A few days ago I saw several news stories hyping the film Veronica, which is currently available on Netflix. According to the (most likely "sponsored")articles that I read, this was the most terrifying movie available on the service. Some of these reviews claimed that the film was so scary that "people are shutting it off half-way through." This caught my attention because I can easily think of lots of reasons for turning off a movie and none of them have anything to do with how scary it is. Needless to say, I was curious to see if this was deceptive marketing for another terrible movie or if Veronica is a legitimately good horror film.
The answer is more complicated than the "either or" question is equipped to address. I did not find that the movie was particularly scary but I am usually pretty stone faced when I watch these types of films. The story is predictable and pretty much standard as far as Demonic Horror goes. A girl plays with a Ouija board, accidentally summons a demon, spends the rest of the movie trying to send it back, fails, and dies. This is a worn out story if you ask me. I can, off the top of my head, name several other movies that have used this same premise (which really needs to be retired). I don't want to go off on a rant here but the whole Ouija board thing isn't scary because things made by Parker Bros. aren't magic or evil. I don't have nightmares about the Monopoly guy and I am not frightened by Ouija boards either. I would give a more detailed description of the film but it is unnecessary because it is exactly what one would expect.
Despite its lazy story, Veronica does have some likable stuff in it. It does have some great and rather disturbing visuals and some of them are extreme enough that I applaud the film makers for having the balls to use them. The appearance of the demon and the ways it attacks look great. I would describe it as a being made of the absence of light and it looks pretty cool. It attacks out of nowhere shoving its hand out of a mattress or from under the covers and it makes for some unnerving visuals. One scene, in particular, stuck with me and I suspect that this is the scene that caused people to turn the movie off. At one point, Veronica awakens to find her younger siblings ripping pieces of her flesh off with their teeth while gleefully laughing with blood running out of their mouths. The scene is very graphic and I really appreciate that it was not watered down to achieve a lower rating.
The music in the film is really bad. The licensed music is fine but the original score sounds like something out of an old episode of Tales From the Crypt or Goosebumps. One could argue that this is because the movie is set in the 1990's but that is a poor excuse. Movies had good music in the 1990's so I don't think that holds water. It is a shame too because good music would have really classed up the film and might have earned it some extra positive points.
The acting seemed fine. However, the film is in Spanish and I don't know enough to watch it without subtitles so I really can't say how well the lines are delivered.
The writing is okay, for what it is anyway, but it does have some holes. Veronica has evidence of what is happening but doesn't use it of convince anyone of what is going on. There are people who can help her, but she doesn't persist in gaining their assistance and so on. It isn't the worst but it is far from the best.
Overall, I can't say that I hate the movie. Veronica has some problems and it is not the terrifying experience that other reviewers have claimed it to be. That being said though, I think it is worth watching once if you like this type of horror film and I would say that it is far more enjoyable than the PG 13 garbage we see every year. If it sounds like something you are interested in, give it a watch.
*Images in this post are screen captures from the film or were sourced from its promotional material.