Some of you may recall the strange marketing of the 2017 Spanish horror film Veronica which declared it to be “the scariest movie on Netflix,” obviously an enormous claim considering we were in the middle of a decade-long renaissance of horror begun by the now-uncontested classic The Conjuring (and some may argue it began earlier, with Insidious). I consider myself incredibly difficult to scare so on a weekend with not much else going on and spooky season in full effect, I decided to let Veronica try its best to give me the chills. The result? An unexpectedly refreshing Spanish-language film with all the trappings (Ouija board, dark shadows, creepy nuns) that was built on a foundation of fear and supported several interpretations as disturbing to consider as the main surface narrative.
Veronica is a fifteen-year-old living in Madrid in 1991, the eldest of four siblings. Their father has recently passed and their mother works long hours at a nearby bar to support them. Because of this, Veronica has become a de facto mother, getting her young siblings up and dressed and fed each morning before walking them all to the Catholic school they attend. On this particular day there is to be a solar eclipse, which the whole school is preparing for and will watch from the rooftop; but Veronica and her two friends have other plans, sneaking down into the basement to hold a seance with a Ouija board in the hopes of making connection with Veronica’s deceased father.
As you probably guessed, it goes awry. They make a connection, alright, but with what? The shot glass the girls use as a planchette plants itself over the image of an ancient sun in the middle of the board and grows hot; only Veronica can keep her fingers on it. As the eclipse above them totalizes, the glass shatters, cutting her; blood drips onto the sun image as a nice, neat sacrifice to whatever has been summoned. Her father? A demon? Veronica falls back onto the floor in a trance, whispering words that terrify her friend Rosa, and then as the eclipse completes, she raises up from the floor with a horrifying shriek.
After a stint in the nurse’s office, Veronica gathers her siblings and walks them home, where the evening rituals of dinner and bathtime begin. Only now, something has been awakened, and Veronica spends the next couple of days fighting back a presence that encroaches into their home with greater and greater urgency until she is desperate to undo whatever went wrong at the basement seance. Objects move on their own; a dark figure lurks behind interior frosted-glass walls; paper ignites for no reason; and Rosa, Veronica’s best friend, won’t talk to her anymore - whatever Veronica whispered in those moments after the seance (a prophecy? a threat? a promise?), it was enough to scare Rosa completely away.
As we near the movie’s climax, Veronica realizes that she “must make right what went wrong” - the girls never completed their Ouija session by telling the board “goodbye.” Now a pariah to her friends, she has no choice but to observe the ritual with her younger siblings, twins Irene and Lucia and little Antonito. The spirit, however, is reticent to leave despite their efforts, and as Veronica comes closer than ever before to contact with the dark, almost alien-like creature that has been stalking them, she begins to understand that what she believed she had summoned was actually inside of her all along. We see a quick montage of the ways she had tried to protect her siblings and how in reality, she was the one placing them in harm’s way. With this heartbreaking realization, Veronica remedies the situation by slitting her throat.
The only problem is, the creature is real, and in the next instant we see it reaching its hand down her throat and choking the life out of her.
This brief synopsis gets us ready to explore the deeper themes of the movie, of which there are several; a basic, surface narrative viewing of the movie may leave you satisfied that you watched a competent, trendy horror film but not much else. So the first thing we need to do is see the chain of events through the lens of a dark family secret.
* * * *
The movie opens on the morning of the solar eclipse, and shows Veronica getting her siblings ready for school while their mother sleeps after a long night shift. The school has instructed the students to bring old film negatives through which to view the eclipse, and Veronica goes into the master bedroom to the closet to find some for her siblings. In a particular shoebox is a photo of their recently deceased father (we don’t know how recent), and he’s holding up a giant pan of pizza with lots of yellow toppings. She takes this photo as well, for she’ll need it for her planned seance.
In class, Veronica’s teacher is discussing the history of the significance of eclipses in various cultures. “Superstition has given many explanations for eclipses...Primitive cultures believed that the sky reflected what happened on earth. So they believed that during eclipses, darkness reigned over light.” In a moment of foreshadowing, when the class stands up to leave to go view the event, Veronica moves into the path of the slide projector and the image of the eclipse is projected directly onto her shirt for a moment before fading.
What happens during an eclipse? From our perspective down here, the moon passes over the sun, blocking it out and darkening the skies, and casting its own shadow (the “penumbra”) onto the earth. So much time is given to the importance of this event in the film that we can assuredly see it as a metaphor for the performance of evil deeds, or the initiation of a series of them.
As Veronica’s teacher tells them, “It's interesting because it's subjective. It depends on the subject looking at it.” She says it will look different in Barcelona and Paris and Madrid. And surely, once we start digging into the unexplained history of the four children and what may or may not have happened before their father’s death, perspective is everything.
