(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“Madrid, 1991. A teen girl finds herself besieged by an evil supernatural force after she played Ouija with two classmates.”
I’ve often pointed out that – as a critic – one of the hardest genres to review for me is Horror.
Now, this isn’t because I dislike these films in any way. In fact, the exact opposite is true more often than not: I genuinely love the thrill, the artistry, and the performances that go into making a fabulous carnival ride. My issue is that I generally don’t find many of them truly scary. What frightens each of us varies greatly; and the films recommended to me as the best the genre has to offer by friends and family really span the spectrum from boring to epic. Yet … very, very, very few of them terrify me. Because I tend to gravitate more toward what’s cerebrally terrorizing as opposed to visual haunts, I just see many of these films differently. It’s not a complaint. I still like some. A few are highly recommended. Still … overall? Meh.
Consequently, I went into 2017’s Veronica expecting a great deal more than what the finished product even remotely delivered.
Again, please remember: this is not a complaint.
Technically, Veronica is about as good as anything I’ve had the good fortune to consider as a recommendation. The script works on more than one level; and the actors and actresses – some children figure prominently into the mix – are all quite good. The jump scares – what few there are – are also effective, as is the use of some greater visual trickery to weave a dark spectral entity into live action in ways surprising as well as chilling. Written (in part) and directed by Paco Plaza, the picture hits its notes much more strongly than it dishes out anything weak; and I find it unsurprising to learn that the flick has garnered a great deal of positive praise – even awards wins – during its initial release and continues to resonate with audiences today.
But … was it everything I had been led to believe?
Well … not really.
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“Madrid, 1991. A teen girl finds herself besieged by an evil supernatural force after she played Ouija with two classmates.”
I’ve often pointed out that – as a critic – one of the hardest genres to review for me is Horror.
Now, this isn’t because I dislike these films in any way. In fact, the exact opposite is true more often than not: I genuinely love the thrill, the artistry, and the performances that go into making a fabulous carnival ride. My issue is that I generally don’t find many of them truly scary. What frightens each of us varies greatly; and the films recommended to me as the best the genre has to offer by friends and family really span the spectrum from boring to epic. Yet … very, very, very few of them terrify me. Because I tend to gravitate more toward what’s cerebrally terrorizing as opposed to visual haunts, I just see many of these films differently. It’s not a complaint. I still like some. A few are highly recommended. Still … overall? Meh.
Consequently, I went into 2017’s Veronica expecting a great deal more than what the finished product even remotely delivered.
Again, please remember: this is not a complaint.
Technically, Veronica is about as good as anything I’ve had the good fortune to consider as a recommendation. The script works on more than one level; and the actors and actresses – some children figure prominently into the mix – are all quite good. The jump scares – what few there are – are also effective, as is the use of some greater visual trickery to weave a dark spectral entity into live action in ways surprising as well as chilling. Written (in part) and directed by Paco Plaza, the picture hits its notes much more strongly than it dishes out anything weak; and I find it unsurprising to learn that the flick has garnered a great deal of positive praise – even awards wins – during its initial release and continues to resonate with audiences today.
But … was it everything I had been led to believe?
Well … not really.
Again, I’m fully aware that this is one of those “it’s me, not you” moments. For viewers willing to risk the set-up and the pay-off from the script’s framework – it’s told as a flashback reveal, and I’m not a big supporter of those for Horror projects – it’ll likely tickle them bloody pink. The monster – the ghost? the spirit? the entity? – is interesting. But I’m of the mindset that I need to know a bit more in order to get fully invested. So sue me.
Veronica (played by Sandra Escacena) is your typical teenager. After her father died, Veronica finds herself forced by her mother Ana (Ana Torrent) to help out more around the apartment by watching her three siblings while the lady of the house goes to work. Such added responsibility on her shoulders means that the young woman isn’t the most popular with her teenage classmates; but she never allows herself to feel as if she’s missing anything she could do without. What she is lacking, regardless, is her absent father, a longing that eventually pushes her to purchase a Ouija board in order to conduct a séance for the purpose of checking in on dear old dad on the otherside.
