Sister Death

Narcisa arrives at the reform-convent-turned-school with unsettling supernatural gifts and deep insecurities about her faith. She endures nightmares and experiences escalating hauntings, which draw her into the mystery of “the girl.” Her name on the blackboard and the visions she witnesses propel the plot toward a reckoning with the convent’s buried past.

The spirit of Sister Socorro emerges from the past as a victim whose rape during the war birthed a hidden daughter. Through her haunting, Narcisa learns the tragic backstory: Socorro’s daughter died, and Socorro ultimately hanged herself, leaving a vengeful presence. Socorro’s appearance drives the confrontation that ends with her and her daughter reuniting in the afterlife.

Sister Julia is the convent’s stern authority who dismisses warnings and punishes Rosa. She embodies the intolerance and rigidity that fail to confront the convent’s traumas. She becomes a target of Socorro’s revenge and dies as the past erupts into the present.

The Mother Superior welcomes Narcisa as the ‘holy girl’ and staunchly guards the convent’s secrets to preserve its reputation. She participates in concealing the truth about the war-era violence and the hidden child. Her demise comes when Socorro’s vengeance erupts, exposing the cost of secrecy.

A pupil who senses the danger around Narcisa, Rosa is frightened by Narcisa’s writings and the spirit’s manifestations. Her discovery of the haunted sabre-like letters foreshadows the danger in the convent. Rosa’s later death becomes a catalyzing moment that exposes the true horrors hidden in the walls.

Decades after Narcisa’s arrival, the elder Narcisa teaches a new class and Verónica is among the students who mock her as “Sister Death.” Verónica’s presence anchors the film’s meditation on memory and legacy, as she encounters Narcisa and the haunted past surfaces again.