Veronica

This nerve-rattling new feature from Spanish director Paco Plaza (co-creator of the hugely successful [Rec] series) chronicles a teenage girl's descent into terror following her naïve attempt to communicate with her dead father.

Verónica is a pretty, cheerful, highly capable 15-year-old, entrusted to look after her three younger siblings while her widowed mother (Thesis' Ana Torrent) works long hours at a local tavern. One day, while the rest of her classmates assemble on the roof to behold a lunar eclipse, Verónica and her friends sneak into the bowels of their school with a Ouija board. By the end of their séance, the board has snapped in two, and Verónica has fallen unconscious. In the days that follow, it seems that whatever was released in that basement is following Verónica around. "Someone answered your call," warns a sagely old nun, "and now it walks with you."

Inspired by real events that transpired in Spain in 1991, Verónica is that rare horror story that has it both ways, providing a steady current of eerie thrills and brilliantly orchestrated jump scares while gradually turning into something deadly serious. At this film's core is a haunting mystery concerning familial loss, nascent feminine power, and those things that seep through the cracks in reality's fragile veneer. Verónica makes for a spooky good time — and leaves you with genuine chills.

DIANA SANCHEZ