REVIEW: HERMANA MUERTE AKA SISTER DEATH
by Elena Romea (*)
SISTER DEATH (AKA HERMANA MUERTE) is the latest Paco Plaza’s (VERONICA, LA ABUELA) feature film, a prequel to the 2017 film Verónica.
Written by Jorge Guerricaechevarría, it tells the story of Narcisa (Aria Bedmar) in post-war Spain. Narcisa is a young novice with supernatural powers, who arrives at a former convent- now a school for girls- to become a teacher in 1939. As the days go by, the strange events and increasingly disturbing situations that torment her will eventually lead her to unravel the terrible skein of secrets that surround the convent and haunt its inhabitants. Around her life there some strange events take place as the discovery of a cigar box with letters, scissors, and a funerary photograph of Sister Socorro, a dead nun whose room she is living in, horrific nightmares, and inexplicable phenomena such as a chair repeatedly falling on its own, an incomplete hangman drawing appearing on her wall, an eclipse and more which makes her feel insecure regarding her faith.
Even though it is not as good as Veronica, one of my favs ever, it was entertaining and well shot. Far better than La Abuela which I detest. We need to take into consideration as we watch it that this is not a large-scale production meant for theaters, but a humble work for an online platform with a non-big budget. Despite that everything around it is beyond correction as FX and acting.
The film world premiered as the opener of the 56th Sitges Film Festival on 5 October 2023 and was subsequently released on Netflix on 27 October 2023, where it is still available.
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Elena Romea is the woman in charge of SPANISHFEAR.COM, Horror Rises from Spain and Un Fan de Paul Naschy . A literature and cinema researcher, Ph.D. in Spanish studies with a thesis about the mystic filmmaker José Val del Omar. She has published in different media and books such as Fangoria and Hidden Horror. She has also been in charge of several translations including Javier Trujillo’s complete works, La Mano Film Fest, The Man who Saw Frankenstein Cry, and many more.
