''Veronica'' ( es, Verónica, links=no) is a 2017 Spanish

supernatural horror film Supernatural horror film is a film genre that combines aspects of horror film and supernatural film. Supernatural occurrences in such films often include ghosts and demons, and many supernatural horror films have elements of religion. Common theme ...

directed by

Paco Plaza Francisco Plaza Trinidad (born 8 February 1973), simply known as Paco Plaza, is a Spanish filmmaker known for his works in the horror genre. He is the co-creator of the ''REC'' zombie film franchise. Career Francisco Plaza Trinidad was born on ...

which stars Sandra Escacena alongside Claudia Placer, Bruna González, Iván Chavero and

Ana Torrent Ana Torrent Bertrán de Lis (born 12 July 1966) is a Spanish film actress. Early life and career Her debut came in 1973 with the starring role as "Ana" in the film ''El espíritu de la colmena'' (''The Spirit of the Beehive''), directed by V ...

. It is loosely based on true events from the 1991

Vallecas Vallecas was a municipality of Spain that disappeared as such in 1950, when its annexation to the Municipality of Madrid was effectuated. Nowadays it is a large neighborhood of Madrid composed of two districts: Puente de Vallecas (population ...

case where Estefanía Gutiérrez Lázaro died mysteriously after she used a

ouija board The ouija ( , ), also known as a spirit board or talking board, is a flat board marked with the letters of the Latin alphabet, the numbers 0–9, the words "yes", "no", occasionally "hello" and "goodbye", along with various symbols and grap ...

Plot

The film opens in 1991

in medias res A narrative work beginning ''in medias res'' (, "into the middle of things") opens in the midst of the plot (cf. ''ab ovo'', ''ab initio''). Often, exposition is bypassed and filled in gradually, through dialogue, flashbacks or description of pa ...

, with emergency services responding to a call from a young girl. She sounds panicked and screams about something coming to get her brother before the call cuts off. The film goes back in time three days. Verónica is a 15-year-old girl living with her mother and three young siblings in an apartment in the working-class district of

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

. Their father recently died and their mother works long hours at a bar to support the family, leaving Verónica in charge of her younger siblings: twins Lucia and Irene, and Antoñito. On the day of the solar eclipse, her teacher explains how some ancient cultures used eclipses to stage

human sacrifice Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein ...

s and summon dark spirits. Verónica and her friends Rosa and Diana go into the basement to conduct a

séance A séance or seance (; ) is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word ''séance'' comes from the French word for "session", from the Old French ''seoir'', "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, spea ...

using a

Ouija board The ouija ( , ), also known as a spirit board or talking board, is a flat board marked with the letters of the Latin alphabet, the numbers 0–9, the words "yes", "no", occasionally "hello" and "goodbye", along with various symbols and grap ...

. Verónica wants to reach out to her late father, and Diana her late boyfriend, who died in a motorcycle accident. Rosa and Diana pull their hands back when the glass cup becomes too hot. Verónica's hand remains on it, and at the moment of the eclipse, the cup shatters, cutting her finger and dripping blood onto the board. Verónica becomes unresponsive, whispering something repeatedly, then lets out a demonic scream. She wakes in the school nurse's office, who tells her she probably passed out from

iron deficiency Iron deficiency, or sideropenia, is the state in which a body lacks enough iron to supply its needs. Iron is present in all cells in the human body and has several vital functions, such as carrying oxygen to the tissues from the lungs as a key ...

. Verónica begins experiencing paranormal occurrences and her friends avoid her. Looking for answers, she goes back to the school basement and finds the school's elderly blind

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

whom the students call Hermana Muerte ('Sister Death'). The nun explains that the séance attached a dark spirit to her and tries to compel the spirit to leave, but nothing happens. Verónica draws protective Viking symbols for the kids, only for the demon to destroy them. She tries to help Lucia when the spirit chokes her, but Lucia says it was Verónica who was choking her. Verónica wakes up to find that she's on her

first period First Period is an American architecture style in the time period between approximately 1626 and 1725, used by British colonists during the earliest English settlements in United States, particularly in Massachusetts and Virginia and later in ...

