Veronica Movie Review

Trailer here.

Veronica is a 2017 Spanish horror movie directed by Paco Plaza and starring Sandra Escacena.

The movie begins in 1991 in Madrid where the police receive a call from a girl. A detective arrives at the scene. It is supposedly based on a true story. Cut to three days earlier. A girl called Veronica(Escacena) is living with her mother and her twin sisters and brother. Veronica is responsible for them and she gets them ready for school. She is in school also, as she is only fifteen. Veronica and her friend, Rosa decide that they will use a Ouija board. Another friend, Diana, joins them. They try to make contact with the spirits. Some spirit comes through. The glass that they are using breaks and it cuts Veronica. She enters some kind of a trance. The board catches fire and it snaps in two. Veronica seems to be possessed. She wakes up in the school infirmary. There is a blind nun there called Sister Death who looks at Veronica.  This is all very ominous!

Strange things begin to happen to Veronica. She has nightmares too. She goes to the school basement where she and her pals had the Ouija board. Sister Death is there. Of course, she has a few warnings for Veronica. She knows what she did and she tells her that she isn't alone. Oh no, what could be happening? Veronica finds a symbol of protection and she wants it for her siblings. She hangs it in their room. She sees a figure and things get weird. Her symbol gets burned. Veronica is frightened and so are her sisters and brother. The mother  finds out about all of this and she is not happy when Veronica tells her what has been happening. The brother, Antonito tells her that he has seen their dad and that he is going to come and take him away. Veronica warns him not to listen to the dad.

Veronica goes to visit with the old spooky nun and she tells Veronica that she has opened a door and now, the door needs to be closed. Veronica buys another Ouija board. That is a really stupid move. Why would you buy another board after what happened???Just stay away... Veronica goes to her friend Rosa and tells her that they need to do the Ouija board again. Rosa refuses. She tells Veronica that she whispered something to her that day. She predicted her death. Veronica is hysterical and tries to get her mother to come home from work. Her mother won't do it. Antonito draws a symbol on the wall but it is a symbol which invites the evil spirits in, not banishes them.

Veronica pulls out the Ouija board and decides to throw caution to the wind and go for it. It all goes horribly wrong, of course. The demon is not going to leave. It tries to take her brother. She calls the police. Veronica tells the twins to run to the mother's workplace. The demon has Antonito but then she finds him in a closet. She realises that the demon is inside her and she has been the one doing the bad deeds. She is going to kill herself, but she is stopped by the demon. The police arrive and find her in a  bad way. Antonito is fine. The detective looks around the apartment and he sees a picture of Veronica which suddenly catches fire and burns. Veronica dies as the picture burns. The movie ends while telling us that this is a supposedly true story of a girl in Spain who messed around with a Ouija board and died. A police officer said that he has witnessed paranormal events etc. 

I had heard that this film was the scariest one ever. That isn't true. There are some creepy moments in it, but nothing that horrific. I am always sceptical of these films that say how scary they are. Usually, this is untrue. Witchboard(1986) is better. I do like that this is a European film and it is good to have more horror movies from around the world, but it isn't enough to make me say that it is great, when it isn't. I think that it is worth watching because it does have some horror moments in it, but it didn't have enough for me. I wouldn't want to see it again. I will give it a 4/10 because it wasn't as good as I had heard and it wasn't great, to be honest.

Legend of the Werewolf Movie Review

Trailer here.

Legend of the Werewolf is a 1975 horror movie directed by Freddie Francis and starring Peter Cushing, Ron Moody and Lynn Dalby.

The film begins with a woman who is giving birth. She dies soon after. The father is attacked and killed by wolves. They don't kill the child; they adopt it as one of their own. Cut to years later and the baby is now a young wild boy. He is picked up by a man called Tiny and he brought to his camp of circus folk. They use him in a sideshow. The boy is called Etoile(David Rintoul). He grows up into a normal boy. He is not normal, though. He turns into a werewolf one night and he kills Tiny. Tiny lives long enough to tell the others that Etoile is the one who killed him. Etoile heads off to Paris. He goes to a zoo and he sees wolves in there. He pets them. He sees the zookeeper(Ron Moody), who offers him room and board along with a job at the zoo.

One day, Three ladies come to visit the zoo, The zookeeper goes off and leaves Etoile on his own. The three ladies are prostitutes. Etoile likes one of them, Christine(Lynn Dalby). He doesn't realise that she is a prostitute. He goes to visit her and he finds out. He tries to kill the man that she is with. The madam of the brothel is unhappy as it is bad for business. Etoile asks Christine to marry him but she refuses. He is angry. He kills some of the customers from the brothel. Enter Professor Paul Cataflanque(Peter Cushing) who is a forensic pathologist. He has been called in by the police to see if he can give any insight on the killings. He looks at the bodies and he thinks that the men could have been killed by a animal- a wolf, maybe. More bodies arrive and the police go to the zoo to look around.

The next day, Professor Paul goes there too. The zookeeper talks to him about his wolves. He tells him that they are harmless. Etoile shows him that the wolves are placid. Paul discovers that the dead men were frequenting a local brothel and he calls in there and chats to the madam. He wants her to identify the men but she refuses.  He calls to the photographer and wants him to take pictures of the dead men. He brings back the pictures to Madame and she denies knowing them. He asks Christine and she tells him that she knew them and that they visited her on the night they died. He tells her about his wolf theory. The Inspector tells him that the case is closed and the Prefect of Police orders all of the wolves to be destroyed. Etoile has to carry it out and it upsets him greatly.

Christine shows up at the zoo. It is a full moon. Etoile begins to change into his werewolf self. Christine witnesses his transformation and she calls the zookeeper. Etoile heads off on a killing spree. Professor Paul doesn't know what is going on. He finds one of Etoile's victims who tells him that it wasn't a wolf and it wasn't a man. The Inspector and Professor Paul talk about the werewolf. They need to find him. The professor calls to the brothel and talks to Christine. They talk about Etoile. He wants her to go to the zoo and wait for him. He makes a silver bullet. They discover Etoile's tunnel and the professor goes into it. He finds Etoile and he tries to reason with him. Etoile seems to want help. The police turn up and try to kill him. He goes back to the zoo. Christine and Paul are there. The police shoot him with the silver bullet and he reverts back to Etoile. He dies.

This werewolf film wasn't the best that I have watched, but it was enjoyable. The cast were good and you know that Peter Cushing is always entertaining. It is directed by Freddie Francis who directed some great films such as The Evil of Frankenstein, Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, The Skull, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave. This is not a Hammer movie, but it certainly could be. It is a decent film and if you like werewolf films, this is worth a look. I will give it a 5/10.