Editorials
First Omens and Immaculate Conceptions: Pregnancy Horror Is Having a Moment
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Immaculate and The First Omen.
Horror has always served as a frightening mirror to reality. In his 1981 treatise on the genre Danse Macabre, author Stephen King writes, “we make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones”; it seems scary movies have been helping us do that since the earliest days of storytelling. Modern examples include The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) now considered a reaction to the 1973 oil crisis, Dawn of the Dead (1978) which stands as a horrific condemnation of consumerism, and the explosion of the torture porn subgenre in the wake of 9/11. As the United States enters a new phase of fear, two films have converged in an exploration of horrific pregnancy caused by religious abuse. As reproduction becomes more dangerous, Michael Mohan’s Immaculate and Arkasha Stevenson’s The First Omen both follow nuns impregnated against their will and forced to carry fetuses intended to save the world.
It’s no coincidence that both films hit at a time of increased threat to reproductive rights. The 2022 Dobbs decision plunged the United States into medical chaos and rescinded the right to bodily autonomy for millions of women. A pregnant person’s access to care now depends on her zip code and laws regulating routine medical procedures are creating gynecological deserts which threaten the health and safety of all women. The opinions of politicians and lawyers weigh more than those of doctors and strangers have the right to challenge a person’s private medical decisions. Regardless of belief or ideology, the reality is that childbirth in the US is less safe than it was two years ago and becoming pregnant feels more like a horror movie with each passing day. Both films explore this horrific atmosphere by taking us to convents where women have willingly given their lives to the Lord. But even in this restrictive environment forced impregnation is an egregious violation and innocent women are treated as nothing more than available wombs.
Though their stories vary wildly, both Immaculate and The First Omen begin in similar places. Two novitiates fly to Italian convents and prepare to take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney) has just moved into an abbey that doubles as an assisted living facility when she discovers that she is pregnant seemingly by immaculate conception. At first honored as a holy vessel, she quickly becomes a prisoner on the grounds, forced to carry whatever has been placed inside her womb. Serving as a mirror image to Cecilia, Stevenson’s novitiate Margaret (Nell Tiger Free) is still preparing to join the cloth when a priest approaches her with an ominous warning. As the pieces of this sinister story fall into place, Margaret realizes that she is pregnant with the devil’s child. She quickly gives birth to twins; an unnamed baby girl and a boy who will come to be known as Damien. Only concerned with her male offspring, the murderous clergy steal the baby and place him in the arms of an American ambassador, hoping to spread their dark influence across the world.
‘The First Omen’
Both films show the trauma of pregnancy and the violent nature of birth, but neither story concerns itself with the resulting babies. Aside from brief glances, these stories belong to the mothers and it is their experiences that bring the horror. However, the characters they engage with care only for the contents of their wombs. When Cecilia is attacked and nearly killed by a fellow sister, doctors immediately check the status of her pregnancy. They’re relieved to see that the fetus is fine, but the frightened young woman reminds them that she is not. She asks to be seen by an outside doctor and must fake a life-threatening miscarriage to be taken seriously. Margaret faces similar abandonment moments after giving birth. A priest carries her son to a waiting crowd and it’s not until she calls for the child she just delivered that they remember she’s still in the room. Both films also feature a pregnant woman pleading for release through a locked door – a haunting parallel to the experience of being trapped in an unwanted pregnancy.
It’s important to note that neither woman gives consent for their conditions. We don’t see the moment Cecilia conceives, but we eventually learn that a priest dabbling in genetics has impregnated her with the ancient DNA of Jesus Christ. Margaret has been bred under a specific set of circumstances to create a mother capable of bearing the Antichrist. To achieve this evil goal, her fellow clergy drug and assault her in a hideous ritual that has been repeated many times before. Both Cecilia and Margaret have chosen a life of chastity and neither woman shows anything but horror at the traumatic months of gestation to come. Even though they have willingly dedicated their lives to God, they are forced to give up their bodies as well, sacrificing their mental and physical health for babies they never expected or wanted.
