Luciferina (2018) – Ritual Shadows and Inner Demons
Luciferina is an atmospheric horror film from Argentina that weaves religious mysticism folk ritual and personal trauma into a haunting visual journey. The story follows Natalia a novice nun who returns home after her mother’s death to face a deep family secret in a remote rural house. Her father lies immobile and her sister is distant. Natalie soon participates in an ayahuasca ceremony led by local shamans with her sister and friends. What begins as a search for closure evolves into a disturbing confrontation with hidden desires fear and spiritual possession.
The film unfolds slowly with dreamlike imagery that blurs boundaries between waking life and hallucinatory ritual. The jungle and night sequences shift in color and shadow in ways that unsettle perception and mood. Scenes of ritual chant drumming and waking visions pull viewers into a surreal experience where fear moves beyond jump scares into symbolism.
Natalia is forced to confront repressed memories and inherited guilt as the ceremony strips away her spiritual certainty. Fear becomes intimate and internal. The ritual becomes both a journey to truth and a descent into darkness.
Visually Luciferina is striking. The cinematography captures water flickering through crucifixes forest mist and bodies swaying in trance. On screen the exorcism feels sacred and forbidding. There is erotic tension in forbidden ritual gestures and violent release in confrontational sequences.
At times the pace feels uneven and some narrative threads drift. Characters around Natalia are seldom fleshed out leaving her emotional arc as the film’s core. The second half picks up intensity though the first half may feel slow. Some viewers may find the symbolic storytelling opaque if unfamiliar with Indigenous ritual frameworks.
Luciferina succeeds as an art horror film that demands attention emotional risk and interpretive engagement. It treats sin trauma and spirituality as themes to be exhumed not explained. A film that lingers not through answers but through unsettling fragments of ritual fear and identity.
