Sydney Sweeney’s 2024 horror movie isn’t translating well to streaming services, and even the director has taken issue with it.
Immaculate, which came out in March, was Sweeney’s first producing credit and a serious foray into horror movies for the Euphoria star. It received generally positive reviews and appealed to fans despite being one of two nun-based horrors to come out in the first half of the year. (The First Omen, a very similar tale, was released the following month.)
However, post-theatrical release, the new movie isn’t doing so well on streaming services. Not because audiences aren’t clicking on it, but because it simply doesn’t look good when shrunk onto a small screen.
In particular, the lighting has posed a real issue for viewers, since the movie has appeared incredibly dark on streaming platforms.
IMMACULATE is comically dark. I’m watching it in a dimly lit room in the evening and can barely make out what’s happening on screen. Why would anybody do this intentionally? pic.twitter.com/tz4PriADzU
— Colin Cunningham (@Sgtzima) May 26, 2024
Viewers took to social media to express their disappointment, which has even caused Immaculate’s director, Michael Mohan, to weigh in.
In response to a complaint on X, he wrote, “I know, man. This was absolutely not done intentionally. We have no control over the compression specs of each platform. It’s a real problem that truly bums me out, and after comparing them all, iTunes is the closest to what we wanted/brighter than the rest.”
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One X user responded, “It’s not fun spending so much time and effort on the look of a movie without knowing what it’s going to look like on different streaming services.”
“That must be incredibly tough as a creator,” said a second, while another wrote, “That’s such a bummer. I can confirm it was nowhere near “comically dark” when I saw it at Alamo Drafthouse. It looked really good.”
While Dexerto described the film as a “mildly effective and slightly forgettable movie” in our Immaculate review, we can confirm that the movie didn’t appear in theaters as it did in the above screenshots. The visuals weren’t a weak point of the film in any regard, so this seems to be a streaming issue.
For more movie coverage, check out what we thought of the Netflix boss’ bold Barbenheimer claim, and take a look at all the best movies of 2024 so far. Or, for more Sydney Sweeney, find out why we think Euphoria Season 3 is already in trouble.
