‘Immaculate’ Director Addresses Sydney Sweeney Film’s Dark Visuals

The filmmaker behind the recent Sydney Sweeney horror movie Immaculate is addressing criticism about scenes from the film appearing to be overly dark when viewed on certain streaming platforms.

Michael Mohan took to X (formerly Twitter) on Monday after a social media user complained that the Neon film’s visuals were “comically dark” and shared screenshots showing that it was difficult to see what was happening as the movie was streaming. In his response, Mohan made it clear that he empathized with the concerns and had not intended for the film to look so dark.

“I know, man,” Mohan replied. “This was absolutely not done intentionally. We have no control over the compression specs of each platform.”

He continued, “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.”

The Hollywood Reporter reached out to a Neon representative who declined to comment.

Mohan is not the first filmmaker to address concerns surrounding compression, a process that reduces the file size of a project so it can be be viewed on streaming platforms. During a segment last year for Konbini’s Vidéo Club, Christopher Nolan — a noted advocate for shooting on film and viewing titles in theaters — discussed his preference of DVD and Blu-ray formats over streaming.

“There’s much less compression — we control the color, brightness and all these things,” the Oscar-winning Oppenheimer director said of DVD and Blu-ray at the time. “Streaming is like broadcasting a film. We don’t have much control on how it goes out.”

Neon released Immaculate in theaters March 22 following its premiere at this year’s South by Southwest festival, and it was available on premium VOD platforms the following month. Starring Sweeney as a woman who learns about the horrors of a mysterious Italian convent, Immaculate is set for release on DVD and Blu-ray on June 11.