Hey guys!
Today I just want to talk to you about a great horror film that I saw this weekend on Netflix. I had heard a lot of good comments about it so I decided to watch it on Saturday night (alone in the house, otherwise it is not funny!). And indeed, it was a quite good movie. I'm talking about "Veronica"! In Belgium, it is available on Netflix.
"Veronica" is a horror film created by Paco Plaza, released in 2017. Maybe you already know Paco Plaza because he realized some other great horror movies, like REC and the Blair Witch Project! For that time, he lets away the found footage, which I totally dislike, so one good point for him. It has received great critics on the Internet and on magazines. It lasts for 110 minutes and it keeps great suspense from the beginning to the end. It has no well-known actors (it seems to me), but the actors did a great job on that movie. And in this type of movie, I am always wondering about how actors make such scenes (like in the tremblings, the convulsions,...)! You can easily put yourself in her position (like in that movie it seems that what is happening to her can happen to anybody).
It is the story of a high-school girl who lives with her mother and her 3 brothers and sisters in a medium flat. Her mother tries to make enough money for a living and works in a great part of the day, so Veronica has to raise her brothers and sisters like she was their mother. By a day of solar eclipse, the girl sneaks with her two school friends in the cellar of his school to begin a séance. She has a goal in mind: contact her deceased father. But as you can easily imagine in this type of movie, it is not her father who will answer... To not spoil you I let you discover the continuation of this movie!
A horror film based on a true story?
"Veronica" is not a horror movie like the others horror movies, and something add some terrifying facts about this story: apparently, the story of Veronica is a true-story based movie! It is based on the "Vallecas" case, a well-known case in Spain. In 1990, Estefania Gutierrez, 18-year-old, makes a session of Ouija (an activity that she practices regularly), but she is abruptly interrupted by some strange events.
During the following weeks, the young girl felt pursued by sorts of dark and hungry creatures. Then the teenager began to have impressive nervous breakdowns as well as convulsing. After that, she is placed in some psychiatric hospitals but nothing can solve her issue. She will die after sinking into a profound coma. Even after her death, some strange and supernatural events keep happening in her apartment.
I think that even you do not believe in paranormal events, the movie "Veronica" can make you at least think twice about your thoughts about paranormal, especially when you know that this is a case acknowledged by the Spanish police! It is the only paranormal case officially recognized by the Spanish police. It makes this movie more and more realistic and frightening!
My opinion
I did not think that it was THE horror film of the year, but it still has some great potential. However I think this is really a question of taste in horror movies: I don't like horror movies with a lot of (useless) blood, horror movies where you see "what is scaring" directly in the film (for example, the new version of "It", but there is an exception for "The Grudge") and that nothing else really frightening happens in the rest of the movie. Like I already said, "found footage" movies (a movie shot with a hand-held camera) are not in my tastes either. Here, you don't really see what is endangering Veronica, so for me, it was another good point!
The horror elements are put piece by piece through the movie, and you still have break moments where you can open your eyes without waiting for the worse to happen. It is really a successful and well-done movie!