PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Netflix’s Veronica has certainly attracted a lot of hype and attention. Is it everything it’s cracked up to be?
Sometimes expectations can be a killer. I’m sure by now any horror fan with a Netflix subscription has heard about the sensation that is Veronica and undoubtedly been bombarded with the bold claims surrounding it, that it’s so utterly terrifying, only 1 in 100 viewers can actually watch the whole film. Now, whether the 99 are shutting it off midway out of terror or sheer boredom is anyone’s guess, but I can say that I’m one of that rare 1% that survived till the end. But does it live up to the hype?
Veronica tells the story of a 15-year-old girl living in Madrid, Spain in 1991 with her widowed mother and 3 younger siblings. With the mother seldom ever home, working long hours trying to provide for the family, much of the housework and caring for the children falls to Veronica, a lot of responsibility for a 15-year-old to shoulder. The pressures of school, playing mom, and missing her father are clearly mounting up on Vero. While not having much free time to herself, Veronica does have one unusual hobby: a fascination with the occult.
She coaxes a couple of classmates to sneak off one day while the rest of the school is preoccupied with a solar eclipse to conduct a séance with a Ouija board to try to contact the spirit of her departed father, you know, cause that never ends badly. Not surprisingly, the séance goes askew, as the girls make contact with something that’s anything but friendly, and supernatural wackiness ensues. All sorts of strange occurrences start happening back at the apartment: objects moving and turning on and off by themselves, shadowy figures moving about the house, Vero having terrifying dreams.
Over the next couple days, the occurrences only continue to increase in intensity and ferocity, frightening Vero and the other children. The school’s resident creepy blind nun, nicknamed “Sister Death” by the students, is convinced Vero definitely brought something evil back with her, and it won’t leave her until they give proper closure to the séance. Unable to convince her friends to redo the ceremony, Veronica is forced to enlist her siblings to do the séance with her, stirring the supernatural activity to a furious, cataclysmic fever pitch on June the 15.
Perhaps one of the reasons people are finding this film so scary is because it is based on actual events. The real story from 1991, now prominently known as the “Vallecas Case,” named after the small suburb in Madrid where the events took place, involved a teenage girl Estafania Gutierrez Lazaro and her friends using a Ouija board to contact a deceased classmate killed in a recent motorcycle accident.
One of the nuns at the school caught the girls and interrupted the séance, breaking the Ouija board in half, after which all hell broke loose in Estafania’s life. She was tormented for months with seizures, bizarre hallucinations, and seeing threatening shadowy figures. Though doctors could find nothing physically wrong, she continued to deteriorate and eventually died for no medically explainable reason in the summer of 1991. But paranormal activity in the home continued even after Estafania’s death, her parents calling the police nearly a year later to report an evil presence in the house.
The police that responded did in fact witness all sorts of strange and unexplainable activity, including loud noises, scratching on the walls, and most creepy of all, actually witnessing a photograph of Estafania literally ignite in the frame right in front of them, which is used as one of the more chilling scenes in the film. The case is renowned as the only case in the entire country’s history to have an official police report actually documenting “paranormal activity”.
Now, the big question: is the film scary? I’m afraid the answer for me is an emphatic no. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it. Director Paco Plaza is no stranger to the horror scene, having previously directed the first three entries in the popular [REC] film series, and he does a magnificent job here as well. His lighting, framing, and set design are immaculate, the film is beautifully shot, there’s some outstanding, clever use of reflection in mirrors or other objects showing some of the creepy happenings unfolding in the background, and the music is also excellent, having a very strong, Carpenter-esque retro feel.
I also see a lot of influence from The Conjuring films, and some of the look and feel of It Follows. But herein lies the problem: everything here feels incredibly familiar. There’s nothing in this film that hasn’t been done before and done better, by other house haunting/possession films, and it sadly just isn’t that scary.
Final Thoughts on Veronica:
I can honestly say I didn’t jump once, which leaves me majorly disappointed when a film is so heavily hyped as one of the scariest films ever. Although, without that hype, I might not have watched the film as soon, or maybe even at all, so in that sense, I guess Netflix knows exactly what they’re doing, definitely generating interest. It’s a very solid, well-done film, a fine addition to the ever-growing lineup of outstanding Netflix exclusive horror. I can’t imagine too many diehard horror fans finding this overly scary, but I think anyone can appreciate the quality. Definitely worth the watch, if only to form your own conclusions.
