A couple of months ago, two highly anticipated films coincided in theaters. Both are horror, both are nuns. And both with a reasonable similarity in the resolution of their plots (both ended up at the same point, blasphemous as well as bizarre). Both with dark lighting, what in cinema is called low keywhich in colloquial language is “lower the blinds, you can’t see the screen at all.”
The first of these films is The first prophecy (Arkasha Stevenson), and the second is Immaculate (Michael Mohan). And both are enjoyable and exotic within their heterodoxy.
Stevenson’s film is a prequel to the classic The prophecy, perfectly united to its parent story. The director bathes the footage in visual moments of unusual elegance in the nunsploitation (Caravaggio’s Medusa, the echo of Spidora), and handles with kid gloves the typical plot that, if you think about it, there is no where to take it.
In the case of Mohan (soon on platforms) we find something that, until its final section, could either be a criticism of the coercive practices that occur in certain charisms of the Catholic Church, or a psychological horror story in the style of The chimerical tenant. After an audible declaration of intent (using movie music as La dama rossa uccide sette volte says it all) and after quite a few scenes of those in which in the end it is a dream of the protagonist (a low resource that also uses The first prophecy) begins a real roller coaster in the style of the wonderful and always surprising Elio Quiroga. Both are debtors of The possessed nun (Peter Sykes) and, if you press me, of bloody sect (Ignacio F. Iquino).
Neither of the two will win any awards in the cinematographic vintage. They don’t even need to.
The first prophecy had a budget of 30 million, while Immaculate he got nine. It may seem like a fortune to you, but cinema is very expensive, the merits usually go hand in hand with the budget. Neither is expensive by (American) industry standards, but there is a huge budget difference between the two. Thank goodness that in horror films, imposture has not yet taken over everything. It will come. They are in it. Let there not be a corner of art without imposture or nepotism, please.
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