Offshoot Prequels: Paco Plaza’s ‘Verónica’ (2017) & ‘Sister Death’ (2023)

Directed by: Paco Plaza || Produced by: Enrique López Lavigne [1, 2]

Screenplay by: Paco Plaza [1, 2], Fernando Navarro [1], Jorge Guerricaechevarría [2] || Starring: Sandra Escacena, Claudia Placer, Bruna González, Iván Chavero, Ana Torrent [1], Aria Bedmar, Maru Valdivielso, Luisa Merelas, Almudena Amor, Chelo Vivares, Sara Roch, Olimpia Roch, Adriana Camarena, Martina Delgado, Claudia Fernández Arroyo [2]

Music by: Chucky Namanera [1], Mikel Salas [2] || Cinematography: Pablo Rosso [1], Daniel Fernández Abelló [2] || Edited by: Martí Roca [1, 2], Guillermo de la Cal [2] || Country: Spain || Language: Spanish

Running Time: 105 minutes [1], 89 minutes [2] || 1 = Verónica, 2 = Sister Death

Prequels, sequels, and of course — my “favorite” — franchise reboots (hard or soft), have been the staple of Hollywood for decades now, but they’ve dominated since the turn of the millennium and the overwhelming success of special FX-driven tentpole blockbusters adapted from popular cultural intellectual property (IP) staples like The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) and superhero graphic novels in particular. Explorations of a franchise IP’s earlier timeline (prequels) or diegetic future (sequels) most always focus on that IP’s protagonist (e.g. George Miller’s Mad Max sequels of The Road Warrior [1981] and Beyond Thunderdome [1985]; Steven Spielberg and James Mangold’s Indiana Jones sequels of The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull [2008] and The Dial of Destiny [2023]) or at least versions of their major characters (e.g. George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels [1999, 2002, 2005]), even if they’re recast (e.g. every James Bond [1962-] incarnation from Sean Connery to Daniel Craig; the transition from Mel Gibson to Tom Hardy in Fury Road [2015]) in an IP reboot/remake/reimagining sort of thing.

Somewhat less common is the franchise legacy sequel (a sequel made many years after the original installment or previous sequel of said IP; see Jurassic World [2015], Blade Runner 2049 [2017], Doctor Sleep [2019], Top Gun Maverick [2022] et al.), prequel, remake, etc. that has few to no connections in characterizations or direct narrative continuity. Often referred to as “spinoffs” (e.g. Frasier [1993-2004] from Cheers [1982-1993]; The Punisher [2017, 2019] from Daredevil [2015-2018]), crossovers (e.g. Alien vs Predator [2004, 2007]; The Avengers [2012, 2015]), or “sidequels” (The Bourne Legacy [2012] from the Bourne trilogy [2002, 2004, 2007], A Dame to Kill For [2014] from Sin City [2005]), these loose IP adaptations tend to channel earlier installments’ tone, genre, aesthetics, and operate within their general diegesis, but their narrative connections often end there. Films like Evil Dead (2013) and Evil Dead Rise (2023), for example, flaunt their brand recognition itself as their main selling point to their target audience (i.e. longtime fans of the Evil Dead franchise).

Top: Sandra Escacena (left) seeks counsel from Consuelo Trujillo (right), the latter of whom is barely in the film, in Verónica. Bottom: Escacena and her diegetic siblings attempt another séance to combat the malevolent spirit haunting them. I’m sure that’ll solve all their problems!

Another recent example of these sorts of IP “offshoots” is Sister Death (Spanish = Hermana Muerte), the 2023 prequel and Netflix Original Film by Francisco Plaza Trinidad, credited in his professional works as Paco Plaza, which fleshes out the backstory of a notable yet minor character (Consuelo Trujillo) from his 2017 film, Verónica. Both movies are stereotypical “slow-burn” supernatural horror flicks about spiritual hauntings and vague, esoteric ghosts who, naturally, have unfinished business in our world through either selfish, parasitic desires to torment the living (Verónica) or achieve retribution for past grievances (Sister Death); both films have climaxes and mild narrative twists you can see from a mile away, and yet each sports an identifiable cinematographic style combined with memorable mise-en-scène that embraces their period settings (Verónica takes place in 1991, while Sister Death takes place in 1939).