Immaculate unfolds in three chapters, mirroring the major stages of a typical pregnancy. Sometime during the second trimester, Cecilia notices that she has lost a tooth. Likely a nod to superstitions about the loss of one tooth per child, this harrowing moment also reflects a larger truth. Growing and birthing another human being forever changes a person’s body. In addition to more well-known symptoms like nausea and postpartum depression, expectant mothers also experience gum disease, carpal tunnel syndrome, nosebleeds, and hair loss. Even the size of a woman’s feet have been known to change after giving birth. As her due date nears, Cecilia watches with trepidation as her belly begins to move on its own. While this can be an exciting feeling with a wanted child, Mohan presents these baby kicks with horror. An alien being has taken root inside Cecilia’s belly. Her body has been commandeered by a stranger and she can do nothing but wait for it to emerge. It’s easy to remember the bookends of pregnancy – conception and birth – forgetting that the pregnant person is “with child” every minute of 280 days. Mohan shows us the messy details in the middle and reminds us that reproduction is so much more than two isolated events.
‘Immaculate’
Also during the second trimester, Cecilia goes through what appears to be a miscarriage. She wakes up screaming and notices heavy blood pouring from between her legs. The frightened mother-to-be begs a priest to take her to a hospital and wails that she doesn’t want to die. This terrifying scene likely hits home to any woman who’s ever suffered pregnancy loss. The brutal experience is often marked by heavy bleeding as the body tries to expel the nonviable fetus. If emergency care does not follow, the mother could die due to excessive blood loss. If the uterus is not cleared of all fetal tissue, sepsis, infection, organ failure, and death may follow. We eventually learn that Cecilia has faked this miscarriage to escape the convent. With chicken’s blood covering her legs, she runs through a field as two priests drag her back to an idling car. While Cecilia’s life is not in immediate danger, this scene presents a horrifying reality playing out across the country. Cecilia simply wants medical care, but the men in control of her fate must believe that she is minutes away from death before they will act.
Margaret only has a few hours to experience her awful pregnancy, but her labor is intense. Due to the baby’s demonic parentage, her belly rapidly balloons as the unholy twins expand inside her. On the chosen hour, she experiences debilitating spasms and falls to her knees as fluid gushes from between her legs. Cecilia’s water also breaks in the film’s final act, preceding a daring escape while she experiences active labor. After murdering her caretakers, she staggers through the convent halls seeking to kill anyone who stands in her way. But as she goes on her righteous rampage, contractions start to rip through her body. It’s a powerful depiction of this unique type of pain. The massive cramps drown everything else out and Cecilia has no choice but to wait for the current contraction to abate. She may be running from a murderous priest who will surely cut open her stomach and leave her for dead, but even then, the pain is so great that it stops her in her tracks.
In addition to the trauma of labor, both films accurately depict the brutality of birth. While delivery can be a beautiful process, many women report a shockingly violent experience. Moments after her belly enlarges, Margaret is strapped to a gurney and rolled into a secret operating room. Stoic faces ignore her pleas for help and inject her with drugs to calm her down. Ominous medical tools are presented as instruments of torture and Margaret watches in helpless horror as the surgeons begin their work. They cut into her belly and jostle around inside her abdomen as they search for a membranous sac containing the twins. This terrifying scene reflects the experience of cesarean birth. Numb from the rib cage down, it’s still possible to feel the surgeon’s hands moving your body from side to side, rearranging internal organs and clearing a passage to pull out the baby.
‘The First Omen’
Cecilia experiences a different kind of birth – arguably the film’s most powerful scene. After escaping the convent, she finds herself on the edge of a cliff surrounded by wilderness. The camera hovers inches from her face as she bears down and screams through her final contractions. The baby soon passes out of her body and Cecilia desperately tries to recapture her breath. Though we hear tiny coughs and gurgles from the product of her womb, we never see the so-called savior’s face. Cecilia severs the umbilical cord with her teeth and steps away from the reddish-brown creature wriggling on the ground. After locating a heavy rock, she braces herself and then slams it down on the newborn creature. This shocking moment perfectly captures her rage at this tiny stranger. She did not give permission for a fetus to grow inside her and she resents the way it has turned her life upside down.
