappointment that she has chosen to dedicate her body to Christ. Despite not knowing the language, Cecilia understands their meaning. Her devout and modest demeanor seems to serve as her response.

Cecilia is exploring her spiritual calling as she relocates to a convent in a rural, gothic region of Italy. The convent serves as a retirement community and hospice for elderly nuns. Death looms over the atmosphere long before Immaculate arrives and disturbing shadows creep in at night. The director, Michael Mohan, portrays the brutal scenes of nuns meeting their end with stomach-churning realism.

The movie Immaculate does not shy away from the most basic yet enjoyable elements of a nunsploitation film. The director, Mohan, along with screenwriter Andrew Lobel, takes delight in utilizing jump scares, physical deformities, and cliched genre conventions. These scenes can be both comical and rejuvenating. This film does not have the heavy seriousness often seen in “elevated horror” movies. Instead, it embraces the carefree attitude of a cheaply produced festival, paying tribute to its inspirations from both the high and low end of the spectrum, such as Suspiria and The Stepford Wives.

However, Mohan’s approach also evokes memories of previous works by Jaume Collet-Serra (such as House of Wax and The Shallows), another skilled craftsman in the genre whose visual decisions seem purposeful rather than automatic. In Immaculate, Mohan often juxtaposes elegant shots with gruesome close-ups, such as when a nun jumps from the roof of the convent, prompting us to look closer and see her injured face upon impact with the pavement.

Producer Sweeney enlisted director Mohan to work on Immaculate. Mohan, who had previously directed Sweeney in The Voyeurs, created a humorous yet effective homage to Rear Window and erotic thrillers from the 90s such as Basic Instinct. In The Voyeurs, Sweeney’s character is not just objectified but also has the power to objectify others through her distinctive almond-shaped eyes. Mohan, in his Verhoeven-inspired style, placed a strong emphasis on Sweeney’s eye acting abilities, which were clearly demonstrated in her character’s intense glares in The White Lotus.

Observe them in their purity: how they open in terror or well up in defeat; and how, when Sister Cecilia resists the patriarchy during the powerful segment about “my body, my choice” in her remarkable journey, Sweeney’s gaze strengthens with a fierce determination that seems intimately connected.