I was curious to sample Plaza’s filmography outside his most famous REC (2007, 2009, 2012) movies, found-footage zombie/undead-possession films whose camerawork hindered its memorable scares as much as it enhanced them. Given that I can’t stand the found-footage format, by and large, I had higher hopes for the rest of the man’s works, most of which are horror films. Verónica and Sister Death, while free of the suffocating confines of pseudo-documentarian cinematography (e.g. shaky-cam, obnoxious sound-design), still suffer from many of the cliched drawbacks of minimalist supernatural horror.

Verónica follows its titular high school student protagonist, played by final girl Sandra Escacena, who stumbles upon demonic possession when she and her friends attempt a séance during a solar eclipse (both films revolve around the mythological aura of those astronomical phenomena) to contact her recently deceased father. Though she finds occasional emotional support from Trujillo’s blinded nun staff member at her Catholic school, Escacena is mostly left to fend for herself as the entity haunting her makes increasingly aggressive moves toward her younger siblings while her absentee mother (Ana Torrent) ignores her pleas for help. While some nice editing flourishes dovetail with tasteful, subtle camera moves throughout Verónica — Escacena walking outside in closeup high-key daytime lighting while her demonic tormentor stalks her as her doppelgänger in reverse slow-motion is a particular highlight — the story telegraphs every major plot development and its supernatural finale doesn’t do much for Escacena’s arc, nor does it justify the film’s overblown, self-important in media res opening.

Starting at a far slower pace yet ending with greater confidence is Sister Death, whose narrative connections to Verónica are so loose it begs the question as to why Plaza spun the former off from the latter as an offshoot prequel at all. Death takes place after the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War, where Trujillo’s character from Verónica is depicted as a former child spiritualist who experiences holy visions directly from God. Now a young woman and Catholic novitiate, she (lead Aria Bedmar) encounters various unexplained paranormal events at the convent and school for girls where she practices her faith and teaches, respectively. I appreciate the period detail of the movie’s location photography as well as the creepy ambiance of the convent’s interior, which are more unsettling than most of Verónica’s haunting sequences, but the narrative spins its wheels well into the second act before Bedmar blinds herself during another solar eclipse vision. The supernatural vengeance that builds into the film’s conclusion ends the story on a strong note despite it not feeling enough to justify the patient (slow?) hour that preceded it, while the epilogue connecting Death to Verónica feels unearned.

Aria Bedmar stars as the younger version of Consuelo Trujillo’s character from Verónica in Sister Death.

That even artsier non-English language genre films like Paco Plaza’s Verónica–Sister Death duo and Martin Bourboulon’s The Three Musketeers (2023) diptych are embracing spinoff projects, let alone expanded diegetic universes across interconnected film projects, echoes the broader influence of Hollywood’s international blockbuster machine in general and, I would further argue, the lasting impact of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (2008-2019) in particular. Given how competitive the contemporary filmmaking landscape is, forging original IPs remains a tall order when the enduring appeal of established brands feels like such a safer bet. Verónica and Sister Death showcase both the upsides as well as the limitations of that expanded cinematic lore philosophy.

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SUMMARY & RECOMMENDATION: Connected by the loosest of storytelling contrivances, Verónica and Sister Death each portray different period flavors of supernatural possession that demonstrate how Paco Plaza can maintain an identifiable narrative mood through his story’s physical backdrops and subtle camera movements. It’s a far calmer, less headache-inducing experience than his REC films, in any case.

— However… none of the characters of either film grab your attention, even by the utilitarian standards of horror formula. Verónica’s conclusion is unimpressive, while Sister Death takes a while to build steam.

—> I’m ON THE FENCE with respect to both films.

? How long have eclipses been considered important for supernatural, mythological, or religious events? Forever?