Day 86 - Verónica



Day 86            Verónica [2017]
                          
Screenplay                    Fernando Navarro & Paco Plaza
Director                         Paco Plaza
Cinematography            Pablo Rosso
Music                            Chucky Namanera
Leads                            Sandra Escacena, Iván Chavero, Claudia Placer, Bruna González, Ana Torrent, Consuelo Trujillo
Production                     Apaches Entertainment, Expediente La Película A.I.E., Film Factory

IMDb                                6.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes                88%

Surprisingly this is the first horror film to make it onto the blog (Gerald’s Game wasn’t all that scary). Usually I find trailers are more horrifying than the films they promote, but this film has had quite a lot of press, so I thought I’d give it a watch. Luckily in the company of a few friends. You are crazy if you watch horror films on your own, that’s a fact. This wasn’t anything special and I think if it had been in English, rather than Spanish, it would have been exposed as even worse. It suffered from the old problem of seeing the scary thing too early on. Once you’ve seen it, it’s no longer as scary. Thems are just the rules. I have got to give it some praise however as the acting was pretty impressive from such a young cast. Verónica (Escacena) and her young siblings were all brilliant and the younger ones were making me laugh more than they made me scared. I’m sure this was to lull us into a false sense of security, but it had the opposite effect. I should mention it is loosely based on a true story, which instantly doubles it’s scare factor, however without those extra points it is just another film about possession. I think I’m being a little unfair as the ending is believable in a way, and the ending of a horror film is what sets it apart from other horrors. For example, The Babadook is an excellent horror movie because the ending is open to interpretation, and one of these interpretations is not supernatural. I think with the true story behind it, Plaza has fucked up. It is close to being more than just an easy horror to put on for some cheap scares, but in the end that is all it was for me.

Acting                            3 / 4
Writing                           2 / 4
Cinematography             3 / 4
Music                             2 / 4
HWF rating                2 / 4