Molly C. Quinn in Agnes (Stephan Sutor/Magnet Releasing)

Convents, with their unique sets of rules that separate them from the outside world, often prove to be an enticing setting for a story. Many films come to mind. While the convent in Agnes, a perplexing new movie from Mickey Reece, is the site of sexual suppression, as in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s Black Narcissus (1947), it does not, like Pedro Almodóvar’s Dark Habits (1983), contain a tiger or heroin-addicted sisters. Instead, it is the site of a reported demonic possession.

The movie begins in the horror genre. When she is possessed, Sister Agnes (Hayley MacFarland) makes the sorts of scary sounds and utters the sorts of profanities that will not surprise anyone familiar with The Exorcist. Father Donaghue (Ben Hall), a somewhat jaded priest with qualifications as an exorcist, is called to the rescue. Benjamin (Jake Horowitz), a young, handsome man who is preparing to take the cloth, comes along. Yet their attempt at the exorcism is not successful and results in Agnes biting the face of the priest.

Soon, Agnes is put in an institute, and her friend Sister Mary (Molly C. Quinn) has left the order and becomes adrift in the world. The rest of the film (most of it, actually) concerns her attempt to find meaning after having abandoned God. Crucial to her struggle is coping with the death of her young son, a tragedy which turned her toward the order in the first place.

There is much at work here that, on paper at least, is intriguing. The characters, Father Donaghue especially, come to believe that God does not hold the power He used to, and they are often incapable of sustaining belief. And while Agnes is indeed possessed, we are mostly unsure of what exactly she is possessed by. The abrupt switch of genres is indeed unexpected, and throughout, Reece admirably overturns expectations.

Yet it might have worked had he and co-writer John Selvidge had written a smarter script. If the swerves of the plot are surprising, they feel like the result of a lack of focus rather than innovation, and much of the thinking behind the writing is predictable. Organized religion is mostly depicted as repressive, on the typical grounds that it does not allow full expression of sexuality, and the dialogue is stilted and heavy-handed. In one climactic scene, the conversation too neatly summarizes the concerns of the movie, yet, to be honest, there is no scene in which this is not the case. At the beginning, the dialogue seemed blunt to the point of stylization, yet it does not work so well once the setting becomes more realistic. Also, though we do get an answer of sorts regarding why Agnes (and later Mary) is possessed, it is a solution that is saccharine.

In short, when it comes to nuns, I will opt for different films, Sister Act included.