Sydney Sweeney is one of the most notorious actresses of her generation. Launched to fame by Euphoria, like many of her co-stars, she’s starred in some of the industry’s largest box office successes in recent years. Her work spans romantic comedies and thrillers, but she’s also taken on a producer’s role and had a say in the creative process for many of her movies.
One such passion project took more than a decade to develop: a grisly religious horror movie in which Sweeney plays a young nun living in a mysterious convent in Italy. Immaculate was released in 2024 and was met with rave reviews — and now it’s finally streaming on Netflix.
Sweeney first came into contact with the film when she was 16 years old and auditioned for the role. The project never came to fruition, but years later, once Sweeney had built up her career with numerous projects and was trying to get involved with producing, she returned to the script she was so taken by.
“This one, Sydney was my boss. She hired me, and I wanted to deliver for her,” director Michael Mohan told The Hollywood Reporter at the time of the movie’s release. “I’m very lucky that we just trust each other, and oftentimes when we’re shooting, I’ll do a take, and we can look at each other and we know what the other one’s thinking.”
In Immaculate, Sweeney is cast delightfully against type, playing a sweet American nun called Sister Cecilia in what appears to be the ‘60s or ‘70s. After her parish shuts down in Michigan, she’s contacted by Father Tadeschi (Alvaro Morte), an Italian priest who invites her to join the convent where he works in the picturesque Italian countryside. Without any knowledge of the language, Cecilia embraces convent life abroad, soon realizing that the compound hosts many secrets and that her arrival was orchestrated with nefarious intent.
The story follows a well-trodden path for fans of Catholic horror, a genre that reliably produces jump scares and gore by exploiting its juicy source material. The convent’s purpose is to house senior nuns in their final days, while the younger nuns take care of them, (so we get numerous encounters with scary old nuns). The kind priest who welcomes Cecilia used to study biology and has a laboratory in the convent’s basement (where nothing good will happen). Before long, Cecilia’s only nun friend goes missing, and Cecilia suspects something sinister might be happening.
While these plot beats are familiar for any fan of the genre, Mohan’s direction steers the film away from jump scares, opting for a quieter build-up. His camera lingers on the gorgeous Italian greenery and takes in the convent with awe. The space is meticulously decorated with religious imagery and period detail. When it comes to the horror itself, Mohan’s more likely to scare you with the shadows created by a flickering candle or, in one stunning confessional sequence, by quietly switching camera lenses and creating a growing distance between Cecilia and the priest hearing her confession.
The film is also a showcase for Sweeney’s skills and expressions. Horror films have long served as a great test of acting feats for its “final girls,” demanding exhausting work that has them screaming their lungs out and running around covered in gore for some of its most memorable beats. As the story unravels Sweeney gets plenty of chances to run and scream and showcase her final girl chops. These moments are used sparingly and with restraint, so they earn their place. For most of the film, Sweeney’s work is carefully controlled. She plays Cecilia as a patient and skeptical observer who gradually comes to understand the dire nature of her circumstances. The camera lingers on her eyes, which are consistently bloodshot and teary.
Immaculate is a film that’s comfortable planting an idea and leaving the audience to decipher it on their own. Unlike many of its horror nun peers, which gleefully dole out jump scares, demonic imagery, and sexy nuns, Immaculate takes a less-is-more approach. Mohan still explores some of these ideas and has fun with them without veering into gratuitousness. It’s a tasteful approach, which is not the word you’d think of when picturing a horror movie about nuns in Italy starring Sydney Sweeney. The big twists leading to the grand finale are interesting and novel. Sweeney may have spent years bringing Immaculate back from the dead, but its unforgettable final moments prove it was worth resurrecting.
Immaculate is streaming now on Netflix.
