Sister Death explained: Breaking down the film’s biggest questions

Sister Death is the latest Netflix horror movie to hit streaming. The film comes from the mind of director Paco Plaza, who also directed the 2017 Spanish horror movie Verónica. If you recall, that movie introduced a blind nun character who the students often referred to as “Sister Death.” The nun’s real name is Narcisa, and she’s the main character in the aptly titled movie Sister Death, which serves as a prequel to Verónica.

Major spoilers ahead for Sister Death

Plaza’s latest film follows Sister Narcisa as she takes over for another nun that has exited an all-girls school in post-war Spain. She soon finds that the school is hiding a dark secret.

How does Sister Narcisa go blind?

Given the scissors that kept appearing in Sister Death, I assumed Narcisa might stab her eyes to blind herself, but she actually keeps it simple and instead stares straight into the eclipse, burning her eyes until she’s left blind. It’s still disturbing to watch, but not quite as grisly as if she’d taken the scissors to her face.

How does Sister Death end?

The film ends with Narcisa opening a metaphorical door that allows Sister Socorro’s ghost to fully extract her revenge on Sister Julia and the Mother Superior for how they treated her. Once blinded, Narcisa sees the truth of what happened at the convent years ago. After the Spanish Civil War, several men ransacked the building, abusing the women, setting things on fire, and generally causing mayhem.

One man raped Sister Socorro, impregnating her. The other sisters tried to keep the whole thing quiet and kept the pregnant nun locked away. Eventually, her daughter got sick and the other nuns took her away from her mother to try and bring her fever down with a bath.

She refused to cooperate and they ended up murdering her in the bathtub by mistake. In her grief, Sister Socorro hanged herself. Her spirit has been haunting the school ever since. With Narcisa’s assistance, her spirit is able to kill Mother Superior and Julia, and then she finds peace with her daughter.

Sister Death’s connection to Verónica

The final scene of Sister Death is a flash-forward to the 1990s when Verónica started attending school and they introduce the now grown-up Sister Narcisa to the classroom, connecting to the two films.