For one thing, their mother Ana can represent being blind to what is happening in the house. When we first see her, she is sleeping with a black sleep mask on to block out the light of day because she worked so late. She is never home when the frightening occurrences take place and she doesn’t believe Veronica when her daughter finally tries to tell her something is happening to them. Ana has an interesting parallel in the old nun that creeps around the school - the students call her “Mama Muerte,” or Mother Death, and she is blind. Another mother who cannot see - or can she? (Note that the subtitles, and the subsequent sequel, translate her name into English as Sister Death unfortunately)
When Veronica collects her siblings to go home after leaving the nurse’s office, the twins Lucia and Irene complain, “You missed the eclipse. The sun was totally dark. Why weren’t you there?” If the eclipse represents an event of child abuse, we can hear clearly the twins’ upset that Veronica, the oldest, did not protect them; or perhaps did not protect Antonito, the smallest, who wets the bed throughout the course of the film which we can interpret quite easily as an indicator of lingering anxiety and trauma.
Veronica tells the twins not to let their mother know she missed it, to “zip your lips,” and then the girls begin reciting a “zip the lips” chant that they clearly have memorized and have used in the past to help keep secrets, and not just in a fun sibling way.
How else can we know that their father abused them? Remember that the photo Veronica chose for the seance was of her father holding up a giant round pizza pan - to me, as I watched through the abuse lens, representing the sun. “The sun was totally dark. Why weren’t you there?”
(If Papa is the sun, who is the moon? Who is the Earth? We’ll get to that)
In a scene during the escalation of events towards the middle of the movie, Veronica is in her bedroom and sees the ghost of her father come out of the shadows and walk slowly toward her; the issue is, he’s totally naked - and quietly saying her name over and over. This turns out to be a dream, but we generally ask ourselves at this point, what ghost shows up naked?? Her reaction is odd as well - she seems completely surprised to see him (not scared, not disgusted) and asks, “Papa?” as though he might explain to her what’s going on. As a dream, it could be a remembrance of her walking in on something.
The strange events in the house point in all directions: the bag with the Ouija board inside falls off the cupboard on its own twice; the Simon toy beeps on its own; walki-talkies crackle when everyone is asleep and the television turns on by itself - are they being haunted? We see the shape of a dark, alien-like creature in the reflection of the TV when Veronica turns it off, and we see it again stalking through the house several times - is it aliens? Veronica has a frightening experience with the Ouija board at school and then when using it with her siblings toward the end of the film, all hell breaks loose - is it demons?
In the abuse framing I see that what Veronica has summoned with the Ouija board is her own guilt. As creatures lurk and bath water boils, she tries desperately to keep her younger siblings safe from the encroaching evil, in the way that perhaps she did not when she first understood what their father was doing. She even tries to tell her mother who, remember, is overworked and metaphorically blind:
Ana: Your sisters are little and they've got a huge imagination. Don't give them weird ideas because then they can't sleep.
Veronica: How do you know? You're never home! You don't know what goes on here.
Ana: So what goes on here?
Veronica: He wants to hurt us!
Ana: Who?
Veronica: [is reticent to describe the creature]
When going to retrieve the photo of her father from the school basement she runs into Mama Muerte, who does not need eyes to see and warns her after the fact about communing with the other world:
Mama Muerte: What you did here is really dangerous.
Veronica: I just wanted to talk to my Dad.
Mama Muerte: It's not who you want to talk to. It's who you talk to.
Veronica: If it wasn't him, who was it?
After the second Ouija session goes horribly wrong, putting her siblings in danger again and exposing them (but especially Antonito) to the dark spirit that roams that apartment, Veronica remembers this conversation and realizes: “Soy yo.” Which is Spanish for, “It is me.” Essentially the original Ouija session, conducted by the dark light of a solar eclipse, released the energy of Veronica’s guilt over not protecting her sisters and brother, setting in motion a chain of events that would lead to her self-sacrifice as penance.
But could there be more to it?
Perhaps Veronica’s guilt is far greater and deeper than we understand. Perhaps it is not that she failed to protect her siblings from their predatory father.
Perhaps she killed him to make it stop.
* * * *
If Papa is the sun in the eclipse equation, we can tag the abuse as the moon - casting its shadow on the Earth, represented by Irene, Lucia and Antonito. The moon, however, called up the wolf - Veronica.
There is a running wolf motif throughout the film, seen in a hallway painting, seen on the black T-shirt Veronica wears in the third act, and seen literally as a hand choking one of the twins briefly (which, it turns out, was merely Veronica’s hand). In one scene there is a book on Antonito’s floor which we probably aren’t really meant to notice, but which is called “La nina con animales adentro,” or, The Girl With Animals Inside of Her.