. As she scrubs her mattress, she finds burn marks on the underside. She also finds on each of the kids' mattresses a large burn mark in the shape of a human body. Sister Death tells Verónica that she used to see dark spirits when she was younger, and intentionally blinded herself in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the visions. Verónica reads in an occult magazine that she can force the spirits to leave by doing right what she did wrong as it is important to say goodbye to the spirit at the end of a séance. Verónica asks Rosa and Diana to hold another séance, but they refuse. Rosa reveals that at the séance, Verónica whispered that she herself would die in three days. Desperate, Verónica decides to hold the séance with her siblings. She has Antoñito draw the protective symbols on the walls, but he flips to the wrong page and instead draws symbols of invocation. When she tells the spirit to say goodbye, it refuses. She calls the police and escapes with her siblings. However, she sees that she is not actually holding Antoñito but had imagined it. Her brother is actually hiding in a closet. She finds him but he won't go with her. Verónica looks at herself in the mirror and sees the demon, realizing she has been possessed by the demon the entire time, and had been harming her siblings under its control. She attempts to end the possession by slitting her own throat but is prevented by the demon. The police enter to find her being attacked by an invisible force and passing out. The medics carry her and Antoñito out while a shaken detective observes the scene. As the detective watches a photograph of Verónica suddenly catch fire, he is informed that she has died. Five years later in 1996, he reports of unexplained paranormal activity having occurred in Madrid. It is explained that the movie is based on the true events of the first police report in Spain where a police officer certifies having witnessed

paranormal activity Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

Cast

Inspiration

The film was inspired when Estefanía Gutiérrez Lázaro (1973–1991) reportedly suffered hallucinations and seizures after performing the séance at a school in Madrid to try to contact her friend's deceased boyfriend who had died six months earlier. Her exact cause of death is a mystery. Her house allegedly became haunted after her death according to the British magazine ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

''. The American magazine ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

'', referenced by ''NME'', is more cautious and while acknowledging that the case is real, likens the event to the similar pop-culture phenomenon and urban legend ''

The Amityville Horror ''The Amityville Horror'' is a book by American author Jay Anson, published in September 1977. It is also the basis of a series of films released from 1979 onward. The book is based on the claims of paranormal experiences by the Lutz family, b ...

''. In the same magazine, director

says that he didn't feel bound to portray the real events, clarifying "...the whole story of Veronica and the sisters and Antoñito, this little Marlon Brando with glasses, it’s all a vision."

Production

The screenplay was penned by Paco Plaza alongside Fernando Navarro. The film was produced by Apache Films alongside El Expediente La Película AIE, with the participation of

RTVE The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española, S.A. (; ), known as Radiotelevisión Española or RTVE, is the state-owned public corporation that assumed in 2007 the indirect management of the Spanish public radio and television service know ...

and support from ICAA. The score was composed by

Eugenio Mira Eugenio Mira (born 1977) is a Spanish filmmaker and composer. He has been credited as composer in some films under the pseudonym Chucky Namanera. He was born in Castalla, Alicante. After finishing his studies in high school and as a piano player ...

, credited under the pseudonym Chucky Namanera.

Release

''Verónica'' originally released on 25 August 2017 in Spain. In addition, the film was released in eight other countries between the months of December 2017 up until February 2018. The film was selected for the lineup of the

2017 Toronto International Film Festival The 42nd annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 7 to 17 September 2017. There were fourteen programmes, with the Vanguard and City to City programmes both being retired from previous years, with the total number of films down b ...

's Contemporary World Cinema section.

Reception

Box office

In Spain the film grossed $4,212,203, and $1,910,886 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $6,123,089.

Critical response

The review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported an 88% approval rating from 33 critic reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "A scarily effective horror outing, ''Veronica'' proves it doesn't take fancy or exotic ingredients to craft skin-crawling genre thrills." Jonathan Holland from ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...

'' gives a negative review of the film and wrote "The real horror in ''Veronica'' is not in the CGI visuals, or in Pablo Rosso's frantic cinematography, or in the aural bombardment of sound effects and music; it’s in the relationship between the children". Overall though he sums up his film review with "Thick on chills, thin on psychology." Shortly after the release of ''Verónica'' on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

Jordan Crucchoila of Vulture countered other reviewers who believe that ''Verónica'' is the scariest movie on Netflix "In our estimation, ''Veronica'' is not that scary. It’s a worthy effort, but as far as witch-board movies go, you’ll get more out of ''Ouija 2: Origin of Evil''.", but overall still believes that the film has "some great set-piece scares, and the movie’s most disturbing moment is pretty damn good." Ed Potton of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' does not believe that the film is good and gave the film a 2 out of 5, and wrote "A considerable buzz online suggested that this Spanish horror might arrest the recent run of iffy Netflix movies. Sadly, it doesn't." Dennis Harvey of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', wrote that the film's ideas "aren’t ultimately original enough or its scares potent enough to suggest Plaza wouldn’t benefit from trying his directorial hand at someone else’s screenplay." Paul Tassi from ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' magazine wrote "If I was scoring the movie myself I’d probably give it a 6 out of 10, “fresh,” but not exactly stunning."

