Comrade Courant Culture Critic

The First Omen (2024): A Feminist Horror That Demands Bodily Autonomy “Not every miracle is divine—and not every institution deserves your trust.” — 4/5 Stars In the post-Roe era, horror has become a vital space for reckoning with the erosion of bodily autonomy. The First Omen (2024) doesn’t just participate in that conversation—it weaponizes it. This is not a haunted house story. It’s a procedural thriller about institutional gaslighting, reproductive control, and the quiet violence of faith used as a tool of patriarchal power. Set in 1971 Rome, the film follows Margaret Daino (Nell Tiger Free), a young American novitiate sent to the prestigious Mater Lachrymarum Convent to prove her devotion. But from the moment she arrives, something is wrong. The nuns are cold, the priests evasive, and the orphanage next door houses girls who vanish without explanation. When a series of “miracles” begin to unfold—...

Immaculate (2024): A Missed Opportunity in Religious Horror “Not every intervention is divine.” — And not every horror film with a great premise deserves your time. — 2/5 Stars Immaculate (2024) arrives with a premise ripe for horror: a devout American nun, Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney), joins a remote Italian convent only to discover she’s been chosen for a terrifying divine purpose. The film flirts with powerful themes—bodily autonomy, reproductive control, institutional gaslighting, and the weaponization of faith against women. In the hands of a bold filmmaker, this could have been a Rosemary’s Baby for the post-Roe era. Instead, director Michael Mohan and writer Andrew Lobel deliver a film that feels like it was focus-grouped into mediocrity, or never intended to be great in the first place. There are so many interesting ideas here—Cecilia as a modern-day vessel, the convent as a gilded prison, the Chu...