At 28 years old, Sydney Sweeney has become one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Or well, perhaps we could say in one of the most famous Hollywood stars. The American actress has taken on risky roles, in which she has not been afraid of anything at all. And he has also been the protagonist of certain controversies on and off the big screen. So well, we could say that she is an actress “in the limelight”, although it is perhaps a slightly old expression.

After his appearance in Euphoriathe young actress began to gain fame. He later appeared in some episodes of the series The White Lotusstarred The Voyeurs (a very high-toned film) and in 2023 it gained even more public notoriety with Anyone but youa film in which he starred alongside Glen Powell. However, 2024 was a complicated year for the actress. First released Madame Webpossibly one of the worst films in Sony’s Marvel universe. And later it came to theaters Immaculatea movie that is not really bad, but that created a lot of controversy. It is precisely about her that we want to talk to you today.

What Immaculate is about

Let’s start with the official synopsis: Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney), recently arrived from the United States, enters as a novice in a convent in the remote Italian countryside.. There she is received by Father Tedeschi (Álvaro Morte), who introduces her to religious routines. One day she discovers that she is pregnant and what seemed like a miracle, by still preserving her virginity, turns out to be hiding a sinister secret. that will make you desperately seek to leave that place.

The film directed by Michael Mohan was not a great success, but it was not excessively expensive either. With a budget of only 9 million dollars, it managed to raise more than 35 million at the box office. Along with Sydney Sweeney and our Álvaro Morte, Simona Tabasco, Benedetta Porcaroli and Giorgio Colangeli, among others, also appear in the film.

Why was Inmaculada so controversial?

If you have read the synopsis, you will already know why the film was so talked about. The premiere of Immaculate generated controversy especially in conservative and Christian circles for its use of Catholic imagery, the figure of a pregnant nun (Sydney Sweeney) and a climax read as explicitly pro-abortion and blasphemous.

The story about a young nun (Sydney Sweeney) who becomes pregnant as a virgin, caused many believers to consider the film as a mockery of the Virgin Mary and Catholic doctrine. Catholic and Christian critics pointed out that the film “deforms” concepts such as the Immaculate Conception and presents the Church as cynical, violent and complicit in physical and spiritual horrors..​

The ending was also highly commentedbut we are not going to talk to you about it because we do not want to do spoilers. Yes we can tell you that some Christian and right-wing organizations described it on networks as “satanic, blasphemous, pro-abortion, anti-life, diabolical, pure evil and offensive.”.

However, The distributor and the film’s team took advantage of the indignation on the networks to promote the film. The official account shared tweets that called the film “blasphemous” and “satanic,” and T-shirts were even printed with phrases from those attacks along with a bloody image of Sidney Sweeney. Provocative details were also used in the promotionsuch as putting the pre-sale at $6.66, pregnancy tests with crosses, nuns at the premiere covered with red cloth over their faces and other “marketing tricks.”

The director said at the time that he was inspired by his own Catholic upbringing and the “trauma” and guilt associated with it to construct this horror story, more as a criticism of the abuse of religious power than of faith itself. For its part, Sidney Sweeney had been linked to the project for years and rescued it as a producerdescribing it as an exercise in extreme horror and visually heavily supported by Marian iconography, not as a theological manifesto.

Where to watch Immaculate Conception streaming

If with everything we’ve told you you haven’t gotten the itch to watch this movie, it’s because you’re not its target audience. Mind you, it’s not a bad movie. In TheMovieDB has a score of 62%in Filmaffinity has a 5.2 and in Rotten Tomatoes has a 72% on the Tomatometer and a 58% on the Popcornmeter.

So, if you feel like giving it a try, you should know that, at least in Spain, you can see Immaculate by Sydney Sweeney on Prime Video.