Madame Web Star Sydney Sweeney to Star in Horror Film Immaculate
Following her breakout success in HBO's Euphoria, actor Sydney Sweeney seems to be adding new projects on a monthly basis, with the latest project she has joined being the horror film Immaculate, according to Variety. The new film marks a reunion of sorts, as it will be directed by Michael Mohan, who helmed the 2021 Prime Video thriller The Voyeurs, from a script by Andrew Lobel. Sweeney is currently in production on the Spider-Man spinoff Madame Web, while earlier this month saw the confirmation that she will be bringing a new take on Barbarella to life, among various other projects she is attached to.
The outlet notes that Sweeney "stars in the film as Cecilia, a woman of devout faith who is offered a fulfilling new role at an illustrious Italian convent. The synopsis describes her warm welcome to the picture-perfect Italian countryside being interrupted as it becomes clearer to Cecilia that her new home harbors dark and horrifying secrets."
In addition to the project being a creative reunion, the premise will also bring some similarities to The Voyeurs, as they both focus on Sweeney being thrust into a foreign locale as strange happenings started to unfold around her. While that film was surely a thriller, it also embraced the spirit of erotic thrillers of days past that have seemed to entirely disappear from the cinematic landscape. Back in 2021, Mohan weighed in on why he felt the subgenre had gone away.
"I think that there's this last genre of erotic thrillers that has somehow mysteriously disappeared since 2006," Mohan detailed of developing the shocking storyline. "I think the last proper one was maybe Unfaithful, which was just as visceral as ours, and nominated for Oscars, and made a ton of money. It was a total mystery to me why they ceased to exist. No good art comes from a place of fear, and I think me and Sydney and the whole cast were fearless."
As far as why this genre of erotic thrillers have dwindled, Mohan theorized, "I think some of these movies haven't stood the test time. I think, in 2021, if an audience is going to see a scene of intimacy, the way that you can enjoy it is with the knowledge that the performers involved had agency and bullet-proof consent. I think that, in the past 10 years, I think we've now been able to solve that with the advent of intimacy coordinators. I think, on this film, what we wanted to do is we didn't want to just adhere to intimacy standards, we wanted to set a new bar. I don't know if that explains why [erotic thrillers] don't exist anymore. I don't actually know the answer to that question, but I do know that we are actively trying to bring it back for a modern audience."
Stay tuned for details on Immaculate. The Voyeurs is now streaming on Prime Video.
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