Immaculate
Neon | Release Date: March 22, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
19
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
TheWrapChase HutchinsonMar 13, 2024
Giving life to a horror vision that would not have nearly the same power and potency without her at the forefront of it, Sweeney has never been better than she is here. What a darkly beautiful yet brutal, bloody and bold film this is for her to wield. Read full review
80
Film ThreatBenjamin FranzMar 26, 2024
This is a hard film to watch. If you can stomach it and its terrors, this film rewards you with a cracking good fireside story Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeMar 21, 2024
It would be nothing without a charismatic star at its heart. Sweeney is certainly that – and, as the final shot confirms, she is as game as they come. Nun more fun. Read full review
80
The GuardianRadheyan SimonpillaiMar 21, 2024
Sweeney’s fight for bodily autonomy, against religious fanatics in Immaculate, transcends the screen in a way most B-movies like it could only pray for. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla DargisMar 21, 2024
Immaculate doesn’t try to reinvent anything but instead cheerfully embraces the familiar, which is part of what makes the movie enjoyable. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshMar 20, 2024
It’s goopy, gross fun, if not entirely terrifying, and if there’s a weak link, it’s the screenplay, which toys with deeper social and sexual themes but skims along the surface and leaves loose ends untied. Read full review
75
ObserverDylan RothMar 20, 2024
There are and have been countless Hollywood actresses for whom this role would be particularly resonant, but for this moment, there’s no better person to tell this story than Sydney Sweeney. And, thankfully, she gets to tell it on her own terms. Read full review
72
PolygonAusten GoslinMar 20, 2024
The movie is full of mood and carefully paced terror that is more sustained than bolstered, with a plotty ending that never pays off the movie’s conspiratorial promise. The good news is, in true exploitation fashion, the movie’s final moments are grisly, pitch-black, and perfect. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMar 22, 2024
Mohan seduces us with form while the central performance engages us on a more elemental level. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekMar 22, 2024
It’s bad-gal blasphemy of the highest order. Read full review
70
VarietyStephen SaitoMar 13, 2024
No small part of the satisfaction of Immaculate comes from witnessing someone find faith in herself. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubMatthew JacksonMar 25, 2024
Uneven and sometimes predictable though it is, it’s a film that knows how to push the buttons of its particular subgenre, and you get the sense that any number of stars might have been able to carry it in the right context. You also get the sense, from the very first moment she’s onscreen to the unforgettable final frame, that none of those other possible stars could have carried it quite as well as Sweeney. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleAlejandra MartinezMar 21, 2024
It’s deranged, but also at times curiously defanged. At least it’s still a fun, bloody watch, even if it frustrates along the way. Read full review
65
The AtlanticDavid SimsMar 29, 2024
It’s a straightforward piece of genre silliness, an 89-minute thrill fest crammed with the requisite jump scares and creepy religious imagery. But it’s also part of a larger body of evidence that Sweeney, unlike the guileless characters she often portrays, is carefully constructing her career in ways that suit her skill set. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMar 25, 2024
Immaculate is at times unsettling and the ending contains a strong shock element but the movie as a whole feels a little too familiar to engage its audience. Read full review
63
Washington PostJen YamatoMar 20, 2024
A modern Gothic slow burn that simmers in pedestrian frights until it finally boils over into bursts of delicious, gory violence. When it does, anchored by an impressive performance by Sydney Sweeney, the bloodshed isn’t just welcome but cathartic, a gonzo takedown of religious patriarchy with one hell of a memorable finale that reconfirms the good news: Nunsploitation is back, baby. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineDerek SmithMar 14, 2024
The film’s final act contains some of the most twisted, gory violence this particular subgenre of horror has seen in years, ultimately recalling nothing less than the films of the ultra-violent New French Extremity movement. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyMar 29, 2024
Many things in this film have an off-kilter absurdity, for good and bad. Read full review
60
Screen RantPatrice WitherspoonMar 22, 2024
The standouts are certainly more on the technical side, with Elisha Christian’s cinematography, Will Bates’ score, and Mohan’s close-ups. Then, there’s Sweeney, who, without a shadow of a doubt, convinced me of her acting skills thanks to what she was able to accomplish through her emotional and physical performance. Read full review
60
