“Immaculate” director Michael Mohan knows his movie’s ending will shock viewers — in fact, it was a key change he wanted to make from the original script.
Screenwriter Andrew Lobel’s script was initially written a decade ago which, as Mohan tells TheWrap, was a “very different time, both in terms of the cinematic landscape [and] in a very different time, politically. So the [original] ending was a very traditional happy-ish ending.”
The film tells the story of Sister Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney), who discovers upon entering an Italian convent that she is pregnant. It’s presumed by everyone involved to be immaculate conception, but Cecilia begins to worry something darker is at play.
As Mohan explained, there was only one route for the film to go at the end: “When I read the script I was just like, ‘She’s got to kill that baby,’” he said. “Everyone right now struggles with faith, right? There’s a lot of people [who] are angry out there, and I want this film to bottle up that sense of anger and give them that sense of catharsis leaving the theater.”
That being said, Mohan wants to make clear the movie isn’t political or making a statement on reproductive rights.
“When we set out to make the movie, the most important thing was that it was a rollercoaster ride, first and foremost, and people can get on the ride,” he said. “But if people choose to read into it, which they can do … The goal isn’t to change anybody’s mind. The goal is to ignite a conversation. That’s the best thing we can hope for.”
The film’s premiere at SXSW earlier in March had Mohan feeling like audiences that understand the film’s rollercoaster ride will find it.
“There’s something so beautiful to hear people, as she picks up the rock, and they’re going ‘Yes!’” he said. “Everyone’s rooting for Sydney to murder whatever it — whether it’s a baby, whether it’s a genetic abnormality, or whether that baby represents an idea. She’s murdering it in the most brutal way possible. She’s putting it out of its misery and then the movie’s over. I’m so proud of it.”
“Immaculate” is in theaters now.