What Veronica and her friends don’t consider, however, is an even greater danger: they’re holding their séance in the school basement while the rest of the student body is outside observing a solar eclipse. Anyone with a loose knowledge of the past knows that eclipses have historically been seen as momentous occasions wherein pagan societies would offer up sacrifices to the angry gods they believed to have stolen away their sun. Hoping to appease these celestial overlords, they’d ceremonially butcher their fellow men, women, and children to ward off bad luck, demonic attacks, or the end of existence itself. So it’s entirely understandable how a botched séance by a trio of uneducated teenagers might run the risk of swinging open some portal through which a hungry fiend might step; and that’s exactly the business of Veronica once she cuts her finger on a glass and drips fresh blood onto the board game.
This is where Plaza’s film excels. It visually establishes this event both in the eyes of these reckless teens as well as the Catholic school’s resident ‘creepy old nun’: dubbed ‘Sister Death’ (Consuelo Trujillo) by the insolent youths, Hermana Muerte is a force to be reckoned with all of her own. Legally blind, she ‘watches’ everything near and far with fixed, opaque eyes, always displaying that her ‘sight’ is in matters more of the spiritual world than of the flesh. Indeed, she plays an important role as the story unfold, even though some might suggest the character winds up being reduced to that somewhat stereotypical know-it-all storytellers wheel out when they’ve a bucket (or two) of exposition needing to be dumped on the audience.
But as I’ve said, Veronica – as a film – works exceedingly well because of Plaza’s expert direction. He rather eloquently sets this world in motion, giving it life and depth with some compelling visual strokes. It’s easy to accept that he’s at the helm, ushering his players through their paces; and he slowly builds an atmosphere of dread in creative yet small ways, only allowing the elements to flourish if and when its stylistically necessary. What you or I may see as nothing more than a spot on a mattress vividly becomes something much more dangerous as his command, and I can’t imagine this flick working in the same way with any other captain at the helm.
Veronica (played by Sandra Escacena) is your typical teenager. After her father died, Veronica finds herself forced by her mother Ana (Ana Torrent) to help out more around the apartment by watching her three siblings while the lady of the house goes to work. Such added responsibility on her shoulders means that the young woman isn’t the most popular with her teenage classmates; but she never allows herself to feel as if she’s missing anything she could do without. What she is lacking, regardless, is her absent father, a longing that eventually pushes her to purchase a Ouija board in order to conduct a séance for the purpose of checking in on dear old dad on the otherside.
What Veronica and her friends don’t consider, however, is an even greater danger: they’re holding their séance in the school basement while the rest of the student body is outside observing a solar eclipse. Anyone with a loose knowledge of the past knows that eclipses have historically been seen as momentous occasions wherein pagan societies would offer up sacrifices to the angry gods they believed to have stolen away their sun. Hoping to appease these celestial overlords, they’d ceremonially butcher their fellow men, women, and children to ward off bad luck, demonic attacks, or the end of existence itself. So it’s entirely understandable how a botched séance by a trio of uneducated teenagers might run the risk of swinging open some portal through which a hungry fiend might step; and that’s exactly the business of Veronica once she cuts her finger on a glass and drips fresh blood onto the board game.
This is where Plaza’s film excels. It visually establishes this event both in the eyes of these reckless teens as well as the Catholic school’s resident ‘creepy old nun’: dubbed ‘Sister Death’ (Consuelo Trujillo) by the insolent youths, Hermana Muerte is a force to be reckoned with all of her own. Legally blind, she ‘watches’ everything near and far with fixed, opaque eyes, always displaying that her ‘sight’ is in matters more of the spiritual world than of the flesh. Indeed, she plays an important role as the story unfold, even though some might suggest the character winds up being reduced to that somewhat stereotypical know-it-all storytellers wheel out when they’ve a bucket (or two) of exposition needing to be dumped on the audience.
