Sydney Sweeney recently teamed up with director Michael Mohan on one of her most ambitious ventures, Immaculate, which marked her entry into the horror-thriller genre. While the movie gained popularity and critical acclaim soon after it opened in theatres, its digital debut brought criticism for the artistic decisions of the filmmaker. Viewers complained the the visuals were too dark for them to decipher what was going on screen. Now, reacting to the problem, Michael said that it was not intentional. 

Michael Mohan addresses Immaculate’s dark visuals

Recently, a user on X (formerly Twitter) complained about the way Immaculate has been streaming on several VOD platforms. The user noted that the film is "comically dark" and that he “can barely make out what's happening on screen.”

Replying to the complaint, Michael 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.”

The digital process of compressing a film's data to make it suitable for home viewing or video-on-demand formats is known as compression. A movie has enormous amounts of data when it's being filmed and shown in theaters; part of that data is lost when the movie is compressed for your laptop, TV, or phone. Images that are compressed typically appear slightly poorer on home screens than they do in cinemas, with darker areas typically displaying the most evident deterioration in clarity.

Christopher Nolan on compression issue

Mohan is not the first to address the issue of compression. Last year, Christopher Nolan—a well-known supporter of filming on film and seeing movies in theaters—spoke about his preference for DVD and Blu-ray formats over streaming. 

The director said, “There’s much less compression — we control the colour, brightness and all these things. Streaming is like broadcasting a film. We don’t have much control on how it goes out.”