A nun who takes a job as a teacher at a Catholic girl’s school and unearths a sinister truth about the institution’s past is the subject of the Spanish horror film Sister Death, which is available on Netflix. Sister Death, written and directed by Paco Plaza, is a preface to his 2017 film Verónica that narrates the life story of Sister Narcisa, a.k.a. “Sister Death,” the blind nun in the film.
A little girl in a far-off town finds spiritual powers following a terrible incident that occurred during the Spanish Civil War. After growing up, Sister Narcisa goes back to work as a teacher at the convent, which is now a school for girls. She soon learns that Sister Socorro, a deceased nun, and the spirit of a small child haunt the school. Sister Narcisa uncovers horrific facts about Socorro’s past that Mother Superior and Sister Julia have been hiding from her while she studies the school’s background. As a result, Socorro seeks retribution for what transpired.
This Halloween season, Netflix has made an unexpected comeback with a movie that’s kind of related to the 2017 hit Spanish-language picture Veronica. Although Veronica was a one-off movie based on a true tale and didn’t seem to have much potential for more, we now have a prequel about one of the movie’s fascinating characters (take it with a grain of salt). Sister Death takes place around sixty years prior to the events of Veronica, during which time Sister Narcisa and her transformation into the notorious blind nun known as Sister Death are revealed. Sister Death, which was directed by Paco Plaza, who also helmed the 2017 movie, is billed as a slower-moving movie that will leave you feeling haunted, much like Veronica.
It has become standard procedure to expand films into new universes by choosing semi-important or intriguing characters from respectably popular horror properties. The best illustration of this is seen in The Conjuring. A growing number of horror properties are planning spin-offs or have already produced pointless sequels for the purpose of creating nostalgic appeal that no one requested. Conversely, Sister Death appears out of nowhere six years after the publication of its predecessor. Anything in the same “world” seemed impractical, especially a fabricated prequel, given that Veronica was based on a factual story.
Sister Death Netflix Movie Release Date
Sister Death, a highly awaited Spanish horror mystery film, will be available on Netflix on that day. On October 27, 2023, fans may set aside this day in their calendars to binge-watch the film. Hermana Muerte, the original title of Sister Death, is a prequel to the horror film Veronica on Netflix.
Plot of Sister Death (2023)
Sister Death chronicles the early years of novice Narcisa’s life. The plot, which takes place in post-Civil War Spain, is gritty and grim, portraying human vices through the lens of a horror film. Strange things start to happen when Narcisa, the miracle girl who is well-known in the community for having seen Mother Mary, shows up at a convent to tutor several young girls. Don’t worry, this film is not like the Nun pictures, it has a far deeper meaning and isn’t simply here for the scares. This narrative is more about the horrors done during the war and their aftermath than it is about Narcisa’s life. Narcisa learns some startling facts about the nuns and their residents.
Will she be able to come to terms with her decisions and get the answers she seeks? Or will her dread of uncertainty force her to stop doing what she’s doing? We are aware that she will grow up to be a nun, but as Veronica discovers, she is highly clairvoyant and is treated as though she has an intellectual handicap in her later years.
As shown in the teaser, Narcisa finds a box full of other people’s belongings. Narcisa is not able to see the message that whatever this person was attempting to convey is trying to offer her. The convent’s young residents regale visitors with tales of a ghost girl. She paints a hangman on the walls, and you are cursed if she writes your name on it. Narcisa already questions her decision to become a nun. She feels too much pressure to be the exceptional miracle girl, and she fears she isn’t deserving of it. She feels as though living in the convent is a sin since this talent she was given has been lacking for a long time.
Narcisa, in Sister Death, has to discover the reason for the ghost girl’s curses on the convent residents. She has to find a way to put an end to her inner conflict and “see” what her true purpose is. As one might expect, the movie makes extensive use of blasphemous imagery, including images of burning Jesus, upside-down crucifixes, and other Catholic symbols. The film provides a significant response to the subject of how and why Narcisa self-blinded. She revealed to Veronica that she had once blinded herself out of fear of what she saw, only to discover that clear vision didn’t require eyes. Based on the trailer, which features some really beautiful images, the movie appears to have some visually stunning sequences.
