Netflix has suggested that only a tiny fraction of viewers managed to stick with one particular horror film all the way through.
Horror fans have no shortage of genuinely unsettling choices to pick from.
From the jump-scare, demon-heavy thrills of The Conjuring franchise, to extreme body horror such as Hellraiser, or even films focused on human cruelty like 28 Days Later, the genre covers a lot of ground.
However, one title on Netflix has gained a reputation for being so intense that the streamer reportedly claimed only a small number of people actually finished it.
The film in question is Veronica, directed by Spanish filmmaker Paco Plaza and released in 2017.
As often happens with breakout horror hits, it didn’t take long for word to spread online that the story is linked to real events.
Veronica draws inspiration from the case of Stefania Uterres Lázaro, who died in 1992.
Stefania was reportedly involved with a Ouija board before her death, and the movie dramatizes the moments leading up to that tragedy.
The narrative is framed with a phone call and a police report, and it leans into authenticity by including real locations, names, dates, and times. The end credits also show images of the actual places referenced.
Plaza has previously said he allowed himself room to reshape the material, stressing that while the film borrows from reality, he never approached it as a straight recreation of the case.
Speaking to a Q and A at the Toronto Film Festival, he said: “In Spain it’s very popular, this story, because it is, as we say in the film, the only time a police officer has said he has witnessed something paranormal, and it’s written in a report with an official police stamp and it’s really impressive when you look at it.
“But I think when we tell something, it becomes a story, even if it’s in the news. You only have to read the different newspapers to know how different reality is, depending on who’s telling it. So I knew we were going to betray the real events.”
He added: “I just wanted to make a whole vision… but the whole story of Veronica and the sisters and Antonito, this little Marlon Brando with glasses, it’s all a vision.”
Online, viewers weighed in on the film’s scare factor, with several pushing back against the idea that it was too terrifying to finish.
One wrote: “Not scary! Great story line.. but def not scary”
Meanwhile another posted: “It wasn’t that scary but creepy enough in the end when we could see the real police photos”, and a third said simply: “The movie wasn’t that scary.”
Do you think you’d make it to the end?