THE COMMUNION GIRL on Shudder is a new horror movie from Spain (org. title: La niña de la comunión). It’s a very solid horror movie that should please many horror fans. Also, it ends with a bang. Read our full The Communion Girl movie review here!
THE COMMUNION GIRL is a new Shudder horror movie addition. This one is from Spain (org. title: La niña de la comunión) and features both a haunting and a mystery. Both are wrapped into a curse of sorts that latches on and slowly drives people crazy.
If that sounds like a pretty solid horror movie, it’s because it is. I did feel it could’ve been a bit tighter, but the secondary subjects covered also needed the attention they got. Also, the final scene made me wish that a sequel was already waiting for me now.
Continue reading our The Communion Girl movie review below. Find it on Shudder from August 11, 2023.
Welcome to small-town Spain
The Communion Girl plays out over a few years. There’s the opening scene and then we jump four years into the future. That opening scene will of course become important, and should you have forgotten it within the span of an hour, don’t worry, flashbacks are provided.
Sorry, it’s a pet peeve of mine that flashbacks are shown when it’s barely been an hour. However, I know the attention span of people is supposedly decreasing by the second, and I recognize that responses from test audiences may be the reason for the flashbacks.
For the record, I don’t think attention span is the problem, but rather staying focused; Put your phone away or you will get distracted. I know this to be true for myself as well.
Anyway, the story plays out in the late 1980s in Spain. The music and clothes feel much more like a 1990s setting to me, but whatever, it doesn’t ruin the story, so I can live with it.
We’re in the small town of Tarragona, where everyone knows about “The Communion Girl” urban legend. Well, everyone but Sara (Carla Campra) who recently moved to the town. After partying with her new friend, the rebellious Rebe (Aina Quiñones), Sara sees something that looks like a communion girl wandering in the woods at night.
This is the beginning of a nightmare for both Sara and her friends. One that blurs the boundaries between reality and nightmarish horror. Sara and Rebe end up having to fight for their survival in The Communion Girl. Fortunately, they’re not easy to defeat, but they have to go through brutal moments. Again and again!
The ending of Shudder’s The Communion Girl
While the movie is a solid horror movie, the ending of The Communion Girl on Shudder was what blew me away. Just as that final scene came across the screen, it was a rude awakening and a violent WTF moment.
It’s the kind of ending where people will surely want for a sequel, so hopefully one is in the making already.
The Communion Girl ending never manages to give you all the answers, but you do get enough to piece together most of it. Then comes that final moment of absolute terror and you’re left to question everything you (and the two girls) have learned so far.
I loved it, and it made me sit up straight and pay attention immediately. However, I do also recognize that others may find it annoying as it opens the door to more rather than giving definitive answers. Just as with the whole “attention span vs. focusing on one thing”-issue, people’s need for answers differs a lot.
Watch The Communion Girl on Shudder!
Víctor Garcia is the director of The Communion Girl which he also co-wrote with Guillem Clua and Alberto Marini. For me, Alberto Marini is always enough reason to check out anything. First, because he produced [REC] and several of the sequels. Second, because wrote Sleep Tight (remade as Door Lock).
Sleep Tight and [REC] were directed by the horror master Jaume Balagueró. If you haven’t watched his 1999 horror mystery The Nameless (org. title Los sin nombre), then I highly recommend you do. I first watched it more than 20 years ago and it hasn’t left me since.
Previously, Víctor Garcia directed All the Good Ones Get Away (2019) which I didn’t enjoy much. He does also have many horror titles on his resume. He directed horror movies such as Return to the House on Haunted Hill (2007), Mirrors 2 (2010), and Hellraiser: Revelations (2011) plus the mini-series 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails (2007).
In other words, a whole lot of horror franchise sequels or spin-off productions. This includes one of his most recent projects as a second unit director on the Netflix spin-off Bird Box Barcelona. Also, Víctor Garcia was on the special effects crew for Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy (2004). Basically, he has been working on horror projects for decades.
As already stated several times, I found this Spanish horror movie to be very solid, and I believe many horror fans will enjoy it. For me, the ending was a punch to the gut that I liked, but you may not. Guess you’ll have to watch it to find out.
The Communion Girl (org. title: La niña de la comunión) is on Shudder from August 11, 2023.
Details
Director: Víctor Garcia
Writers: Guillem Clua, Víctor Garcia, Alberto Marini
Stars: Carla Campra, Aina Quiñones, Marc Soler, Carlos Oviedo, Manel Barceló
Plot
Spain, late 1980s. Newcomer Sara tries to fit in with the other teens in this tight-knit small town in the province of Tarrgona. If only she were more like her extroverted best friend, Rebe. They go out one night at a nightclub, on the way home, they come upon a little girl holding a doll, dressed for her first communion. And that’s when the nightmare begins.
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