★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Intensity 🩸🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Jack Zagha Kababie and Yossy Zagha
Turning 15 years old is hard enough, but when a monstrous event affects your best friend and a quinceañera goes horribly wrong, things get gory and violent, indeed, as Quince (Fifteen) shows in great detail.
Official synopsis
Two best friends preparing for their quinceañera face desire, cruelty, and social pressure — until one girl’s body begins to transform into something monstrous.
Review
You can imagine that the elevator pitch for Quince (AKA Fifteen; Mexico/Argentina, 2026) might go something like “Carrie meets (insert favorite monster/anti-Christ baby movie here).” The film is as strong at tackling the politics of high school popularity as it is at delivering the gruesome goods.
Codirectors Jack Zagha Kababie and Yossy Zagha craft a great-looking, gore-soaked, humorous high school/coming of age shocker). Best friends Ligia (Greta Martí) and Mayte (Macarena Oz) are two best friends about to turn 15 years old. They are hoping for a grand quinceañera together that will outdo those of the most popular girls at their high school and elevate their own status. Alas, Kababie, Zagha, and cowriters Ricardo Álvarez Canales and Andrzej Rattinger have decidedly different plans for the two girls.
Ligia’s boyfriend Joel (Andre Fajardo) is bitten by a strange creature and starts displaying odd behavior, but an unknowing Ligia finally gives him his wish and they have sex for the first time. This leads to her becoming pregnant, and matters get even weirder and wilder from here than what has already transpired in the first act.
Strong Points
Martí and Oz are excellent as two girls who just want to be accepted by their high school peers. Their performances feel like a true friendship, including some of the ups and downs that can go with that type of relationship. Aminta Ireta as popular mean girl Genoveva — they type of character who you can’t wait to get theirs — heads up a strong supporting cast.
Quince wears its horror cinema influences on its sleeve, but respectfully so. The wonderfully staged quinceañera scene can’t help but remind viewers of the prom scene in Brian DePalma’s Carrie, but Kababie and Zagha level up the insanity, leading up to a rather unexpected climax. The special effects and makeup work are gruesomely fantastic.
Conclusion
Highly recommended for fear-fare fanatics of all stripes, Quince is a colorful coming-of-age shocker that deftly balances dark comedy, grisly set pieces, and touching emotional scenes.
Quince had its world premiere at SXSW’s 2026 edition, which runs March 12–18 in Austin, Texas.
Review by Joseph Perry