Time OutPhil de SemlyenMar 22, 2024
Entertainly, director Michael Mohan, who worked with Sweeney on the 2021 thriller The Voyeurs, twigs that the Catholic Church isn’t just a source of spiritual tension, but a terrific arsenal too. Immaculate makes imaginative use of crucifixes, rosaries, and at least one crucifixion nail in all kinds of ways the Papacy didn’t intend. Read full review
60
EmpireKim NewmanMar 20, 2024
Immaculate has the look of something as lightly spooky as the Nun films, but is prepared to go a lot further — abetted by a committed lead performance — than your average haunted convent picture. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 18, 2024
Immaculate goes all in on the yuck, but leaves the rest high and dry. Read full review
60
Total FilmKevin HarleyMar 14, 2024
You’ll flinch, yes, but you’ll forget it just as quickly. Read full review
60
IGNKatie RifeMar 13, 2024
It’s beautifully shot, and very loud. But much of the film is simply too mild and reliant on jump scares, and Syndey Sweeney’s performance doesn’t achieve the hysterical heights a movie like this needs until it’s too late. Read full review
58
The Film StageCaleb HammondMar 22, 2024
There are a host of avenues the film could’ve explored that might have given audiences more to chew on and make Cecilia’s journey more engaging; Immaculate opts for a straightforward approach that delivers the violent ending it seeks but squanders the potential of its promising setup in the process. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Sarah-Tai BlackMar 25, 2024
While its penultimate scene returns to its affections for shock and gore, there remains a feeling that it’s been apologetically tacked on to a final act that is, overall, lacking in any other sort of fun or thrilling narrative twists and turns. Read full review
50
Little White LiesHannah StrongMar 22, 2024
Despite the best efforts of DoP Elisha Christian to create a striking visual identity, the film ultimately brings little to well-trodden cinematic ground, even in its hell-for-leather finale. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 21, 2024
Despite a promising beginning, “Immaculate” relies too much on jump-scares and disturbing imagery for the sake of shock, and flies off the rails with an absolutely bonkers climactic sequence that plays like something out of a cheap horror film. Read full review
50
CNNBrian LowryMar 21, 2024
Sweeney ably carries the film on that level, though there are beats courtesy of director Michael Mohan and screenwriter Andrew Lobel as likely to elicit uncomfortable chuckles from the audience as fear. Read full review
50
Rolling StoneDavid FearMar 20, 2024
The only thing this second-rate scarefest truly succeeds in doing, however, is giving Sweeney a hell of a showcase. Read full review
50
The Associated PressLindsey BahrMar 20, 2024
There were some lofty ideas behind “Immaculate” that seem underserved (about bodily autonomy and such) and she gets several memorable movie star moments, but I want more for Sweeney than whatever this adds up to. Read full review
50
ColliderMatt DonatoMar 13, 2024
Sweeney takes plenty of risks in a lead role that’s rigorous and emotionally demanding, but the film ultimately feels a bit surface level considering how it approaches horror. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterLovia GyarkyeMar 13, 2024
Immaculate works best when it abandons its attempts to be a kind of surrealist portrait of Catholic terror and leans into the campy horror of B movies. Read full review
50
The Daily BeastColeman SpildeMar 13, 2024
Though Immaculate won’t raise any hairs, it should boost Sweeney’s career. She transcends all of the triteness, proving herself to be the megawatt actress with virtuoso potential that she’s already demonstrated herself to be. Read full review
42
Original-CinChris KnightMar 21, 2024
Director Michael Mohan, who also directed Sweeney in 2021’s The Voyeurs, creates a wildly uneven tone here, with a film that starts out promising to be a supernatural horror before segueing into something far more prosaic. Read full review
40
SlashfilmWitney SeiboldMar 21, 2024
Hidden somewhere in Immaculate is a stirring and topical drama about the way male-driven religious institutions claim ownership over women's bodies. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMar 14, 2024
Immaculate feels like both a throwback to another era of Italian horror and a timely commentary on woman’s bodily autonomy, but it can’t match the flair of the former and lacks the thematic thrust to convey anything resonant about the latter. Read full review
33
IndieWireRafael MotamayorMar 13, 2024
It is in the third act that Immaculate delivers a gonzo, rock-smashing, fiery, crucifix-stabbing and all-out bloody good time. Unfortunately, by that point, it’s too late to save the soul of this movie, which is condemned not to go to hell, but remain in dull horror movie purgatory. Read full review
30
Screen DailyRobert DanielsMar 13, 2024
Despite the tantalising set up, Immaculate is a dull, predictable affair, composed of far too many inconsequential jump scares in lieu of sturdy storytelling. Read full review
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