Veronica’s teacher helpfully gives additional context for the events of the film by speaking one day in class of Becquer’s Legends, which utilize the well-known Adam and Eve trope of “a character [who warns] the protagonist about a prohibition, and then this main character would cross the allowed limit and suffer punishment for their infraction.” We can see this easily as perhaps Veronica confronting her father first, and then going through with her threat. The teacher continues, “In ‘The Kiss,’ Lope de Ayala attacks his captain for profaning the statue of Dona Elvira. In short, no one escapes the consequences of passing the limit that divides reality from fantasy.”
Veronica doled out the consequences on her father of his refusal to keep his fantasies in check. So now the conundrum she is faced with is: how can she protect her siblings when she herself is a wolf? If she is able to kill her own father, are any one of them next? That fear rises up in her, drives her to want to speak to her father through the Ouija session and perhaps request some other-worldly absolution; but she does not receive it. Instead she is faced with her greatest fear - that she, like her father, is a danger to her family. When Mama Muerte tells her, “You have to do right what you did wrong,” Veronica assumes she is referring to not having closed the Ouija session with a goodbye; but perhaps she meant lasting penance for her crime. Which Veronica comes to understand as she sees herself in the mirror at the climax and says, “Soy yo.” It is me. I am the evil now.
She moves to slit her throat with a piece of broken glass - but is unsuccessful, as the dark creature moves in swiftly and begins forcing its long-clawed hand down her throat while she bends backward in a rictus of terror and helplessness. Maybe, then, what came through the Ouija was not her suicidal guilt and shame, but rather, an avenging spirit. And it was going to be the one to make things right, not her.
At the first Ouija session they ask, “Are you Veronica’s dad? Do you want to talk to her?” The board spells out “VEO” which means “I see.” And when Veronica asks, “Who are you?” the glass slides directly to the center of the board…over the sun.
Whether Veronica was a mentally ill young woman whose delusions lead her to endanger her siblings; a guilt-ridden sister who never stopped taking the blame for something out of her control; or a murderer burdened with her secret and stalked by the grave, is up to you decide as you watch. And while you do so, take into consideration another message the filmmaker may be trying to share.
* * * *
The movie is split into three acts (in my opinion), with the first being solely focused on the solar eclipse event and the ill-advised Ouija antics. With the setting being a Catholic school and the symbology of darkness covering up light being so prevalent, I soon realized that this could be speaking to the abuse in the Catholic church. Consider these things:
A “father” is sexually abusive to children in his care, and the “mother” is blind to it, represented both by Ana in the sleeping mask and the blindness of Mama Muerte. The brief history of Mama Muerte is that she blinded herself in order to keep from seeing terrible visions, but it turned out that, supernaturally, she did not need normal sight to continue to see the things that went on. Mama Muerte and Ana can represent two types of nuns in the Church and their reactions to the scandal of the abuse which as we know was kept silent for decades.
In this framing our perspective of the solar eclipse shifts to the sun representing the light of truth, and the moon blocking it out. When the allegations first began to become widely known, how did parishioners respond to the news? The children and teachers collected on the roof represent those people of the Church and how they view the eclipse is incredibly interesting.
The children were told to bring film negatives through which to view the event as of course, you can’t look directly at it. Some of them dutifully raised film strips to their eyes, but others (like Lucia and Irene) did it only half-heartedly, still attempting to view the eclipse with the naked eye to some extent. One kid had brought 3D glasses instead and was chastised roundly for it as they were not appropriate alternatives (in this metaphor, perhaps seeing what was happening in three dimensions was too dangerous). And Mama Muerte, who already lost her “sight,” looks directly at the eclipse with no protection at all.
The instruction to look through film negatives is the Church’s admonishment from the altar (pulpit?) to only view the emerging scandal through a limited, Church-approved perspective. Some people did just so; others tried using a broader (and therefore “unsafe” by Church standards) perspective to view the event; others appeared to use the approved method but couldn’t resist breaking the rules; and a few, like Mama Muerte, who had already sacrificed in order to survive in this environment, simply stared it down.
Veronica’s teacher had mentioned that the experience of a solar eclipse was subjective; “It depends on the subject looking at it…it will look different in Barcelona and Paris and Madrid,” and this hints to the Churchwide nature of the allegory. Different churches and different parishioners responded differently to the news of the scandal depending on many factors, but with the result that most stayed with the Church even after knowing of the horrors behind closed doors.
How does our main character fit into all of this? She is down in the church basement eschewing the eclipse completely and pursuing supernatural knowledge of the abusive father, beginning a journey which will end in her death in three days. How the second and third act of Veronica play out is fascinating when seen through a Christian and then a pagan lens, and there are multiple symbols throughout that are ripe for interpretation.
What did Veronica say in her trance that made Rosa so afraid? Was the Ouija session with the twins and Antonito just that, or symbolic of a much more ancient ritual? What is the importance of the “Centella” commercial jingle? Why can’t Veronica eat that meatball? Is she actually on drugs??
All of this and more is explored for paid subscribers, including a last interpretation that is so terrible to consider that it basically needs to be tucked away at the deep, dark end.
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