Directed by Victor Garcia, ‘The Communion Girl’ (Original title: La niña de la communion) is a Spanish-language horror film streaming on Shudder. Based on a story by Alberto Marini and the director, Guillem Clua’s screenplay follows the story of Sara and Rebe from 1987. Their encounter with a doll on a road leads them to strange, unimaginable experiences that frighten them out of their wits. The film explores the secrets that lead these two friends to some terrifying situations. While primarily a horror film, the script unfolds almost like a mystery thriller toward discovering the truth. It stars Carla Campra, Aina Quiñones, Marc Soler, and Carlos Oviedo in the central roles. Spoilers ahead.
The Communion Girl (2023) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
What is ‘The Communion Girl’ about?
The Spanish horror film ‘The Communion Girl’ is about two friends uncovering a web of dark truths after coming across a strange-looking doll. This happens not long after they attend the first communion of one of their younger sister. The film begins with a frightened girl – Sonia, talking about her lost doll. She is afraid that the doll will be all alone and cold. Sonia has scars on most of her body. When a guy comes in to feed her some food, she starts hearing some voices. Within moments, she gets worried about someone’s presence. She sees a body behind the guy with a dark face. Right after, Sonia stabs herself with a fork. She falls to the ground and notices a doll next to a nearby table.
Sara and Rebe
Then, we witness a church gathering four years later. Sara (Carla Campra) attends her younger sister Judith’ (Olimpia Roch) first communion with their mother. Sara’s friend, Rebe (Aina Quiñones), walks in and joins her to go out that night. Unlike Sara, Rebe does not portray any modesty in the sophisticated crowd. However, after the communion, Sara makes her discomfort known to her Aunt Teresa for her false sense of superiority. During the photo session, a woman walks in and asks if they saw her daughter Marisol (Sara Roch). She looks unwell and unkempt. So, two men walk her out.
Later that evening, Sara gets ready to go to a bar with Rebe. She finds Judith’s rosary in the bin and asks her about it. Judith says that she wanted a doll instead. She also mentions that she does not like their town and that she finds the residents weird. Sara says they are the weird ones – probably hinting at how they do not fit the societal norms in the town that their family recently relocated to. Then, Sara meets Rebe and hitches a ride to go to the bar. While they rely on Tano (Daniel Rived) to return home, he leaves with two other girls in a hurry. Since they can think of no other option, they decide to walk back home.
The Doll
Neither had told about this late-night plan to their parents. Sara thinks she should call her father instead of just walking home that late despite the repercussions. Rebe fears what her father would do will be much worse. So, they decide to ask for a lift. Chivo (Carlos Oviedo) stops his car and offers a ride. While Rebe does not trust the man, Sara decides to take the ride. On the way, Chivo suddenly takes a shady route. Rebe instantly understands the threat and tells him to stop the car.
Chivo’s friend, Pedro (Marc Soler), also gets worried and asks him to stop. Right when they start arguing amongst themselves, Sara notices a young girl in a white dress walking past them. Since no one notices her, they disagree with Sara.
But Sara insists they get out and go look for that little girl. On the path, they find a doll lying on the ground. Sara thinks the little girl lost this. When Sara holds it in her hand, Pedro’s torch suddenly starts flickering. But none of them takes this matter seriously. While others walk back to the car, Sara hears wicked laughter coming from the woods. Eventually, she returns home with the found doll. Judith finds her sneaking in. Since Sara came home late, she offered a magazine in exchange for not telling on her. During the next morning’s breakfast, Judith also lies on Sara’s behalf.
The Scar
While getting ready to go out, Sara notices a strange scar on her arm. But she does not pay much attention to it. She meets Rebe and shares her plan to meet Father Manuel to talk about the doll. Before she leaves, Rebe tells a rumor about a curse that one gets if they cross paths with a girl in a communion dress. However, she thinks Sara only imagined the girl next to their car because she was inebriated. After a fight with the girls that stole their ride with Tano, Sara meets Father Manuel to speak about the doll. Manuel recognizes the communion doll. But he lies that he has no knowledge about any girl possessing it.
The Nightmarish Visions
Back home, Sara goes to the bathroom and notices the scars grow bigger than earlier. Within moments, she senses the lights flicker behind her. Then suddenly, a dark-faced girl holds her from behind. The very next moment, she finds herself sinking deeper and deeper inside a well. Her screams inform her parents about her struggle. They reach there to find her with wide-open eyes. After they bring her out of these nightmarish visions, her father assumes this is because of a drug. Later, Sara tells Rebe about it. They go question Chivo about this strange incident. He says he did not offer them any faulty drugs.
