This is an honest to goodness nunsploitation film that stars probably one of the hottest Hollywood sex symbols of the day. That sounds, well, exploitative but it seems that Sydney Sweeney was the one who pushed for it to be made and it is relatively restrained in terms of sexual titillation. With its title and setup, it’s not hard to guess that this is about immaculate conception. It’s a rather straightforward take on the premise and I’d say it’s effective enough as horror. It’s also not good enough to really stand out but I’ll take what I can get.

A young American novice Cecilia arrives in Italy to take up vows and live in a convent as a nun despite barely speaking any Italian. Most of the other nuns welcome her warmly but one of them Sister Isabelle warns them that she is there to do work as the convent specializes in end-of-life care for elderly nuns. That night she meets Father Sal Tedeschi and recounts to him how she has always searched for a purpose since she was saved from drowning in a frozen lake as a child. Yet as she acclimates to life in the convent and does her daily chores, she encounters more and more oddities. One elderly nun appears to have the shape of the cross branded onto both of her soles. She learns that the convent houses a relic that is said to be a nail from Jesus’ crucifixion and she has nightmares and sees visions of nuns with no faces. One day she has a bout of nausea and is taken to see the resident doctor. Bewildered, she is informed that she is pregnant despite being a virgin and is hailed by the leaders of the convent as a miracle. Most of the sisters there begin to treat as the next Virgin Mary, with the exception of her friend Gwen who barely believes in God and is there only because she has no other way to make a living. But Sister Isabelle actually tries to drown her in the tub, shouting that she is the one who was supposed to be impregnated.

This a fairly basic horror film that tells its story straight. Its visuals look decently good, it cleverly twists the religious symbology and prayers to play up the horror aspect and Sweeney shines as the female lead. She is appropriately innocent and demure at the beginning but grows in confidence as she becomes more suspicious of what is really going on inside the convent. Past films of this genre used to fetishize nuns and play up the taboo eroticism but this sort of titillation is minimized here. The horror here doesn’t stem from sexual exploitation but from the loss of bodily autonomy and being impregnated against her will. The leaders of the convent, the male priests in particular, are true believers in their cause and so seemingly have no sexual interest in Cecilia at all. So this is an unexpected yet very effective way to give a more unique focus to the horror. This ties in especially well with the resurgence of abortion rights in the US as it could be interpreted as the ultimate representation of a woman seizing power over her own body from religious authorities.

Unfortunately, this film does fail in a number of ways. Cecilia is really the only character of note so the story feels a bit thin. There’s so much wasted potential in not developing supporting characters like Gwen or Isabelle more. Giving them more screentime earlier would also make their deaths way more impactful. The film also cheats in that some of the elements it throws at the screen to up the scare factor aren’t later justified in the lore. For example, the prologue suggests antagonists with seemingly superhuman strength which turns out to be misleading. There’s no real explanation offered for the faceless nuns. The background story that is actually established isn’t bad but perhaps it didn’t provide enough material to work with to hint at the supernatural. It works in the moment to add to the tension but feels cheap once you’ve realized that it’s cheating.

So I’d class this as a solid and satisfying horror film but not one that is noteworthy enough to be remembered. It does earn some extra points in unambiguously framing religious fanatics as the villain and being a pro-abortion film.