Netflix film based on true story hailed as ‘so scary’ that only 1 in 100 people finish it

Halloween will be soon upon us, and that means curling up on the sofa with a bowl of popcorn on a dark night and putting on a horror film. The genre has attracted plenty of fans who tune in specifically to be scared witless by ghouls, demons and a host of other supernatural entities. I am not one of those people and I very much prefer not checking under my bed before going to sleep, but if you are a horror aficionado, then Netflix might have the film for you. Released in 2017, Veronica is a Spanish flick and has been hailed as so scary that reportedly only 1 in 100 finish the film.

The film follows the titular Veronica who finds that a demon has attached itself to her during a séance she held with her friends while using a Ouija board. After noticing strange supernatural occurrences, Veronica attempts to get rid of the demon, but is further unnerved when she learns that during the séance, she predicted that she would die in three days.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the horror flick has an 86% approval rating from critics, with its consensus reading: “A scarily effective horror outing, Veronica proves it doesn’t take fancy or exotic ingredients to craft skin-crawling genre thrills.” Viewers agree, with one writing: “A movie that puts hairs on end,” and a second adding: “[Paco] Plaza’s tale of teen possession is powerfully scary.”

A third viewer posted: “Ok, I’m watching #Veronica on my own. I’ve nearly had to turn it off twice… I’m only halfway through,” while a fourth joked: “Me in the cinema: Alright, I’m going to head out,” and a fifth shared: “This was the best horror film I’ve seen in decades. The writing and acting is superb,” while a sixth commented: “This is one of the scariest Spanish horror movies of all time! Especially the ending was very scary!”

Prequel

The film was so successful that it spawned a prequel, Sister Death, which was released in 2023. Like Veronica, Sister Death was praised for its horror elements, with critics saying it established director Paco Plaza as the “master of Spanish horror cinema”. It has also appeared in various lists establishing the best Spanish films of all time.

The prequel follows the character of Sister Narcisa, a new nun at a convent ahead of a solar eclipse. During her time at the convent, Narcisa experiences several supernatural occurrences and during a solar eclipse, she blinds herself by looking into the sun’s rays. The character appeared in Veronica, where she had been nicknamed by students at the school as ‘Sister Death’.

True story

One of the things that fans found so scary about Veronica is how it was reportedly based on a true story. The film was inspired by the 1991 death of Estefanía Gutiérrez Lázaro, a Spanish girl who is alleged to have suffered hallucinations and seizures after performing a séance with her friends in order to contact one of their boyfriends, who had died six months earlier.

Estefanía died, aged 17, following a final seizure, although her exact cause of death reportedly remains as a mystery. While the film ends with Veronica’s death, in Estefanía’s case, this was only the start of the paranormal activity experienced by the family. Objects were said to have moved on their own while Estefanía’s mother reported hearing her late daughter’s screaming voice and the laughter of an old man. 

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Two years after Estefanía’s death, a photograph of her in the living caught fire, although the only damaged part of the photo and frame was that containing her face. The case escalated when the family called the police, who investigated the home and filed an official report speaking of paranormal activity.

The report noted a locked cabinet door violently opening, brown slime found on a nightstand and a crucifix being ripped from its wood mounting with three large claw marks around the site. The family later sold the house, which put an end to the supernatural activity, with the home’s later occupants reporting no strange events.

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Two of Estefanía’s brothers, Ricardo and Maximiliano Gutiérrez, spoke out about suggestions of paranormal activity, saying their sister had died from an epileptic seizure and that the condition runs in their family. Maximiliano told El Mundo: “My mother was, and continues to be, treated for convulsive epilepsy. And other relatives have since inherited it.

“In fact, I’ve witnessed some of them have critical seizures, and their behaviour was the same as my sister’s. My sister was being treated medically. It was suspected she had epilepsy, but she died before the medical verdict was due to an epileptic seizure, not anything unexplained.”

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The brothers also disputed some of the things in the police report, suggesting natural occurrences for many of the incidents, including baby food being the cause of the brown slime, and a loose nail leading to the falling of the crucifix. Ricardo told the publication that he was the cause of a “loud noise” on the terrace, saying his mother told him to throw a rock onto the terrace in order to make the officers believe something supernatural was happening.