A nun (Sydney Sweeney) gets pregnant without having sex in this avowedly pro-choice horror flick they should have called Rosary’s Baby.

Horror has such a serious nun habit right now that Hollywood backlots could be easily mistaken for penguin enclosures. But where The Nun II and Prey for the Devil played their demonic horror straight, Immaculate is firmly in the nunsploitation camp. The film fetishises the sisters while advocating for female reproductive rights, a refreshingly unchaste choice that plays on Sweeney’s sex-symbol status and should disappoint anyone expecting virtue-signalling woke nunsense.

Sweeney is strong as the naive young nun with a hot cross bun in the oven, though rote direction and writing (“You’ll never leave here!”) stop the film from reaching the suspense of Rosemary’s Baby, the oddity of Jug Face, or the sheer outrageousness of Benedetta. Our pregnant protagonist never seems minded to explore the meaning of her apparently immaculate conception, and the black-and-white storytelling offers no ambiguity or mystery as to what it means or where it’s going.

If you’re looking for a daft B-movie with an A-list star then Immaculate delivers, but when it comes to the movie’s merits Sweeney is very much on her tod.