2024 ‧ Religious Horror ‧ 89m (Immaculate) and 119m (The First Omen)
This review contains light spoilers for The Last Omen.
Twin films happen occasionally. Two films with similar plots or subject matter are released, usually within a year of each other. Some famous examples are Deep Impact and Armageddon; recently Elvis and Priscilla; and on the podcast Dr. Strangelove and Fail Safe were discussed. It is rare though for both films to be so closely released that one could double-feature them in the same multiplex. Such is the case with Michael Mohan’s Immaculate and Arkasha Stevenson's The First Omen.
The twinning aspect of both films can be simply stated as: an American nun travels to Italy and through a church-driven conspiracy, must deal with an unwanted pregnancy. There are some differences, of course. Immaculate takes place in the present day, whereas The Last Omen is in the early 1970s. It needs to align with the 1976 Richard Donner film it prequels, after all.
Immaculate is an independent production with a smaller scale which aids a more gothic tone. Sister Cecilia, played by Sydney Sweeney, has come to a convent where elder nuns spend their last days. The convent is cloistered away in an old building with relics, dark corridors, and secret rooms. Soon Cecilia becomes “immaculately” pregnant, much to the surprise and the joy of everyone there. Sydney Sweeney had apparently been wanting to do this project since 2014, and her performance is quite harrowing. She does an excellent job of conveying the body horror of pregnancy, especially when juxtaposition to the others. Mohan’s director is tight and moody.
The Last Omen is a studio-backed IP connected work, so the scale is a little larger. There is money for scenes of student riots and pyrotechnic effects. There’s more CGI and also Bill Nighy, in a marquee-value only role. Such casting is in-keeping with The Omen franchise. Sister Margaret, played by Nell Tiger Free, arrives in Rome to help at an orphanage. Her childhood priest, Nighy, got her to the position. She learns her way around the orphanage and soon becomes connected with a teenage orphan named Carlita. In-keeping with the franchise, strange things start happening and Margaret starts having hallucinations. Soon she becomes privy to a plan to bring about the birth of the Anti-Christ. Nell Tiger Free’s performance is engrossing and Stevenson’s direction is haunting, particularly the hallucinations.
Both films have intriguing stories, good performances, direction, and mood. One of the places Immaculate excels is runtime. At 89 minutes, it is very lean and impactful. The two-hour runtime for The First Omen feels a little excessive, especially because of the screentime for certain elements that only seem to be for franchise continuity’s sake. We didn’t really need an “It’s all for you” scene again. One wonders what this could have been like if all connections to the Donner film were more muted. Or if instead of The First Omen it was called Sister Margaret and we didn’t get any clues about an Omen connection until Gregory Peck’s picture shows up at the end. Such secrecy is basically impossible today, and would only help the second week box office and not the all-important first.
These two films also share something in common with two other twin films from 2020, the drama Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always, and the comedy Unpregnant. Both of those are also about unwanted pregnancies. In those films, both protagonists need to cross state lines to find an abortion clinic. These two films and their horror counterparts show what a difference 4 years can make. Horror is often a reflection of modern societal fears, and these post-Dobbs decision films showcase those fears, albeit in not particularly subtle ways. Not exactly a recommended quadruple feature, but it is interesting to see how very real concerns can permeate into film. Unpregnant and Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always showed how difficult things were before, and The First Omen and Immaculate show how it is now. Both horror films are clearly influenced by the pre-Roe v. Wade film, Rosemary’s Baby. Abortion isn’t really an option for either protagonist.
Both The First Omen and Immaculate are entertaining religious horror and are more layered than one might think. If one is edges out over the other, it is Immaculate. It has a better use of its runtime, and has a more satisfying ending. The First Omen’s biggest problem is that it needs to be an Omen movie and not its own thing. Such is the plight of prequels, and thus to the success of Immaculate.
Grades:
Immaculate B-
The First Omen C+
~Andrew