Verónica ending spoilers: What happens to Vero and her siblings?

Verónica is a 2017 Spanish horror film directed by Paco Plaza set in 1991 Madrid. It is very loosely based on a true story that took place in Vallecas (a town in Madrid) in Spain. While the movie has been streaming on Netflix for years and generated significant buzz when it first released, many subscribers likely missed out watching it and might be gravitating toward the film now that the prequel movie Sister Death is releasing on October 26.

For those who are too nervous to watch Verónica or finish it, we’ll fill you in on everything you need to know about how the movie ends.

Major spoilers for Verónica ahead

In the film’s final act, Verónica makes a desperate ploy to save herself and her family. Her friends Diana and Rosa refuse to help her with the Ouija board a second time, so Vero enlists the help of her siblings, Irene, Lucía, and Antoñito. Irene and Lucía help Vero with the board while Vero instructs Antoñito to draw protection talismans on the walls. Unfortunately, it’s implied that Antoñito also mistakenly draws a few incantation seals, which doesn’t help matters when the horror kicks in full throttle.

Vero’s plan is to use the Ouija board to fix what she and her friends mistakenly did the first time around, namely, they didn’t say “goodbye” properly to the spirit, allowing it to hang around. But sadly, it appears to be too late for Vero to banish the entity because it terrorizes her and her siblings, destroying the flat and causing chaos.

At one point, Vero sees the entity take Antoñito and she rushes to save him, leading all three siblings out of the house and outside to the cops and their mom. But once she gets to the door, Vero realizes she’s not holding Antoñito and it was only an illusion or apparition of some sort. She’s forced to return to the flat where she finds her little brother hiding in a closet.

He doesn’t recognize Vero, which is how she realizes that the entity has fully possessed her and it has been harming her siblings throughout the entire film through her. Vero tries to slit her throat with a shard of glass, but the entity prevents her from doing so. When the detective arrives, he sees Vero shuddering in mid-air before passing out. They take her to the hospital where she dies and a photo of her inexplicably catches fire.

Later, the same photo is shown fixing itself, which, to me, implies the entity has left her and is now loose and maybe looking for a new host to possess. The investigating detective, Officer Romero, sits down at his typewriter to prepare his statement. In real life, Romero’s report on Estefanía Gutiérrez Lázaro’s case is what formed the basis for the movie.

Supposedly, the officers were disturbed by what they witnessed at the house. Family members reported that Estefanía had been acting strangely after participating in a seance. Two of the officers on the scene had to leave due to nausea and dizziness. Romero’s report marks the first in Spain to certify that an officer witnessed paranormal activity.

The true story behind Verónica

What makes Verónica such a terrifying film is that it is based on the real story of a teenage girl named Estefanía Gutiérrez Lázaro. That said, the sources regarding this story are secondary at best, at least from what I could find. Many of them have different details, like some say Estefanía was 15 while others say 18.

A few say she used the Ouija board with her sisters to summon her grandmother, while others say it was with her friends at boarding school to speak with one of her friends’ deceased boyfriends. The main through-line is that Estefanía reportedly used an Ouija board and then started acting differently until she later died under mysterious circumstances. It’s pretty much what the movie itself conveys with the final text blurbs and crime scene photographs.

Verónica is streaming now on Netflix and the prequel film, Sister Death, releases on October 27.