Veronica (2017)

2017

Directed by Paco Plaza
Starring Sandra Escacena, Bruna Gonzalez, Claudia Placer, Ivan Chavero and Ana Torrent

It's pretty fitting that the final movie that I'm reviewing comes with Hype.  Capitalized because there was a lot of it.  It had been a LONG time since I heard about a movie strictly via word-of-mouth, with the kind of hushed tones usually reserved for kids telling other kids about how to summon the Candyman.  I heard about this flick from a small group of coworkers - none of which had seen the film, and all of them knew only the rumors.  That this was a movie that was, and I quote, "so scary that 99 out of 100 people can't finish watching it."  My response?  Bring it on, bitch.

Veronica is a movie that was actually released last summer in Spain, and took its native country by storm.  Slick and relatively big-budget considering the material we're dealing with, it didn't take long for the buzz to spread about it and for executives here in the States to take notice.  The most important executives to take notice, of course, are the ones who dole out big checks for the streaming rights.  Thus, if you've got Netflix, you've got access to this film, and that's where I saw it.  Remember back when I used to despise Netflix and swear that I would never, ever get it because it wasn't as pure as the virgin snow like the video stores of my youth?  Those were some good times here on the blog.  At any rate, this film got the Roman Reigns rocket push right out of the gate, and now a lot of people had seen it.  So what's it like?

Well, it's loosely based (and this is yet another example of a movie that uses the phrase "loosely based" as a cover for "pretty much entirely fictional in everything but theme") on a true story about a young girl in 1991 who mysteriously died after using a Ouija board.  In real life, she had a different name, but in the world of this film she is renamed Veronica.  The script gives us some nice early examples of "show, don't tell" as to why we should care about this character as we see her take care of her three younger siblings due to the fact that their father just passed away and the mother works long hours to pay the bills.  The character is admittedly very likable, and the actors playing the little kids (Bruna Gonzalez and Claudia Placer as twins Irene and Lucia, and Ivan Chavero as bed-wetting tyke Antonito) manage not to get too grating, a feat in and of itself when it comes to movies like this.

The plot kicks into gear in short order, with Veronica heading off to Catholic school where a solar eclipse is about to take place outside.  With everyone else on the roof doing their best not to look directly at the sun, Veronica and her friends take the opportunity to hold a Ouija seance in the creepy basement.  The goal: Contact Veronica's recently deceased father.  What actually happens: Something decidedly other than that, and I think you know where we're going from here.  Ruh-roh.  Also present in some of these early scenes is a blind nun character that everyone at the school refers to as "Sister Death," and her presence is admittedly a little unnerving the first few times you see her.  Undertaker-esque eyeballs tend to do that to the viewer.

Horror films that focus on Ouija boards and demonic phenomena are nothing new to fans here in the U.S., so it comes as no surprise as to what happens next.  Namely, a long slow burn section of the film where weird things begin happening to Veronica in and around the household.  There are two nightmare sequences that are played out in exquisite detail that are admittedly pretty bizarre, one where Veronica sees a vision of her father and the other where the younger kids, well, attempt to cannibalize her.  They were definitely prepared to go all the way with the weird in this movie, kids.  We also get some helpful exposition from Sister Blind Nun along the way to give us all of the information we need.  Namely, that Ouija boards are SRS, SRS, SRS business and that someone else now walks with Veronica. 

This all leads us to the epic finale sequence as Veronica attempts to shut the door on the demon with the help of her siblings.  I will give the movie some points here due to the fact that I actually cared about what was happening; all along the way, the script has done a good job showing us reasons why we should be invested in Veronica the person.  But I can't claim that I was biting my nails in tension as the battle with the demon plays out.  The emotional ending twist also fell flat for me, mainly because I thought I had seen the same bit done much better in Ju-On.  Now there's a blog callback that I haven't done in a long, long time.  I used to talk about those films a lot, didn't I?

To be fair, there was a lot to admire about this movie.  First and foremost is the performance of Sandra Escacena in the title role.  I've already given the screenplay its due as to taking its time and doing the work of getting you invested in this story, but it was still up to Escacena to pull it off, and she delivered.  Like a boss.  Watching her in this movie, I was reminded of how I felt about Lina Leandersson way back when I first saw Let the Right One In.  This young lady has a bright future, and let's hope that we get to see more of her.  From a film-making standpoint, this is also a pretty impressive little flick, as the directing, camera-work and atmosphere are all top notch.  In short, the movie looks great and it's competent in every way.

So why did I feel disappointed after watching it?  Well, I didn't find it scary.  At all.  Folks, let me tell you one of the great failings (and there are many) of Jon Lickness, horror movie ambassador to the world.  I've loaned out Sleepaway Camp to a few people, and with only one exception I promised them the most shocking ending in the history of cinema.  And in every case they gave the movie back to me stating that they saw it coming a mile away.  After all of those mistakes, I finally figured out that I was building the movie up too much, and eventually showed it to one friend blind.  And it ripped his face off just like it did with me.  Maybe if I'd seen this particular movie without all of that advance hype, I would have been a little more frightened by it.  But "the scariest movie ever?"  Yeah, not quite.  I was able to sleep like a baby immediately afterward.  Horror movies are the name of the game, and scary this movie is not.

With that, it's time to give out the final rating of my movie reviewing career: ** 1/2 out of ****.  I'm going out just like I came in - like an annoying contrarian.  So completes the month of May and the final series of recent movies that I wanted to cover before retirement, but we still have one month to go.  The next four posts are going to be special, as I prepare to wrap things up in a nice little bow for the few people who actually read these things.  Get ready...