'Immaculate' review: Sydney Sweeney delivers in convent of horrors

A bloody religious revenge thriller with midnight movie DNA, "Immaculate" gives star Sydney Sweeney a chance to flex her inner scream queen.

And scream she does, in a loud, furious roar that would make current reigning horror goddess Mia Goth quake in her boots. It happens at the climax of the nimble 80-minute thrill ride that gets in, gets out and gets its job done.

Sweeney stars as Cecilia, a young nun from "just outside of Detroit" who takes up religion after a childhood accident where she fell into a frozen lake and nearly drowned. Cecilia is recruited to join a convent in Italy which offers care for elderly nuns in their final days and she decides to make the trip, making the required pledges of obedience, poverty and chastity.

Cecilia doesn't speak the language, a scathing indictment on Italian language programs in Metro Detroit schools. (Do better!) But the convent has more in store for her than just typical caretaking duties, as she learns when she becomes pregnant under mysterious circumstances.

Father Sal Tedeschi (Álvaro Morte) would have her believe her conception is, well, look at the title of the movie, but there's perhaps more to the convent than Cecilia first realizes. And she's forced to fight back against all sorts of holy high jinks, finding her agency and inner strength along the way.

Director Michael Mohan, who also directed Sweeney in "The Voyeurs," and writer Andrew Lobel give Sweeney plenty of obstacles to fight through, and weave a good enough story to justify Cecilia's escape and quest for freedom.

It's all in service of a very rich payoff, when Sweeney delivers a tour de force cry of anguish while holding the camera in an impressively unbroken shot. That's the movie, right there in those moments, the prize in this box of Cracker Jacks. Movies can be made or broken in their closing moments, and "Immaculate" delivers a killer finale that will leave you breathless and reeling. Scream, queen, scream.

agraham@detroitnews.com

'Immaculate'

GRADE: B

Rated R: for strong and bloody violent content, grisly images, nudity and some language

Running time: 88 minutes

In theaters