Veronica: Possession or Psychosis?

The 2017 Spanish horror film, Veronica, directed by Paco Plaza and now available on Netflix, has been described as one of the scariest horror movies accessible on the streaming platform. Based on a true story, the movie follows a fifteen-year-old school girl who is supposedly possessed by a demon. It should be noted that the movie is very loosely based on real-life events. This article only looks at the narrative of the movie itself, and it questions whether Veronica is actually possessed . . . or whether something else is going on.

Here’s the trailer:

In order to understand the main aspects of Veronica, we will first take a look at the prototype of all demonic possession movies, The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973).

In the horror classic, twelve-year-old Regan is tortured by a supposed demon that inhabits her. Father Karras, both priest and psychiatrist, is having a crisis of faith at the time he tries to save the girl. Until the very end, Karras is unsure about the existence of both God and demons. The movie, and more so the book, oscillates between scientific reasoning and belief in the supernatural.

In Veronica, the characters do not do this work for the viewer. It is entirely possible to view the movie as a story about demonic possession. However, I want to look at the alternative, which the movie offers in a subtler way: Just like a demon, the narrator should not be trusted.

 

A Psychological View

To understand where Veronica (Sandra Escacena) is standing emotionally, we should take a look at her daily life. Veronica acts as the mother of the family. We see her take care of the children in the morning before going to school, even when her mother is home. Veronica brings the kids back home in the afternoon, cooks for them, makes sure they do their homework and tucks them in at night. She seems to have but one close friend who abandons her after the fateful séance.

Undoubtedly, this is not a normal teenager’s life. Veronica is not getting any support. Her mother does not seem to feel any responsibility. She is even annoyed when Veronica later brings the little ones to the restaurant so she can go to her friend’s party.

If Veronica was referred to a child psychiatrist, the professional would call her “parentified,” which means that a child takes the role of a caregiver. There is a nuanced spectrum for parentification, ranging from a child supporting his/her parents’ emotional needs, especially when the parent suffers from substance abuse, to outright taking on a parental role for siblings, as in Veronica’s case. Parentification is one of the many faces of emotional child abuse and is often invisible to the people outside the family.

Parentification is a danger to the psychological development of a child. She is subject to responsibilities she is too young to take on and is consequently chronically overwhelmed. She cannot allow herself to be angry at her parents because she is afraid of losing them, fragile as the family system already is. In order for this system to remain (barely) functional, righteous feelings of resentment against the parents have to remain unspoken or even unconscious.

(Check out this post on the “Top 10 Films about the Horrors of Caregiving.”

 

Can we Trust the Narrator?

Again, in The Exorcist, more so in the book than in the movie, there is always doubt about the reality of demonic possession. In Veronica, the doubt is not openly expressed by the characters but is latent in the subtext.

The first time I doubted Verónica’s perspective was when she left Antonito (Ivan Chavero) alone for a minute in the bathtub, then returned and found him sitting in extremely hot water. Later, we see her putting cream on Antonito’s burned skin, apologizing for being inattentive, while his burned red skin is forced onto the viewer. Antonito then says: “Don’t worry, it wasn’t YOU who turned the hot water on.”

Two things made me suspicious about this. One, obviously the way he said it, and secondly, in medical school, they teach you that a common form of physical child abuse is dipping the child into hot, even boiling water. Students are taught to notice the clear, horizontal demarcation line on the skin, which is not present when the child accidentally burns himself by pulling a pot from the stove. There is a clear demarcation line visible on Antonito’s upper belly. This was the first time I considered Veronica herself to be the possible perpetrator.

The second instance was the scene in which Veronica followed the entity into her sisters’ room, where the sigils she hung there for protection burned and the supposed demon choked Lucia (Bruna Gonzalez). Verónica then jumped over to her in an attempt to chase the demon away. When Lucía and Irene woke up, one of them asked: “Vero, what are you doing?” To the girls, it would seem like Vero has snuck up to Lucía and tried to choke her.

 

Demonic Possession vs. Psychosis

Now, of course, if you want to believe in the possession theory you are free to do so.

Here is my view: Vero had a mental breakdown, suffered from a psychotic episode, and abused her siblings.

To be fair, psychosis is rather rare in 15-year-old girls, but it does occur at that age. The first episode often is triggered by overwhelming stress. Emotional abuse within the family is theorized as a contributing factor. We know that both are present in Veronica’s life. Things that happen during a psychotic episode are among the following:

• Hallucinations, mostly auditory, but also visual, tactile and olfactory.
• Delusions, which are bizarre beliefs that no reasonable argument can break.
• Feelings of being influenced by others (e.g. through mind-control).
• Interpreting unrelated events as being connected.
• States of catatonia, where the person is physically immobile. A catatonic state can be life-threatening if uninterrupted because of injury to the muscle cells which in consequence impedes normal kidney function.

Veronica certainly has hallucinations and feels influenced by the demonic entity. The scenes in which Veronica cannot move could also be an artistic interpretation of catatonia. Furthermore, hallucinations and delusions in individuals from a Christian background often revolve around God, angels, and demons. Seeing shadows around the house, hearing disembodied steps and a sense of impending doom out of nowhere are extremely common experiences during psychosis.

So, the movie has two possible readings: You can just believe in the narrator and conclude that a demon possessed poor Veronica and took her to an early grave. However, if you consider the chance of the narrator being unreliable, the story changes into something arguably more sinister.

In this reading, Veronica decompensates under the stress of caring for her siblings. In her unconscious anger, she turns violent on them. She hurts Antonito by bathing him in boiling water and tries to choke Lucía. Her psychosis conceals her deeds in front of herself, as her conscious self cannot bear the reality. Finally, in the showdown of the battle with herself, Veronica faces the demon inside of her.

 

What About the End?

The cause of Veronica’s death is left unexplained. When she is transported into the ambulance, we see that she has not harmed herself with the shard as she had intended to, so the viewer is left clueless about her end. The policeman witnesses her hovering in a bizarre position when he enters the scene. Maybe Veronica died of the consequence of a catatonic state.

However, both readings of the movie share the same root: Verónica’s suffering was induced by the death of her father and the inadequate role assigned to her.

 

Laura Cabrera is a medical resident who has worked in psychiatry for quite some time. On her website, monsters-closet.net, she explores the dark side of the human mind and its reflection in the media.

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