Is Sister Death Based On A True Story? Real Inspirations For Sister Narcisa Explained

The events depicted in Sister Death are terrifying, leading many viewers to wonder if they were inspired by true events. The Spanish supernatural horror film was released a few days before Halloween (on October 27, 2023) on Netflix, following its premiere as the opener at the 56th Sitges Film Festival on October 5. The movie revolves around a novice named Sister Narcisa who starts teaching at a covenant in the 1940s after the Spanish Civil War. However, once she arrives at the all-girls school, she begins to encounter supernatural occurrences, and they reveal that the establishment has a sinister history.

The cast of Sister Death includes Aria Bedmar as Sister Narcisa, Almudena Amor as Sister Socorro, Maru Valdivielso as Sister Julia, Luisa Merelas as Mother Superior, Chelo Vivares, Sara Roch as Rosa, Olimpia Roch as Elvirita, Adriana Camarena as Ana María, Martina Delgado as Marina, Claudia Fernández Arroyo, Consuelo Trujillo as Sister Muerte, and Sandra Escacena as Verónica. As mentioned above, Bedmar’s Sister Narcisa is at the center of the story, which actually begins ten years before Narcisa comes to the covenant. As a child, Narcisa was worshiped by her town in Spain because of her spiritual gifts. At the school, though, the novice’s powers lead her down a dark path.

Sister Death Is Not Based On A True Story

Although Sister Death utilizes historical events, like the Spanish Civil War, to set the tone for the story, the 2023 Netflix horror supernatural film is not based on real events. Whenever a horror movie contains religious themes and elements to support the tale, audiences are often left to wonder if it was inspired by something that happened in real life. However, in the case of Sister Death, the narrative is mostly fictional — something that screenwriters Jorge Guerricaechevarría and Paco Plaza (who also directed the project) made up for dramatic purposes. But Plaza did use one event from history to build Sister Narcisa’s backstory, as seen at the film’s beginning.

Sister Death’s Opening Scene Is Inspired By The Real-Life Garabandal Apparitions

Even though the events at the all-girls school in Spain in the 1940s were created for the sake of the movie, the opening scene of Netflix’s Sister Death was inspired by a true story. The first scene in the feature depicts Sister Narcisa as a child in 1939, worshiped by the people in her town because of her spiritual gifts. According to The Cinemaholic, director and co-writer Paco Plaza drew inspiration from the Garabandal apparitions in the early to mid-1960s to craft Sister Narcisa’s backstory and the film’s beginning. So, most of the Spanish horror supernatural movie is a work of fiction, while its opening moments were technically based on a true story.

The Garabandal apparitions were a phenomenon that was claimed to have occurred from 1961 to 1965 in the village of San Sebastián de Garabandal, which is located in the Peña Sagra mountain range in Cantabria, Spain. Four girls, aged 11 to 12, insisted they saw the apparitions of Saint Michael the Archangel and the Virgin Mary. Obviously, this caused a lot of heads to turn, and the four young girls started to get a lot of attention. To this day, the Garabandal apparitions are well known throughout Spain, and they intrigued Plaza enough for him to loosely base Sister Narcisa’s childhood on the event in Sister Death. Related: How Netflix’s Sister Death Connects To The Hit 2017 Horror Movie Veronica

Sister Death Is A Prequel To The True Story-Inspired Horror Movie Veronica

Those who watched Sister Death on Netflix might have also thought it was based on a true story because its predecessor, Veronica, was partly inspired by real events. The 2023 horror supernatural film serves as a prequel, seeing as it tells the origin story of Sister Narcisa, aka Sister Death, who was first played by Consuelo Trujillo in the 2017 movie. Veronica centers around a group of teens, including Veronica, trying to summon the spirit of her father with an Ouija board during a solar eclipse. Instead, they attract evil spirits. Director Paco Plaza was inspired by the Vallecas case in 1991, which resulted in the death of Estefania Gutierrez Lazaro after she used an Ouija board.

Although the prequel does not delve into reality as much as the first movie, it does explain why Narcisa is blind in Veronica, which resulted in the children at the school dubbing her Sister Death. By Sister Death‘s ending, viewers finally discover why Narcisa is blind in the prequel — she was staring at the eclipse when an apparition appeared to her and showed her all the terrible events that happened at the covenant years ago during the Spanish Civil War. As a result, she became blind and took on the name of Sister Death.

Source: The Cinemaholic