At first, Sydney Sweeney’s scream star becomes Immaculate, which is now streaming digitally, looks pretty familiar. Its basic premise, that of a young nun who arrives at a convent in Italy and senses that something is wrong, is almost identical to the setup of the recent horror prequel. The first omenand not very different from Nun series of the Prestidigitation universe. But in its final stretch, Immaculate distinguishes itself from other similar films by going pretty hard, pushing toward a bold pro-choice metaphor that rejects the exploitation of women’s bodies.
Here is a FULL SPOILER explanation of what happens in the final moments.
IMMACULATE ending explained
It’s clear from the start that something unwholesome is going on at the convent where Cecelia has been mysteriously reassigned, and when she becomes pregnant early in the film despite a lack of sexual contact with anyone, she never seems to quite believe that her seemingly immaculate conception It’s some kind of genuine miracle. After her pregnancy progresses and her escape attempt is thwarted, Cecelia finally discovers the truth: a nail from the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, shown to her at the beginning of the film, actually contains blood and bone fragments, which the Father Tedeschi (Álvaro Morte), a former biologist, has used him in an attempt to create a kind of clone of Christ. Failed attempts from the past (deformed fetuses in jars) line the secret laboratory, like Ripley’s failed clones of Alien: resurrection. Cecilia’s pregnancy, successful so far, is the church’s last attempt to create a new messiah.
This revelation that the church is up to something nefarious isn’t exactly a surprise, but it does represent a clever twist on the idea of the unhinged secular movie scientist playing God; Here, the church has taken it upon itself to intervene scientifically. trying to start the process of waiting for a second coming. Their supposed closeness to God gives them what they see as tacit permission to tinker with scientific processes that they are likely to condemn in more secular hands.
Then in the last 20 minutes or so of the movie (minus some slow credits, the movie is only about 80 minutes long) Immaculate really uncorks. The priests mark Ceceli’s feet with crosses and imprison her, awaiting her imminent birth. But when the older nun caring for her is briefly distracted, Cecelia seizes the opportunity, grabbing a nearby crucifix and banging her head on it before escaping her confines. From there, she continues with the themed murders of her strangling a priest with a rosary (and picking up the crucifixion nail, for good measure). She then heads to the convent’s secret laboratory, where she prepares to burn all the samples, equipment, failed experiments, etc., dousing them with ethanol. Tedeschi tries to stop her, but they fight; she ends up locking him in the lab and setting it (and him) on fire. Tedeschi then (somewhat improbably) breaks down the door locking him into the lab and, in his horribly burned state, chases Cecelia through the catacombs he was warned to stay away from at the beginning of the film. He catches up to her (Cecelia is making progress but is still in full labor) and drags her back to the catacombs just before she can escape from it. They fight and eventually she pulls out the sacred nail and stabs him to death.
Cecelia staggers out of the catacombs, the convent and the serenity of nature. There, the film reaches its final extended shot: in an uninterrupted take that lasts more than two minutes, the camera lingers primarily on Sweeney’s blood-spattered face as she gives birth, screaming in pain and anguish. Off camera, we hear the sound of a child, or something, coming out of her womb, and when Cecelia bites down on the umbilical cord, we hear breathing sounds, grunts, and gurgles that don’t sound like a normal human baby. With the camera still uncut and only briefly showing Cecelia’s son out of focus in the background, we see Cecelia find a large rock, lift it over her head while the camera stays on her face, hesitate a little, and then… wham! She throws the rock at the boy (still off-screen) and the film cuts to black. That’s that.
So what does all this mean? By leaving Cecelia’s unwanted baby off-screen, the film keeps its exact nature disturbingly confusing. But its horrified reaction and the abnormal sounds it makes (which the filmmakers designed by distorting the sounds of a sick cat) clearly indicate that this is no normal human baby. Could it be another deformed clone, like the one we saw in the laboratory? Have church scientists accidentally produced some kind of antichrist instead of the messiah they expected? That is left to the imagination, although Sister Cecilia’s horrified reaction and final decision (of a character who, until the last month of her pregnancy, exuded sweetness and faith) certainly implies that there was something monstrous about the child.
By focusing on Cecilia’s decision rather than her exact reason, Immaculate is subverting a common parenting horror trope: that parents will often take their children’s side even in the face of overwhelming terror, even if it’s something they never really wanted. Cecelia’s horrible decision reinforces Immaculate as a pro-choice narrative, which fits perfectly with what we learn about Cecelia early on. When talking about why she joined the church to begin with, after surviving a life-threatening childhood accident, Cecelia demurs at framing it as a choice: “I don’t see it that way…as a decision.” For her, this is a calling that removes any sense of agency; Her forced pregnancy also forces her to make a real decision, rather than relying on her faith as a guide that others can easily manipulate. In other words, she learns that even a woman devout enough to become a nun can have a decidedly pro-choice experience. (Perhaps her diminished sense of piety is telegraphed by her literal cry of “Damn it!” at the beginning of the film’s final stretch.)
The end of Immaculate It probably wasn’t designed to change your mind. In any case, it’s easy enough to imagine that this scene confirms the worst fears of fans convinced that someone is advocating abortion at nine months, or (nonsense) later, as a major political figure has repeatedly claimed. Instead, director Michael Mohan (who, with Sweeney, reconceived the script’s original ending) uses the friendly horror genre as permission to go further than a traditional drama ever would. It might even seem satirical: if it weren’t for Sweeney’s face, never far from the camera lens during this extended finale, reminding the audience of the humanity that makes seemingly impossible choices.
Jesse Hassenger@rockmarooned) is a writer who lives in Brooklyn. He is a regular contributor to The AV Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts on www.sportsalcohol.comalso.
