‘There’s no limits to what a character can do’
◆ As Immaculate is released, star Sydney Sweeney and director Michael Mohan talk to Charlotte Mclaughlin about how horror should be drawn from reality
Stories of immaculate conception have been around for centuries, and are now getting the on-screen treatment with Sydney Sweeney’s new horror movie.
In Immaculate, devout American Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney) arrives at an illustrious Italian convent, far from the outside world, to take holy orders, believing God had given her a second chance at life after an accident when she was young.
Things are not quite as they seem at this picturesque convent, and soon Cecilia, a virgin, discovers she is pregnant.
It is celebrated as “a miracle” by the resident Father, but there are hints that something more terrible is lurking, as red-mask wearing nuns run riot and mysterious deaths pile up.
Is this the coming of Christ, or is there something more sinister at work?
Cecilia’s transformation is not just bodily and, as her belly grows bigger, she changes from a person of purity into “a feral creature, drenched in blood”, according to director Michael Mohan, with whom Sweeney worked on erotic thriller The Voyeurs and coming-ofage Netflix show Everything Sucks!
Sweeney says that Cecilia is “such a quiet, pure, innocent, pious girl, and she then has the most unexplained crazy events happen to her, and she has to unlock and find this inner strength, madness, anger, fear determination, within herself.
“It’s really cool playing characters that go through such a transformation.”
Sweeney, known for HBO teen drama Euphoria and season one of HBO anthology series White Lotus, joins a star-studded cast in the convent, including Italian actress Simona Tabasco, who appeared in the second season of White Lotus, Money Heist actor Alvaro Morte and Baby actress Benedetta Porcaroli.
The production was a labour of love for Sweeney, who first auditioned for the movie when she was 16, and a decade later, at the age of 26, has control over the project as a producer.
It is a role with which she is increasingly comfortable, after producing 2023 romantic comedy Anyone But You.
“I got the clean draft and we rewrote it, and made it what it is on screen today and then I went and I built the team,” she explains.
“I’ve loved collaborating with him (Michael) and I knew that if he was on this team, (he) wouldn’t shut me out, like, he would allow me to have a seat at the table and be respectful of my ideas and my thoughts, and let me be a part of the entire process, and not just handed away to somebody.
“And I’m so glad I did because, one, he’s incredible – he saw the movie how I saw it and I love working with
him – and two, he really gave me agency and a platform to voice my opinions, make decisions, and I was able to choose the locations, cast the actors, help edit the film.
“I love being able to be that hands-on.”
They made changes to the script, written by Andrew Lobel, which Mohan said included changing the central figure from a high school student to a mature nun.
“I told her (Sydney), now that she’s a little bit older, what if we made her a nun?” he remembers.
“That would give audiences the opportunity to see the full range of Sydney’s versatility as an actor, because she starts out very, very small and quiet and meek, kind of similar to
the performances she’s given in that (real-life inspired whistleblower) movie Reality – which, if you haven’t seen, is phenomenal.
“Then to see her go from a mild, meek and mannered nun to feral creature covered in blood, screaming her guts out, that’s fun for me as a director, and it’s fun for her as an actor.”
Disturbing births in horror films have created some of the best works in the genre, such as Rosemary’s Baby, The Omen and Alien, but the religious themes in Immaculate also conjure up a debate about female bodily autonomy, which Sweeney previously explored in dystopian series The Handmaid’s Tale, about
women being forced to become pregnant.
In Immaculate, the nuns and priests try to take charge of Cecilia, clothing her in a blue and white Mary the Virgin-like dress, complete with a gold halo crown.
Sweeney says she was really drawn to the movie because “a lot of the horrors and the fears, especially for Cecilia, are grounded in reality”, even though some people might assume it is about the supernatural.
Agreeing, Mohan adds: “My favourite kind of horror is horror that feels real, and visceral and tangible and I love all of the recent nunthemed movies.
“But I just love that she’s (Cecilia’s) not doing battle
against a (CGI) creature that’s made out of ones and zeros at the end of this.
“She’s doing battle with man and she’s doing battle with spirituality and, to me, there’s just something about it that’s just far more brutal.”
Sweeney says she also “loves” the horror genre “because there’s no boundaries or limits to what a character can do”.
“There’s no questioning of why did the door just randomly slam open. You can play with the sensory and the psychological nature of an entire world, and I love that you’re not limited in a horror genre space,” she says.