Verónica (2017)
October 29, 2018 6:32 AM - Subscribe

Madrid, June 1991. Verónica has taken care of her little brother and sister since the death of their father. One day during a total eclipse of the sun, Veronica and two friends decide to use a Ouija board to invoke her father's spirit. Bad things happen.
posted by DirtyOldTown (6 comments total)
 
The acting is really great in this film, particularly the two younger sisters. Also I really want a spinoff starring the blind, chain-smoking nun.
posted by orrnyereg at 9:17 AM on October 29, 2018 [1 favorite]


I'm glad I stuck with this. Because while the eclipse wrinkle was neat, the actual girls-having-a-seance-that-goes-wrong setup was so done to death, I nearly quit early. Once you get past that though, there is a lot to like.

The child actors are remarkably non-actorly. In particular, Verónica looks like a regular kid: awkward, braces, spotty skin, etc. She's a terrific young actor and she does a great job at portraying Vero's predicament: caught in something worse than she can control with no one to count on or call on.

And yeah, the nun is awesome.

Zombie parents emerge to threaten young people in movies all the time. But a dead parent appearing in your bedroom naked, bellowing your name nonsensically? Holy shit, that is so much worse.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:32 PM on October 29, 2018 [1 favorite]


And I love the shot where she walks out of bed upright and the room shifts 90 degrees to meet her.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:33 PM on October 29, 2018 [1 favorite]


I was disappointed by this film, but I blame the hype for that. If I had just watched it without hearing how it was SO SCARY, I think I would have appreciated it far more.

But yeah the nun is my favorite part.
posted by miss-lapin at 4:09 PM on October 29, 2018


The creepiness was all top notch. (The apparition in the bedroom, the visual distortions, the shifts in perspective and subsequent revelations, etc.) I particularly enjoyed the suggestion that the entity was, in some way, the ancient sun god demanding its due sacrifice, rather than just the generic satanic bugaboo.

Mother Night hovered right in the border zone of "over the top" and "precisely over the top enough." I appreciated that she was pragmatic and cynical rather than just being the standard-issue creepy doomsayer. Most of the movie's strengths, I think, came from this sort of layering-on of depth and realistic character notes over the very basic haunted-Ouija plot without trying to bolt on some sort of new mythos or other gimmick.

I did not care for the coda with the police officer; it felt unnecessary and generally sapped the energy from the film right as it was making a final impression.
posted by Scattercat at 6:52 PM on October 29, 2018 [1 favorite]




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