Two years ago, in 2024, two movies came out that were so similar in plot that many people wondered what the point was. I wonder how that happens. Cause they had to be in production at the same time, so it’s not like one came out and the other copied it. It’s not the first time something like this has happened. A Quiet Place and The Silence came out a year apart. I didn’t even bother seeing The Silence since the plot was so similar. But after I saw The First Omen, I’d heard some good things about Immaculate and that it was doing its own thing, so I decided to watch it.

The First Omen (2024)
Nell Tiger Free, Ralph Ineson, Sonia Braga, Tawfeek Barhom, Maria Caballero, Charles Dance, Bill Nighy, Andrea Arcangeli
Directed by: Arkasha Stevenson

A young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, but encounters a darkness that causes her to question her faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.

First, to get it out of the way, Nell Tiger Free is a total babe. Like, whoa nelly! Her newest IMDb picture makes me sad, though, she went blonde. Not sure if that’s her natural hair colour, but she looks stunning with dark hair. Besides her looks, she’s got some serious talent. She did an amazing job in the role of a sweet but naïve nun in training. The rest of the cast also do a great job. The film also looks beautiful, the cinematography is on pointe. Filmed mostly in Italy, the locations are stunning. There are also some quite striking visuals that have now been seared into my brain (vagina hand, anyone?) The story was great. I was actually surprised at how much I liked this, seeing as I hated The Omen. Both the original and the sad 2006 remake. I’m glad that they did mostly their own thing, though, so they weren’t overly constrained with what they could do. Die hard fans were a little scandalized at that, though.

Immaculate (2024)
Sydney Sweeney, Álvaro Morte, Simona Tabasco, Benedetta Porcaroli, Giorgio Colangeli, Dora Romano, Giulia Heathfield Di Renzi
Directed by: Michael Mohan

Cecilia, a woman of devout faith, is warmly welcomed to the picture-perfect Italian countryside where she is offered a new role at an illustrious convent. But it becomes clear to Cecilia that her new home harbors dark and horrifying secrets when she becomes pregnant, seemingly by immaculate conception.

I had no intention of seeing this one after The First Omen. But I’d heard good things, so I put it on thinking, how similar could it really be? Very. The stories are basically the same. They’re even both set in Italy. Sydney Sweeney did a good job as the young nun in training. I didn’t know her before seeing this film, she’s in the kind of stuff that doesn’t interest me. But I had heard that people were sure that she’d be crap, mostly because she often plays a certain type of character and she dares show some skin, so people were thinking that that’s all she was. And while she wasn’t amazing, she did a perfectly serviceable job that hopefully shut people up. It was filmed in the same areas as The First Omen, so the locations were also gorgeous. It was a little slow in the first half but picked up nicely in the second. And the end went places I really wasn’t expecting, which is almost all there was from making it a carbon copy of The First Omen.

So, which one do I prefer? The First Omen, hands down. Immaculate had its moments, but The First Omen was engaging the whole way through. And of the two, it’ll be the only one I’m likely to revisit.

The First Omen gets a 9/10. Simply wonderful.
Immaculate gets a 7/10. A good time.

M.

The First Omen is streaming on Disney+ and Crave (in Canada) and on Hulu (in the States), and is available to rent or purchase on Amazon Prime and YouTube.
Immaculate is streaming on Netflix (in the States only), and is available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime and YouTube.