Accolades

, - , align = "center" rowspan="21" , 2018 , rowspan="4" , 73rd CEC Medals , Best Editing , Martí Roca , , rowspan="4" style="text-align:center;" , , - , Best New Actress , Sandra Escacena , , - , Best Original Screenplay , Paco Plaza, Fernando Navarro , , - , Best Score , Eugenio Mira , , - , rowspan="6" ,

5th Feroz Awards The 5th award ceremony of the Feroz Awards was held at Polideportivo Antonio Magariños, in Madrid, on January 22, 2018. It was hosted by Julián López and aired on #0. Winners and nominees The nominees were announced on December 5, 2017. The c ...

Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...

, Paco Plaza , , rowspan="6" style="text-align:center;" , , - , colspan = "2" , Best Drama Film , , - , Best Original Score , Eugenio Mira , , - , Best Trailer , Rafa Martínez , , - ,

Best Actress in a Leading Role The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. ...

, Sandra Escacena , , - , Best Screenplay , Paco Plaza, Fernando Navarro , , - , rowspan="7" ,

32nd Goya Awards The 32nd Goya Awards were presented at the Madrid Marriott Auditorium Hotel in Madrid on 3 February 2018, to honour the best in Spanish films of 2017. Joaquín Reyes (actor), Joaquín Reyes and Ernesto Sevilla hosted the awards ceremony. Nominat ...

Best Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

, Expediente La Película A.I.E., Apaches Entertainment , , rowspan="7" style="text-align:center;" , , - ,

, Paco Plaza , , - ,

Best Original Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story. Beginning with the ...

, Paco Plaza, Fernando Navarro , , - , Best Original Score , Eugenio Mira , , - , Best New Actress , Sandra Escacena , , - , Best Sound , Aitor Berenguer, Gabriel Gutiérrez, Nicolas de Poulpiquet , , - , Best Special Effects , Raúl Romanillos, David Heras , , - ,

27th Actors and Actresses Union Awards The 27th Actors and Actresses Union Awards were held on 12 March 2018 at the Circo Price in Madrid. The gala was hosted by . The nominations were announced on 13 February 2018. In addition to the competitive awards, (CIMA) received the '' award ...

, Best New Actress , Sandra Escacena , , style="text-align:center;" , , - ,

5th Platino Awards The 5th Platino Awards was presented at Gran Tlachco Theater in Riviera Maya, Mexico on April 29, 2018 to honour the best in Ibero-American films of 2017. The ceremony was televised in Latin America by TNT, and hosted by Mexican actor Eugenio Der ...

, Best Sound , Aitor Berenguer, Gabriel Gutiérrez, Nicolas de Poulpiquet , , style="text-align:center;" , , - , rowspan="2" , Turia Awards , Special Award , Paco Plaza , , rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;" , , - , Best New Actress , Sandra Escacena , , - , rowspan="2" , 2019 , CinEuphoria Awards , Best Sound/Sound Effects - International Competition , , , style="text-align:center;" , , - ,

Fangoria Chainsaw Awards The Fangoria Chainsaw Awards are an award ceremony focused on horror and thriller films. Beginning in 1992, the awards were expanded and an annual ceremony was inaugurated to give out the awards. As of 2015, Fangoria also delivers awards to tel ...

, Best Streaming Premiere Film , Paco Plaza , , style="text-align:center;" ,

Prequel

A prequel film titled ''

Sister Death ''Sister Death'' ( es, Hermana Muerte, links=no) is a 2023 Spanish supernatural horror film directed by Paco Plaza and written by Jorge Guerricaechevarría and Plaza which stars Aria Bedmar. A prequel to the 2017 film '' Verónica'', the plot fo ...

'' (), directed by Paco Plaza and starring Aria Bedmar, was released on Netflix in October 2023.

References

External links

*
The true story behind 'Veronica', the scariest movie of all time!
{{DEFAULTSORT:Veronica 2017 films 2017 horror films 2010s Spanish-language films Spanish supernatural horror films Demons in film Films set in 1991 Films set in 1996 Films set in Madrid Films shot in Madrid Films directed by Paco Plaza Horror films based on actual events Spanish films based on actual events Apache Films films 2010s Spanish films