VERONICA: A Typical Demonic Possession Film With A Surprising Heart

VERONICA: A Typical Demonic Possession Film with a Surprising Heart

From Paco Plaza, the same director as the zombie found footage film REC, I had high hopes for Veronica. Partly based on the real life case of Estefanía Gutiérrez Lázaro, the film imagines what might have happened to the girl after she had used a Ouija board and before her mysterious death.

Here named Veronica, the film focuses in on the girl’s day-to-day routine and her experiences after becoming possessed. Plaza clearly has interest in the material and the character’s backstory; the supernatural events, though, suffer from an all-in approach, becoming excessive too quickly and causing the film to lose its ability to properly scare. Yet, there is still enough here to allow Veronica to standout amongst this sometimes overcooked subgenre of horror.

Supernatural possession

Veronica (Sandra Escacena) is a 15-year-old girl with an atypical life. With the recent death of her father and a mother who works long hours, she is forced to daily take care of her three young siblings. She also has an interest in the supernatural, and with a book on the occult and a genuine Ouija board, she partakes in a seance with two friends in an attempt to contact her father.

VERONICA: A Typical Demonic Possession Film with a Surprising Heart
source: Film Factory Entertainment

Taking place during an eclipse, this initial sequence is one of the more effective throughout the film, with the film’s editing building suspense by frantically jumping between the eclipse itself and the three girls using the Ouija board, with the eclipse having been described earlier as having some supernatural influences. What follows from this, as to be expected, is an evil entity that emerges from the board, which attaches itself to Veronica and soon makes itself known.

It is here, though, that Plaza‘s film starts to lose its touch. The buildup to each of its scares is often gripping, with low-key lighting and slow camera pans building tension, but this atmospheric tone is soon shattered once we are presented with the sights themselves. The monster appears as a featureless creature that, since it is displayed full-on almost immediately, does not really seem scary at all, as it simply looks like an actor in a dark suit. Plaza‘s over-the-top approach might have worked with his past film REC, but here, seeing less would have been more effective given the monster’s lack of frightening qualities.

VERONICA: A Typical Demonic Possession Film with a Surprising Heart
source: Film Factory Entertainment

Jumpscares also become quite rampant in Veronica, especially with the film’s use of the “nightmare as reality” trope, where Veronica rises in a frenzy from a dream that may or may not have been real. An example is at one point when she “wakes” to see her siblings hiding in the closet, and suddenly is held down by multiple slithery hands that emerge from her bed, before actually waking up in a sweat.

Seeing things go bump in the night does hit at inborn scares, but with something so unbelievably over-the-top such as this moment, my sense of disbelief comes right back to center. Thankfully, the score of Veronica by Chucky Namanera does tend to remain more nuanced, using strange whistling sounds and noises as opposed to cranking the volume up to alert when you should be scared.

Symbolic scares

Demonic possession films are notably common in Hollywood, seen in some recent entries such as The Conjuring series. These films attempt to get at the core of what makes possession so frightening: the loss of control and identity as a result of this supernatural being taking over one’s body. But what they often miss out on is aligning the possession scares with the actual characters’ fears.

VERONICA: A Typical Demonic Possession Film with a Surprising Heart
source: Film Factory Entertainment

What differs in Veronica is the intense focus on the titular character, displaying the motherly responsibilities that she has had to pick up as a result of her parents being absent and as the oldest kid in her family. Sandra Escacena, who plays Veronica, approaches this with relatability, showing the angst that results from not only being an average 15-year-old girl, but also having to be an adult beyond her years. Her performance takes the character from just being a scream queen to actually having a great deal of heart.

Plaza is also able to get believable performances out of the primarily younger cast, including Claudia Placer and Bruna González as Veronica’s sisters, and first-time performer Iván Chavero as her youngest brother Antoñito. It’s an admirable feat considering the cast’s lack of experience, and Escanena‘s interactions with her younger siblings on screen is sensitively portrayed, providing some of the finer character moments of the film.

The demonic possession, though not particularly scary on its own, feels more pertinent when you recognize the moments when it starts to take hold. It soon resembles Veronica’s loss of control over her life, since she feels as if she has no choice but to care for her younger siblings. Plaza‘s ability to make you sympathetic to Veronica’s situation is at least part of what makes the film work as well as it does, giving it a humanity that is little-seen in this subgenre of horror.

Conclusion: Veronica

Despite a tendency to overdo it when it comes to the scares themselves, Paco Plaza‘s Veronica contains enough focus on character and symbolism to be an effective possession horror. It’s a film that both satisfies and frustrates at individual moments, but as a whole is still worth your time.

What are your thoughts on Veronica? Do you think demonic possession films have been overdone in recent years? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!

Veronica is now available on Netflix. 

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