Both films explore the concept of good and bad women by following nuns who draw the line at sacrificing their wombs. Margaret tells a misunderstood orphan that she is not “bad,” explaining, “They just tell you that you are because you’re not doing what they want you to do.“ The Catholic church has been telling these two women what to do since birth. They have always been governed by someone else’s religious ideals and given no choice in the way they live out their own faith. As long as Cecilia and Margaret are playing their assigned roles in a hellish plot, they are considered good, even holy. But the minute they exert any will of their own, they are vilified and targeted for death. Another nun tells Cecilia that “suffering is love,” hoping to convince her to allow the abuse of her body. But suffering is only love when it is a choice. Cecilia never chose to be in this position and what happens to her can only be considered punishment. She and Margaret are punished simply because they have fertile wombs – a powerful reflection of what it feels like to be a woman in the US today.
When Margaret realizes she has been impregnated, she immediately asks for an abortion, insisting, “I need it out of my now.” While upsetting, this sentiment is familiar to millions of women facing pregnancy in a country where religious ideology has taken precedence over medical care. Both films explore these relatable horrors and follow women who refuse to let their bodies be sacrificed to someone else’s understanding of God. Traumatized, assaulted, and violated in every conceivable way, Margaret and Cecilia attempt to murder their unholy offspring with varying levels of success. Though horrific, their actions challenge a patriarchal system that sees them as nothing more than vessels for reproduction. Neither woman renounces her faith and both stand against the hypocrisy that would harm one child of God to produce another. Though their stories end in different places, both women decide that a church that doesn’t care about the mother does not deserve the child.
‘Immaculate’
Editorials
Before ‘The Blair Witch Project’, ‘Alien Autopsy’ Showed How Real Found Footage Could Feel
The line separating artist from con man is a lot thinner than you might initially believe. While I think we can all agree that lying for the sake of profit is actively malicious behavior, isn’t it also true that the faux documentary aspect of The Blair Witch Project is half the reason why that film became such a cultural phenomenon? After all, if there’s one thing filmmakers have in common with stage magicians, it’s that misleading and misdirecting audiences is simply part of the job.
That’s why I’ve developed a habit of mostly ignoring the moral quandaries behind many of film and television’s biggest “hoaxes” in favor of appreciating the narrative elements that drive productions like Mermaids: The Body Found and even Animal Planet’s highly underrated The Cannibal in the Jungle. However, if there’s a definitive case of a highly publicized broadcast fooling the world into taking it seriously, it has to be Fox’s infamous 1995 TV special Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction.
It’s been over three decades since that eerie footage first haunted television screens right at the peak of the ’90s ufology craze, and in that time, the video has taken on a life of its own. From countless parodies and references in everything from The X-Files to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (as well as John Dower’s recently released tell-all documentary The Alien Autopsy Scandal, which I’d highly recommend to genre fans everywhere), there’s no denying the legacy of the Alien Autopsy video. However, I rarely see the tape discussed as what it truly is: a highly convincing found footage film directed by a passionate stage magician and brought to life by masterful practical effects work.
That’s why I’d like to invite readers to join me on a deep dive into one of the most infamous broadcasts of all time in an attempt to reevaluate the footage as a fascinating narrative experience rather than a complete hoax.
The TV Special That Convinced Millions It Was Real
Ray Santilli next to Extraterrestrial replica in ‘The Alien Autopsy Scandal’
For starters, regardless of whether or not you believe that there was in fact an extraterrestrial crash in Roswell during the summer of 1947 and that some form of autopsy was performed on the victims, the producers behind the black & white recordings, Ray Santilli and Gary Shoefield, insist that their video was a “restoration.” Though I’d argue that the proper word is “remake”of genuine footage that was too damaged to air on television. That’s why the duo went on to recruit filmmaker and eccentric magician Spyros Melaris and sculptor/monster designer John Humphreys to bring their version of the autopsy to life and sell it to the highest bidder.