Rebe’s Fear
At Rebe’s house, we see her intoxicated dad being abusive toward her. Once he falls asleep, she goes to a bar and walks inside its washroom. She hears someone in her next stall speak loudly. So, she comes outside but finds no one. As if that’s not enough, flickering lights and flipping doors spook her to death. Suddenly, she sees the dark-faced girl inside the stall. Right after, she runs outside toward a pay phone. She calls Sara and asks her for help. Sara rushes there to save her friend.
Meanwhile, at Chivo’s arcade game store, he starts masturbating to the posters of some models. When he hears some sound, he walks outside and looks around. Once again, the flickering lights return, and so does the dressed-up dark-faced girl. So he decides to drive away. Because of this girl’s threat, he ends up killing himself. Sara, Rebe, and Pedro feel sorry for him.
Afterward, Pedro narrates a story of the Munoz sisters that they joked about. Apparently, a girl showed up everywhere around these sisters and tried to hurt and kill them. Pedro notices similar marks/scars on Sara’s arm. They fear she awaits a similar fate as the sisters, who died by suicide. Unfortunately, they can’t seek their parents’ help for one or the other reason.
The Communion Girl (2023) Movie Ending Explained:
The Truth
The next day, Aunt Teresa meets Sara and tells her to choose her company wisely. This comes in reference to her presence next to Chivo’s accident, who is considered a bad influence. Sara does not indulge in arguing against her. With Rebe and Pedro, she meets Sonia’s boyfriend to speak about her untimely death. He speaks about the omnipresent presence of a doll in her life. Because of him, Sara realizes that Father Manuel lied to her before about the doll. They walk to the church to find a tape of an old communion from 1982, where a girl is holding the doll they found in her hand.
They learn that this girl’s name is Marisol. Since a lady was asking people about Marisol after Judith’s communion, they planned to meet her. Suddenly, the cycle of flickering lights and shaking doors returns, which puts Pedro in a zone of nightmarish visions. Rebe and Sara manage to wake him up. Later, Rebe’s father drags her back home against her will. Since she fears what he might do, she locks herself in her room. Then, she holds a knife in her hand in case he breaks open the door. Right after, the scary girl appears in Rebe’s room. Hearing her screams, Rebe’s father breaks the door. In her disturbed state, Rebe ends up stabbing him repeatedly.
Meanwhile, Sara and Pedro go meet Marisol’s mother. Sara manages to learn the truth about Marisol’s connection to the doll. Because Marisol started getting abnormal scars and fears, the villagers ridiculed her. Since Marisol’s father gets a hint of the mother and Sara’s conversation, Sara and Pedro run away. Back at the store, right when they are about to kiss, Rebe starts knocking outside. She is horrified that she almost killed her father. Anyway, since Remedios told them that the girl had gone missing in the ruins, they decided to go there to find the answers. Through that, Sara hopes to put an end to their misery.
Over there, Sara hears a sound similar to what she heard earlier when they were returning to Chivo’s car. Meanwhile, Rebe and Pedro find a tunnel and decide to walk inside with Sara. In that dark, cave-like structure, they get a déjà vu to the place they got stuck in their visions. This is the same place they felt they were sinking deeper and deeper. Suddenly, Sara gets pulled down a well and sees the dressed-up, dark-faced girl next to her. This girl approaches Sara and hugs her. Sara touches her back, thinking what Marisol’s mother said – ‘No one wanted to touch her.’ Somehow, that ends her struggle for life, and she manages to save herself.
After that, Sara notices a dead body lying next to her. Rebe and Pedro help her get out of the hole. Back home, Sara offers Rebe a place to stay for the time being. She brings ‘the doll’ back in her bag. Judith notices it. While they manage to rescue themselves, Sara still wonders – ‘why would a little girl leave the party in the square to hide in that dark spot?’ She believes someone was enticing her.
Rebe thinks it is because people consider them to be ‘weird’ simply for not following their arbitrary norms. She goes to Judith’s room to notice a mark on her arm. Sara figures it is a result of Judith holding the doll in her hand. Suddenly, they hear a strange voice, similar to what Sonia heard before her death. We sense a cycle permutating across years, where those who are perceived as ‘different’ fall prey to this solitary, emotional decay of sorts.
