Horrific Inquiry: VERÓNICA (2017)

Welcome back to the scariest, and at times goriest, column here at Film Inquiry: Horrific Inquiry. Twice a month, I will be tackling all things horror, bringing two films back into the spotlight to terrify and frighten once more. And occasionally looking at those that could have pushed the envelope further. Join us as we dive deep into the heart of horror, but warning, there will be spoilers.

“No one escapes the consequences of passing the limits that divide reality from fantasy” – Verónica

Demonic possessions, Ouija boards, and hauntings are far from new to the horror genre. Paco Plaza’s Verónica is the latest to enter the fold, bringing the carelessness of youth and the demonic spirit together within the heart of horror. Yet, it is not just the terror within the deeply contrasted and shadowy spirit lurking around every corner that brings Verónica its success. Rather, it is its quiet examination of loneliness and resentment that reverberates through its core, elevating each horror trope it embraces while inviting an essence all its own.

High Anxiety

Verónica is immediately captivating with the subtitles of a 911 call cutting through the darkness. “Help! He’s inside” a terrified voice cries out, the operator attempting to not only calm the individual on the other line, but ascertain their whereabouts to dispatch help. As the call continues, viewers watch as police race to the scene, the time it takes for them to arrive and get into the apartment feeling more painfully drawn out as the call continues, with the film alternating between the black screen and first responders’ arrival. As the call disconnects, it does not lose its audience, the camera following the detective and his team as they cautiously walk through the apartment, both first responder and audience taking in the chaotic scene of the home for the first time. As the detective approaches a room in the back of the apartment, we are left with his horrified and grotesque facial expression, the pain and agony displayed speaking to the horrors he has found behind the door. Yet, while as an audience we walked toe in toe with police, it is here we become detached, thrown back in time to where it all began.

As the opening scene ends, Verónica jumps back to June 12, 1991, just days before what will become the film’s climatic end. As we understand, the events that are to play out before us are based on true events and are derived from the actual police report from the responding officers and detectives. With the clock ticking, the film begins to circle back. The mood shifts as well, and the early character development of Verónica and her siblings is just as demanding of its audience’s attention as its opening sequence. There is a lot to unpack early on that Verónica spends its entirety building on.

We are quickly introduced to Verónica (Sandra Escacena), the eldest of her siblings and seemingly their primary caretaker. As the film reveals, their mother Ana (Ana Torrent) works long and hard hours at a local restaurant down the street, leaving Verónica to care for her sisters and brother before and after school. As we watch her wake them for the day, coordinate breakfast and showers, handle chores, and even gather supplies for the day’s school projects, viewers not only understand her deeply invested role within the family structure but how the ease at which she executes stands as proof she has been the caretaker for some time.

Verónica is not afraid to embrace the family structure and the supernatural early on, the upcoming eclipse that day is surrounded by legends of human sacrifice and the evil that arises in the darkness of the moon. Each of these elements heightens the strength behind the reveal that Verónica and her friends Rosa (Angela Fabián) and Diana (Carla Campra) have snuck into the basement of the school to mess around with an Ouija board. There is quiet desperation within Verónica that Escacena executes with perfection. She never says it aloud, but there is a yearning that reads all over Verónica of longing for her father. As she and her friends attempt to communicate with the dead, the eclipse shrouding the town in darkness, Verónica is about to discover that something truly does lurk in the shadows.

The Unseen Resentment and Loneliness

Verónica has a playful nature to its horror, always winking at its audience while fully present and aware of the journey it is taking us on. While the eclipse is the launching point, its iris of sunlight reflected in Verónica’s iris of the flashlight and the school’s projector, the film becomes all about the unseen. While it is clearly the shadows that haunt Verónica and the blinded Sister of Death (Consuelo Trujillo), it is the unseen, rather the unacknowledged that grows and takes center stage.

Early on in the film, as I watched Verónica caring for her siblings, there was a reverberating feeling of both loneliness and resentment. I was curious to see if this theme would carry through the film. And while this does lend Verónica predictability, the pieces it continues to lay after its opening introduction of characters infuses its deeper themes and its true version of the unseen.

As the film progresses and you reach its conclusion, Verónica embraces the unseen, proving the depth of Verónica’s loneliness and resentment of her younger siblings. As she comes to the understanding that she is the shadow that lurks throughout the home, the horror becomes not only the emotional trauma and pain of being forced to lose her formative years to the care of her siblings but the expectation of her to make this sacrifice wholeheartedly and alone.

Yet, while Verónica reached into the darkness of the eclipse and the spirit world, it is the passing shadow of the moon that shines a light on the truth – that no matter the feeling of resentment and loneliness she has, Verónica loves and would do anything to protect her siblings.

Conclusion

Verónica is the perfect example of a horror vehicle reaching into the depths of the human emotions many have so desperately fought. It infuses its central character of Verónica with both humanities as well as imperfection, embracing both sides of her desires and commitments. And even with its layers of predictability, Verónica will keep you at the edge of your seat until its final moments.

Have you seen Verónica? What did you think? Let us know in the comments below!

Verónica is now available to stream on Netflix.

Watch Verónica