Label: Artsploitation
Region Code: A
Duration: 114 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Audio: Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Gonzalo Calzada
Cast: Sofía Del Tuffo, Marta Lubos, Pedro Merlo, Malena Sánchez, Francisco Donovan
A young nun Natalia (Sofia Del Tuffo) returns home to visit her dying father, with whom she is estranged. While home she is invited by her gothy sister Angela (Malena Sanchez) to join she and her bad-boy boyfriend Mauro (Francisco Donovan), and friends Abel (Pedro Merlo), Osvaldo (Gaston Cocchiarale) and Mara (Stefania Koessl), to an island where they plan to ingest drugs under the supervision of a shaman. All this happening in a abandoned nunnery that was closed down her earlier after what we are told was a demonic-possession incident... what could possibly go wrong?
Luciferina (2018) is a stylish indie demon-possession film, we get some appropriately spooky surroundings, there's plenty of sacrilege to go around, plus strong performances from just about all the young cast. The supernatural film does good work building unease and suspense, provides plenty of unsettling imagery along the way. This is a well-executed if not all that original tale of virginal innocence versus evil with a satisfying amount of hallucinogenic visuals and a sex-fueled finale that is the cherry on top of this devilish bit of horror from Argentina.
From what I can tell this is the first film in a planned trilogy, not sure if those other films will come to fruition but this is a solid film all on it's own, a fever dream of a demon possession film that delivers the goods.
