Immaculate

The premise and structure embed critiques of religious authority using faith to justify control over a woman's reproduction and body, including scenes of denial of medical care and branding. Reviews note elements evoking "my body, my choice" defiance, but the film avoids extended explicit political speeches or lectures in favor of thriller plotting and horror escalation.

The central conflict is a woman's struggle for agency over her own body against a patriarchal religious institution that views her primarily as a vessel for its goals. It emphasizes resistance to forced reproduction and subjugation within a traditional Catholic framework. This draws on gender conflict but lacks modern intersectional, racial, or queer identity elements.

The film depicts the Catholic Church's hierarchy, traditions, and leaders as corrupt enablers of fanaticism, violence, mutilation, and reproductive coercion in service of a twisted messianic goal. It undermines Christianity by showing religious symbols and faith twisted into tools of oppression and horror. Critics frequently connect the story to real-world debates over religious institutions' influence on women's reproductive rights and patriarchal control, though the director has stated it was not intended as a social message.

Conservative Christian viewers and commentators produced notable online backlash, describing the film as blasphemous, anti-Christian, Satanic, feminist, pro-abortion, and degrading to religion and the Virgin Mary. Some explicitly viewed it as a left-wing Hollywood effort to undermine traditional Christian values or to counter Sydney Sweeney's positive image among anti-woke audiences. Neon amplified the outrage in promotion. Complaints focus on anti-faith and reproductive themes rather than DEI or identity politics. Volume was significant in niche spaces but not a dominant mainstream controversy.

Writer has no notable public political record. Director has referenced family separation from church over pro-life teachings and mother's views separating faith from abortion positions as personal inspiration. Producers largely mainstream with minimal political footprints. Sweeney has posted in support of BLM, expressed pro-choice views on bodily autonomy in past interviews, and highlighted LGBTQ representation, though she later registered Republican and states she avoids politics.