Movie of the Week: Veronica

Alexa: In researching Spanish horror film “Veronica” after watching it, I came across a few articles that dubbed it the scariest movie of all time. I wouldn’t go that far, but it is damn scary and definitely worth a watch for any horror fan. I’m pretty selective about the horror movies I actually enjoy, but I found “Veronica” to be unsettling and deeply compelling. It’s not exactly the most original premise, even if it is very loosely inspired by real events. There’s a ouija board, demonic possession, doors flinging open on their own, a creepy yet wise blind nun, an old school Simon game that starts eerily flashing and beeping when evil is near, the works. But the casting and direction elevate it above similar horror fare. All of the actors are great in their roles, particularly Sandra Escacena as the titular character. The movie doesn’t beat you over the head with cheap scares but builds suspense then delivers its thrills at a measured and effective pace. And in between is a thread of rich character development that makes the viewer genuinely invested in Veronica and the bond she shares with her siblings. The ominous ambience director Paco Plaza creates is the perfect backdrop for such a sinister tale.

Joel: You basically have to ignore any claim that this movie or that movie is the scariest movie of all time at this point. It’s a claim that hundreds of horror movies have made in their advertising, and any review or article that claims this or that recent horror movie is the “scariest movie ever” is going to be pushed to the top of the pile and stuck in every bit of advertising that the movie has.
This isn’t to say that Veronica isn’t scary. It’s a movie that does have several genuinely scary or unsettling moments. The movie does a great job playing with light and shadow to really ad to the unease of what is happening. The sun and eclipse imagery might be a little heavy handed, but there are several moments that really work thanks to the selective lighting coming from a tv set or outside, or the brightest Simon Says game in history. That feeling of terror and dread sits heavily on the movie and really does make the horror elements of this movie tick. Obviously, the movie isn’t perfect. There are a few moments where the movie resorts to a jump scare in an effort to get a reaction of any kind out of the audience. We get a good list of horror movie tropes to pick from here. (Eclipse, ouija board, hands coming out of walls, scary looking blind nun) but the tropes, as familiar as they may be don’t take you out of the movie, and that somehow enjoyable feeling of discomfort that a good horror movie has is still there for most of the movie.

Chris: I'm really glad I decided to go into this movie with a blank slate because had I done any research and saw the "scariest movie ever" label it was saddled with, I would've gone into this movie a lot more skeptical than I already was. I've stated many times that horror movies do nothing for me, the types of emotion and environment these movies evoke are rarely anything I'm into. All of that being said, I didn't completely hate Veronica as it provided some depth as to what is going on why (ultimately) we find out this is all probably caused by some mental breakdown caused by grief of Veronica losing her father. Of course, even after the reveal that the demon was Veronica all along, the movie still decided to add some supernatural/unexplainable element in the end that I felt cheapened the reveal. Honestly, I saw the reveal coming whenever Veronica was trying to get the demon off her sibling and said sibling was asking Veronica why she was choking her but I still like how the reveal came about. I felt like the movie could've done more with that especially with the crux of the movie being that they didn't say goodbye to the spirit at the end of the seance and how that could have related to Veronica maybe never getting the chance to say goodbye to her father. This film could have been a great allegory (which most horror movies tend to be anyway) for the power of grief and the strangle hold it can have on the people still living but instead the movie wanted there to still be a demon involved at the end of something along those lines. So not a terrible horror movie but it could have had so much more to dig into.

Jason: When this movie was released on Netflix earlier this year, it was lauded by articles around the internet as “one of the scariest films ever made” and “so scary, you won’t be able to finish it!” In this way, Veronica continues in an old tradition from the B-movies of the 50s of over-hyping a horror movie to entice more people to watch it. When it first dropped and I was being bombarded by articles from all my favorite horror movie culture sites, I had to check it out if only to see what all the hubbub was about. My conclusion: this is decidedly NOT one of the most terrifying movies ever made. And I was able to get through the whole thing just fine. That said, I did think it was a perfectly good supernatural, Ouija board based scary movie. It plays on all of the tropes that you would expect to find from a “story based on true events”. And it pulls them off decently. Where this movie really shines is not in the jump scares or creepy monsters, but in the tension it builds and in the scary moments that aren’t so in-your-face. One of the most creep-inducing images to me is when, during the second seance, the glass rolls off out of the room in a straight line, defying all physics. It rolls down a hall and then repeatedly bumps against a door. I can’t explain it but that scene sent chills down my spine.

The acting here is not consistently stellar but Sandra Escancena does a great job being worn down by the awful experiences she faces. And I know he doesn’t do or say much, but the kid who plays Antonito conveys such a sense of innocence and ignorance to the whole situation. It was heart wrenching.

So while it didn’t live up to the manufactured hype, it was still an enjoyable late night scary flick.