Hola horror genre, adios sleep schedule

I am not usually a horror movie person, so when my best friend and I sat down to watch Veronica while we teased “I’m not scared, you’re scared,” we had no idea what were in for. We had heard that this movie was the scariest movie on Netflix, and we thought that maybe it wouldn’t be that bad. We were wrong. The movie is in Spanish, which would typically dissuade me it but, do not let that stop you from watching. Horror is a universal language that is fluently spoken throughout this movie.

The movie follows the story of Veronica, a young school girl who uses a Ouija board and accidentally finds herself haunted by an evil force. As far as plots go, this movie is pretty cut and dry as a standard ghost story. This is understandable, as the movie is actually based on a true story—a fact that does little to help me sleep at night. The story is one of the major things that holds the movie back. However, the performances in this film shine through.

The cast of Veronica is a very talented group that I may never have heard of had I not seen this movie. The main actress, Sandra Escacena, is an absolute star throughout the film, despite this being her first major film. Escacena even won the CEC Award for best new actress for this movie. The real feeling of horror comes from the subtlety of Paco Plaza and his team of writers. Paco Plaza is a decorated horror veteran who has, over the course of his career, won 18 awards and been nominated for 19 more. Plaza is the director of the REC series, a trio of found footage horror movies that have been terrifying people since 2007.

This movie is scary, not because of the special effects, gore, or even the jump scares, but because the fear seems to sink in from the first few moments of the movie, and sits there until hours after the credits roll. This movie had me guessing at every shadow and running from every sound and carried through the night as I walked around my own house. While I can’t necessarily endorse this movie as being the scariest movie on Netflix, because I have seen movies that were maybe slightly scarier, this movie is absolutely terrifying; I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good scare every now and then.

8.5/10 — “Solid horror flick with impressive acting, despite a fairly basic story.”