But as I’ve said, Veronica – as a film – works exceedingly well because of Plaza’s expert direction. He rather eloquently sets this world in motion, giving it life and depth with some compelling visual strokes. It’s easy to accept that he’s at the helm, ushering his players through their paces; and he slowly builds an atmosphere of dread in creative yet small ways, only allowing the elements to flourish if and when its stylistically necessary. What you or I may see as nothing more than a spot on a mattress vividly becomes something much more dangerous as his command, and I can’t imagine this flick working in the same way with any other captain at the helm.
Additionally, Plaza’s casting choices work in tandem with the kinda/sorta blue collar mystique at play throughout the procedure. Directors like Steven Spielberg and Guillermo del Toro would likely have hired almost annoyingly photogenic children to fill out these big roles as the bulk of the running time is spent with these youngsters. While certainly not unattractive, there’s a plainness to Escacena and her screen siblings – Lucía (Bruna González), Irene (Claudia Placer), and Antoñito (Iván Chavero) – which helps to clarify that these are not big movie stars but ordinary people who find themselves victims of extraordinary circumstance. Because they look like any one of us (everymen, if you will), it’s easier to invest in their fates – individually and as a family unit – when the madness begins to ratchet itself higher and higher.
Still, Veronica was a bit overwrought in some places. Its 105-minute running time feels a bit leaden in spots, and Plaza invests entirely too much energy in keeping the pace sedate – too much so – as narrative counterpoints to the manic ghost-fueled frenzies which build toward the climax. A bit of trimming could easily have elevated an already great picture, getting audiences deeper into the exploding mania that was promised in the flick’s opening set-up (remember: this is a flashback). Also, it doesn’t help the fact that this is a story we’ve likely all seen before – meaning this isn’t the first time teenagers have done something lamebrained spectrally and then had to go about the business of repairing the fabric of reality – so such suggested edits would’ve delivered the thrills and chills a bit more quickly than the director chose.
Recommended.
To be blunt, Veronica (2017) isn’t exactly the highpoint of terror that a great many online have opined that it is. While the picture rather efficiently sets up this limited universe and the terrors unleashed by an otherwise innocent young woman, director Plaza and his cast and crew takes their sweet time positioning small payoffs along the way to a big finish; and it’s safe to suggest that the end result drags unnecessarily in sequences a bit bloated. Still, it’s refreshing to see everyone truly ‘go for broke’ when the moment requires it; and it’s in these bits and pieces that Veronica offers the best reason to be patient: cautionary and nightmarish, it’s a spell worth being spun.
In the interests of fairness, I’m beholden to no one for this review of Veronica (2017) as I viewed it as part of my very own subscription to Netflix.
-- EZ
Still, Veronica was a bit overwrought in some places. Its 105-minute running time feels a bit leaden in spots, and Plaza invests entirely too much energy in keeping the pace sedate – too much so – as narrative counterpoints to the manic ghost-fueled frenzies which build toward the climax. A bit of trimming could easily have elevated an already great picture, getting audiences deeper into the exploding mania that was promised in the flick’s opening set-up (remember: this is a flashback). Also, it doesn’t help the fact that this is a story we’ve likely all seen before – meaning this isn’t the first time teenagers have done something lamebrained spectrally and then had to go about the business of repairing the fabric of reality – so such suggested edits would’ve delivered the thrills and chills a bit more quickly than the director chose.
Recommended.
To be blunt, Veronica (2017) isn’t exactly the highpoint of terror that a great many online have opined that it is. While the picture rather efficiently sets up this limited universe and the terrors unleashed by an otherwise innocent young woman, director Plaza and his cast and crew takes their sweet time positioning small payoffs along the way to a big finish; and it’s safe to suggest that the end result drags unnecessarily in sequences a bit bloated. Still, it’s refreshing to see everyone truly ‘go for broke’ when the moment requires it; and it’s in these bits and pieces that Veronica offers the best reason to be patient: cautionary and nightmarish, it’s a spell worth being spun.
In the interests of fairness, I’m beholden to no one for this review of Veronica (2017) as I viewed it as part of my very own subscription to Netflix.
-- EZ
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