Review of Sister Death
Sister Death (2023) Dir. Paco Plaza
Ghosts of the past permeate this new religious horror from the director of REC, which explores the haunted life of a woman who joins a convent for salvation but experiences disturbing and frightful events.
A flashback to 1939 Spain opens the movie which sees a young girl called Narcisa worshipped by townsfolk only to enter a convent years later as an older woman (played by an excellent Aria Bedmar). Narcisa’s revered reputation is well known amongst the nuns which leads to a frosty reception from some of her new sisters.
Narcisa teaches other wayward girls who are being helped by the nuns but soon her room has a an apparent paranormal presence. A falling wooden chair, a hangman drawing and a box of items from a previous nun, Sister Socorro, help create a sense of unknown dread in her early days and lead the audience nicely into this religious world.
The director builds slowly from its drama-focused opening which matches the measured pace of the convent lifestyle. Yet with the reveal of a marble moving by itself and a cellar of creepy statues, the spiritual spookiness soon intensifies.
The film is shot in a claustrophobic 1.33:1 ratio, stylistic hemming in the events but also relating to films from the era. The measured horror has a host of unsettling scenes although one too many nightmare jump-scares for me. But one specific interaction regarding eyeballs and food is a particularly gruesome standout.
Despite Narcisa’s search for more rational explanations, the young girls in her charge continue to act strangely and experience ghostly going-ons themselves. And as an approaching solar eclipse is foretold on the news, a trance-like ending sees the past and the present link together in an orgy of hideous historical crimes and current cover-ups.
[Mild Spoiler] As someone who tries to avoid trailers and reading too much news before watching films, I was hugely (and excitedly) surprised at the end to discover the film is actually a prequel to Plaza’s 2017 film Verónica. Slapping my forehead in a twist worthy of Shyamalan, it exonerated my news-avoiding decisions.
Plaza’s controlled direction is the opposite of the hand-held chaos of REC (one of my top 10 horrors of all time) and the cast of actresses are fantastic across the board in roles that explore reputation, religion and fair amount of martyrdom. Sister Death (an awful, but appropriate if slightly-spoilery title) ends as a effective fright flick with Plaza more than cementing his deserved reputation as the master of Spanish horror.
★★★★
4 / 5
Michael Sales
Available to stream on Netflix now