We may assume that, unlike other religious horror stories, this one isn’t entirely black-and-white. Evil is always defeated by good. As opposed to Veronica, which had a depressing conclusion, we could receive something that is more nuanced and leaves us wondering.
To make sure you’re comfortable viewing this movie, we advise you to read up on trigger warnings before watching Sister Death. Along with gore and violence, the movie also shows additional trauma triggers.
The History of Sister Socorro during the Spanish Civil War
Grainy black-and-white film from 1939 opens Sister Death, but the film’s complete history actually begins several years earlier, during the Spanish Civil War. Sister Narcisa initially notices the bullet-riddled wall when she first arrives to the convent, but she subsequently finds out that the institution has far deeper wounds from the Civil War. Narcisa witnesses a raid on the convent while watching an eclipse. She discovers that one of the assailants sexually assaulted Sister Socorro, who became pregnant and gave birth to a little child that the other nuns vowed to keep a secret within the convent’s gates.
When Socorro’s daughter is a few years old, she has a severe fever. Socorro wants to take her to the hospital, but Mother Superior and Sister Julia, among the other nuns, won’t allow her go because they want to keep the incident a secret. After confining Socorro to her room, they attempt to tend to Socorro’s daughter by giving her a cold bath to reduce her fever. The small girl fights back, strikes the bathtub with her head in the back, and passes away. Sister Socorro hangs herself in the cell’s corner out of sadness.
The young pupils think the convent is haunted by a little girl’s soul, but by the time Sister Narcisa arrives in 1949, Mother Superior and Sister Julia are the only nuns who remember what occurred. Periodically, drawings of hangmen appear on the walls. The girls claim that Sister Inés, another nun, finished one of them’s legs to demonstrate that they were harmless; nevertheless, she departed after her name was unexplainably put down, which terrified her so much that it’s conceivable she was killed and the other nuns were lying to hide it.
An explanation of the chair, the hangman, the marble, and St. Martha’s hand
Narcisa comes, and very immediately a little marble rolls inexplicably across the floor to land at her feet. That evening, she discovers a package containing a pair of scissors and a picture of Sister Socorro on her shelf. Then the door knocks, the chair in the room’s corner magically topples, and Sister Narcisa discovers a hangman game with merely a head and body sketched on the wall. Socorro and her daughter are closely connected to all of these components.
The hangman game plainly symbolizes the same thing as the chair tilting, which happened when Socorro stepped on it and tipped it over in an attempt to hang herself. However, the height at which it is drawn implies that the drawing is the daughter’s spirit. At a similar vein, the marble was most likely a game the girl played during her final years in the convent.
The second appearance of the marble is a bit more peculiar since it takes Narcisa to the basement, where she finds the hand of Saint Martha, an item that Mother Superior claims has been missing since the military conflict. Although the hand of St. Martha isn’t a genuine historical relic, its absence during the conflict can be linked to Socorro’s passing. Mother Superior continues, “This area has never been the same after that happened,” further emphasizing to Narcisa that the symbolism is all pointing to Socorro’s ordeal.
All these symbols have value, of course, but their real function isn’t to be symbolic or have any deeper meaning in the text; rather, they are only meant to be a path that Narcissa might travel to discover the truth about what really happened to Socorro and her daughter in 1936.
Where Can I Watch?
Released on October 27, 2023, Sister Death is a Netflix original film helmed by Paco Plaza (Veronica). The movie is a prequel to the well-received horror movie Veronica from 2017, which scared many enough to switch off their Netflix accounts (we doubt it though). El Estudio, a budding production company in Mexico, the US, and Spain, is producing the movie. This movie is available to stream on Netflix anywhere.