This is where the story of the Alien Autopsy as a narrative experience really begins. Melaris claims that his approach to the faux recording consisted of striving for extreme period accuracy in both shooting equipment and setting while also planting subtle details that would initially seem like mistakes but could later be revealed to actually fit the time period. That being said, the filmmaker was under the impression that the short would be released for free as a PR stunt, with the team later producing and selling an informative documentary chronicling exactly how the footage was faked and commenting on how easy it is to manipulate public perception with a good old-fashioned magic trick.
This obviously isn’t how things went down, and that’s likely the reason why Melaris has since distanced himself from everyone else involved with the project. Yet, no amount of behind-the-scenes drama can undermine the genuine effort that went into making the short as impressive as it is. From the sourcing of real animal organs from a local butcher to make the organic part of the creature more lifelike to the highly detailed sculpt that made use of a hollowed-out underlayer that could be filled with fake blood and assorted viscera, there’s a reason why so many Hollywood specialists are still impressed with the artistry on display here.
Of course, the believability is only half the story, as I think that the best part of the autopsy is how Melaris builds on the existing tension by obscuring certain details and often embracing the chaos of what a real examination of extraterrestrial life could feel like. The camera often goes out of focus at just the right time to make certain effects hit even harder, and we can only speculate as to what the hazmat-suited doctors are gesticulating about during the operation. There’s a real air of mystery to the whole thing that almost makes it feel like a cosmically terrifying, cursed film containing forbidden knowledge that civilians were never meant to see.
So when Fox’s Fact or Fiction brings in the specialists to comment on the film and its otherworldly subject, it’s no surprise that we end up with one of the most memorable mockumentaries of all time – albeit one where the participants are unaware that the footage they’re commenting on is basically a large-scale practical joke. A joke that the network was obviously in on, as many participants claim that the TV special cut out significant portions where guests point out that they believe the footage to be an elaborate hoax.
The Lasting Impact of the Hoax Turned Cultural Event
Regardless, I remember going to bed terrified after watching reruns of the special and thinking about the respected pathologist who claimed that the body was almost certainly inhuman, with even effects maestro Stan Winston commenting on how difficult it would be to recreate some of these visuals through practical puppetry. That’s not even mentioning Jonathan Frakes’ dramatic hyping up of the disturbing imagery as if he was talking about the tape from The Ring, with his spooky demeanor here likely being responsible for his later role as the host of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction a few years later.
Personally, I’d argue that the Alien Autopsy phenomenon had just as much of an impact on me as a horror fan as The Blair Witch Project, a film that was almost certainly influenced by the success of this immensely popular hoax (to the point where they even produced their own TV special commenting on Heather’s found footage). Even if Fox didn’t intend to produce a narrative feature about the aftermath of the Roswell crash, the end product still holds up remarkably well as a highly entertaining mockumentary exploring the idea that we may not be alone in the universe.
While neither Santilli nor the rest of the production team has ever commented on this, I also think it’s very likely that the idea of a faux Alien Autopsy could have been influenced by Dean Alioto’s The McPherson Tape/UFO Abduction. I’ve already written about how this granddaddy of found footage was co-opted by rogue ufologists who began selling bootlegs of the tape at conventions as if it were real evidence of a close encounter, so it’s not that much of a stretch to imagine that Santilli and company could have heard about this phenomenon and been inspired to come up with their own highly profitable hoax.
At the end of the day, it’s unlikely that the Alien Autopsy film is recreating any real footage from Roswell, but I can still appreciate the short and the accompanying television event as a standalone horror story that still influences the way we see found footage to this very day.
After all, the possibility that something could be real is often much scarier than finding out for sure – and that’s why I think Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction is still worth revisiting three decades down the line.
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