New films, TV shows, reality shows and even documentaries arrive so quickly to Netflix, it’s hard to keep track of the old ones gathering metaphorical dust on virtual shelves. With the shows piling up, some gems will inevitably slip through the cracks.
Veronica, a Spanish ghost thriller along the same vein as The Conjuring, debuted on the platform in February 2018 with little acknowledgment. Horror fans now are discovering the film and digging into the terrifyingly true story that inspired it all.
1. Article Summary
The latest film by the REC mastermind Paco Plaza, Veronica, quietly popped up on the streaming platform after being screened at the Toronto Film Festival in 2017.
Whether or not horror flicks are your thing, social media succeeds in making sure you’ve heard of it. Veronica is a supernatural horror/drama film that fans of the genre just can’t seem to agree on.
While some users on Twitter swore it to be so scary, they had to stop watching halfway through, others can’t seem to get enough of it. Will it be worth your time? Read on to find out.
2. Is it worth watching?
While Veronica can get predictable at times, even toeing the ridiculousness line, Plaza directs with confidence in the actors themselves.
Some of the spooky tropes it explores in attempts to shock its audience- electronic toys lighting up at random moments or people unhinging their jaws in startlingly unnatural ways – aren’t exactly all that shocking anymore. There’s little in this film that feels revelatory and can even get downright repetitive with its Wild Strawberries-Esque dream sequences.
There is also the unsettling aura of authenticity that comes with the film’s ‘inspired by true events’ line in a Paranormal Activity way. The way the ‘true’ aspects of the film are folded into the script makes for some effective storytelling.
I. Plot
Set in 1991, Veronica tells the story of a 15-year-old girl (Veronica, played by Sandra Escacena) who uses an Ouija board with her friends in a séance at school to contact her recently a dead father. However, the events take a dark turn when Veronica begins to have demonic experiences and senses an evil force in her family’s home while babysitting her younger siblings.
She now has to dispel the spirits, but when her friends refuse to help her host another séance and her younger brother (Antonito, played brilliantly by Ivan Chavero) makes a fatal mistake, she unknowingly opens a portal to the spirit world. Can she stop the spirits before they wreak havoc on her world?
In addition to having a 100% rating on Rotten tomatoes, and sending Twitter users into a frenzy, Veronica is loosely based on a true story dating back to 1992. Madrid police investigated the mysterious death of Estefania Gutierrez Lazar, a young girl who passed away after hosting a séance with her friends during a solar eclipse. Her family experienced evil haunting spirits until they were forced to move. The case was reportedly never solved.
II. Music and Visuals
With songs like Pelicula in its film, Veronica’s soundtrack has been composed by filmmaker and composer Eugenio Mira, who goes by the alias Chucky Namaner.
The film won several Spanish awards for best editing, sound and sound effects, and new actress. It was nominated for the best original score at the Feroz Awards.
The film features an onslaught of randomly moving objects, jarring music and a creepy chain-smoking nun who happens to be blind. Veronica’s screenplay is written by Fernando Nevaro with cinematography by Pablo Rosso of REC (2007) and Genesis (2012) fame.
3. Final thoughts
Although the Ouija board trope has been an overused cliché in mainstream cinema today, (The Uninvited, The Ouija Experiment, The Exorcist, Bat Whisperer) Plaza’s use of bookends and a flashback structure involving police officers give the film legitimacy.
The whiff of non-fiction creates compelling touches with the film’s more dream-like touches. Veronica finds an unsettling middle ground that could send chills down your spine by playing the reality of the surreal.
That being said, Veronica has many familiar elements with others in the same genre that makes it predictable. The second and third acts feel remarkably typical for a film that starts off so strong and builds its characters so well.
There are only so many ways you can show an occult, and it just feels like we’ve seen them all.
True story or not, the plot itself is haunting. If fans of the genre can brave films like Insidious (2010), and The Conjuring (2013), Veronica might be enjoyable. But viewers have been warned; once it is watched, there may be no turning back.
4. Grade
Story: B
Cinematography/Animation: A+
Acting: A
Music: B
Direction: B+
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