Immanence (2022)

directed by Kerry Bellessa

USA

93 minutes

1.5 stars out of 5

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I try to keep apprised of new horror and sci-fi movies coming out, but I do it for entirely personal reasons, picking and choosing which ones sound good to me and disregarding others no matter how popular or well-liked they may be. Immanence caught my eye because I love any horror movie involving radio transmissions, and when you add mystery objects from space and the ocean to that mix, it should create something excellent. But... well, I've gotten excited about exactly 3 new horror movies this year, and we're three for three on disappointments thus far.

Immanence turned out to be a religious horror movie that felt like it was made from a Christian perspective. I'm not religious, but suspending my disbelief has never been an issue, so I don't have a problem watching something from a viewpoint I personally don't subscribe to. However, the reason why heavily Christian religious horror feels like it doesn't work for me is because by definition there is always an "out" (which is God). Part of what makes (not all, but the majority of) horror so effective is that we need to feel helpless, like there's nothing and no one that can save us. Even if it's not true, the viewer or reader or participant needs to feel like it is, for a time. Texas Chain Saw Massacre proved the viability of the cathartic, triumphant ending, but I doubt any slasher film would feel as potent if the final girl were running through a house with well-lit exit signs or packing a gun with which she could easily just shoot her pursuer. It has to feel like there's a chance the characters may be in real, serious danger that they can't get out of, and horror from a Christian point of view renders that impossible, because no matter what happens, God is always present offscreen and ready to assist the characters once things get too dire. It robs the characters of agency, too: It doesn't matter how clever you are if only God can save you.

Maybe that's satisfying for some people. Maybe if you're religious, it brings you joy to see people's faith rewarded - I'm not judging that, everybody gets something different out of every movie. But I feel like even if a religious horror movie gets really down deep into demonology and gives us truly scary villains, all they ever are is a foil to the glory of God. No evil in a religious horror movie can ever be actually compelling beyond the surface level because every single character is armed with prayer and faith that defeats the horror every time without fail.

Bringing it back around to Immanence specifically, I wasn't aware that it would be this heavily religious from the start. In my defense, the synopsis says nothing whatsoever about God or demons - "survive the ultimate evil" may be a dogwhistle for more religious people than I, but to me, before watching this, it just sounded like generic horror hyperbole. The two possibilities initially presented in the film for the events that unfold are that it's either aliens or Satan, which, like, again, I'm really not here to judge, but the concept of Satan personally slingshotting a meteor around the sun and crashing it specifically into one area off the coast of Florida just for fun is a little wild, in my mind. So I was going off the assumption that Immanence would be a UFO-horror type deal, until it started leaning really heavily into the single Christian character's point of view.

There's a weird banter between all the characters in this thing that I couldn't stop thinking felt more at home in a '90s action movie than whatever Immanence is, and I'm not sure how to describe what made me feel that way. There's very little personal background on any of the characters save the two who clash the most often (the non-religious girl who advances the UFO theory most ardently, and the guy who is so Jesusy he renamed himself Jonah after he died for three minutes and declared himself saved) but for a while it's all of them together on a rented party boat, ostensibly doing science. It feels like the kind of walk-and-talk rapid-fire bunk science presented in stuff like The X-Files when they have to at least marginally explain the presence of aliens.

But none of it is real. The Christian perspective soon overrides any other theories until it becomes apparent where this movie is coming from. And it bothered me that only a handful of things even really happened. First there's the unidentified object, then they go out on the boat and pull up (I'm not joking, and yes this is as unintentionally funny as it sounds) a live pig in the trap they're using to catch fish to eat, then they see a mirage of their own boat that they board and explore and they start hearing what appear to be radio signals from a future where most of them are doomed. Ultimately this all leads to the physical manifestation of a guy we're supposed to believe is Satan, who is maybe the least intimidating devil ever put onto film, with his receding hairline and single red contact lens. I actually skipped half of his monologue because after a point it genuinely felt like he was just ad-libbing random stuff, it was unbearable. But all of these things are so few and far between, so spread out during this movie's achingly long 93-minute running time, that they make up about 10% of the film, and the other 90% is bickering and one-sided theological debates where everybody sounds like they think the other side is just the stupidest thing ever. This movie is boring, on top of everything else. I wish I'd looked up the director before watching it instead of during because I would have seen that they (and the same writer) made the very widely derided Amber Alert and possibly saved myself the trouble of sitting through Immanence.