Entertainment
Netflix’s Scariest R-Rated Movie Lives Up To Its Hype
By Robert Scucci
| Published
Whenever a horror flick is deemed “the scariest movie of the year,” I approach it with guarded enthusiasm. I understand the marketing behind it, and the assumption that if you only watch a couple of new horror movies every Halloween before retreating to your tried-and-true cozy slasher classics of yesteryear, then it makes sense. When The Conjuring came out in 2013, I remember my casual horror friends being blown away by it, and rightfully so. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s a great movie. But I watch horror movies all the time, while they burn through Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street every year like clockwork and not much else.
That is all to say I wasn’t buying it when I learned that 2017’s Veronica is considered one of the scariest movies on Netflix. It’s essentially a Spanish-language version of your classic Ouija board haunting plot, so my expectation was more of the same but with subtitles (don’t settle for the English dubs). To my delight, this movie actually rules and is scary as hell.
Now don’t get this twisted. If you’ve seen a number of movies like this, it’s par for the course. Veronica, and its prequel, 2023’s Sister Death, are pretty standard in their storytelling, but execution is everything here. Sound design, cinematography, and a bunch of competent yet unknown actors, unknown to me at least, make for a solid viewing experience. Even better, the world being built here is solid franchise territory. Though I’d be lying if I said writer-director Paco Plaza should keep going with the premise.
He struck the perfect balance between worldbuilding and only showing the viewer just enough without shattering the illusion. If he keeps going with more sequels and prequels, I fear the magic will evaporate and we’ll get lesser films because the lore will push past the point of believability, similar to the later Conjuring movies that saw a noticeable drop in quality.
Veronica Is Your Classic Ouija Board Plot
Set in 1991, Veronica begins at the end as a detective surveys the crime scene that is our titular protagonist’s house. Text on the screen states that the events in this film are based on his police reports, and everything rewinds to a few days earlier, when the seeds for the present disaster are planted. We’re introduced to 15-year-old Veronica, her younger twin sisters Lucia (Bruna Gonzalez) and Irene (Claudia Placer), and her youngest brother Antonito (Ivan Chavero). Veronica’s mother works late-night shifts as a waitress and is mostly absent during the day because she’s sleeping, which relegates household tasks and secondary parental duties to her eldest daughter. Their father is deceased and will eventually become the primary source of conflict.
This family dynamic is important in Veronica because she’s a very responsible teenager. She rounds up the kids every day, handles meals, and gets them ready for school. By all measures, she’s a good kid. But she’s also a teenager, and teenagers do stupid things because their brains aren’t fully cooked yet. The endless list of responsibilities, compounded by how much she misses her father, pushes her toward a Ouija board that she plans to use with her friends Rosa (Angela Fabian) and Diana (Carla Campra) during school while everyone else in their class watches the solar eclipse on the rooftop. After successfully reaching the other side and contacting her father, Veronica convulses, screams bloody murder, and wakes up in the nurse’s office.
Terrified about what happened, Veronica keeps the incident a secret and continues to run the household, but things start to slip. She sees shadowy figures in the night and falls into trances. When these episodes occur, Veronica loses track of time and finds herself hurting Antonito when she snaps out of it. While in the trance, for example, Veronica believes she is fighting a demon off her little brother. When reality returns, it looks like she’s trying to strangle him while he sleeps.
Veronica escalates in this fashion, as you would expect, and some of her visions are genuinely disturbing. On their own, the beats are fairly standard, but Pablo Rosso’s cinematography, Marti Roca’s editing, and Chucky Namanera’s score push the film into elevated horror territory before the term was completely run into the ground.
Sister Death Builds The Lore Out Perfectly
Though the blind nun nicknamed Sister Death (Consuelo Trujillo) has only a minor presence in Veronica, her backstory is fully explored in the film’s prequel. In Veronica, Sister Death, who blinded herself when she was younger so she would stop seeing the demons haunting her, acts as a spiritual guide who tries to help Veronica fight off the demonic forces at play. In Sister Death, set in 1939, we learn this origin story and see how everything falls into place.
Here, the solar eclipse mythology is expanded as a young Sister Death, actually named Narcisa (Aria Bedmar), encounters evil spirits that seem to follow her wherever she goes at the all-girls school where she teaches. There’s an unfinished game of hangman drawn on her bedroom wall and murmurings of a sadistic spiritual presence known as Socorro (Almudena Amor), who has it out not only for Narcisa, but also Sister Julia (Maru Valdivielso) and Mother Superior (Luisa Merelas).
Back to back, Veronica and Sister Death are beyond solid entries and genuinely terrifying at times. The former leans into the possession plot better than I could have imagined, while the latter provides the backstory with enough detail to sell the premise, but with enough mystery to keep you enthralled. My fear is that if we get a third or fourth film set in this universe, the whole thing could fall apart. Nothing is overexplained here, and that restraint works to the mythos’ advantage, generating a healthy number of scares for casual and die-hard horror fans alike.
Though I don’t think Veronica and Sister Death are the scariest horror movies streaming on Netflix, I’d put them on the same pedestal as A Classic Horror Story and The Black Phone for sure. Now all you have to do is watch them and find out for yourself.
Entertainment
Check out some of the best deals under $25 available to buy ahead of Amazons Big Spring Sale
Best early deals under $25 ahead of Amazon’s Big Spring Sale
The countdown to Amazon’s Big Spring Sale has begun, and while it doesn’t officially start until March 25, there’s already quite a few early deals worth checking out at the retailer. If you’re not looking to drop a ton of cash during this seasonal sale event, we’ve gathered up some excellent deals under $25 that you can shop right now.
These range from the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus, if you’re looking to upgrade your streaming setup this year, to some sweet Lego sets, including the delightfully colorful Lego Botanicals Petite Sunny Bouquet, but there’s much more to explore. As the Big Spring Sale gets closer, we’ll be sure to update this with even more discounts that cross our radar, too.
Mashable Deals
Note: You don’t need to be a Prime member to shop the sale, but Prime members will receive exclusive deals on a variety of items.
Best early Amazon device deal
$24.99
at Amazon
$49.99
Save $25.00
Why we like it
2026 has started off strong when it comes to what’s available to stream, and if you’ve been looking to upgrade your setup to enjoy it all in 4K, the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus is worth a look. At the moment, this streaming stick has returned to its lowest-ever price of $24.99 at Amazon, which is 50% off its list price of $49.99. It’s a pretty excellent price to pay for what you’re getting.
The Fire TV Stick 4K Plus supports 4K Ultra HD picture quality, which helps bring out the colors and crisp details in the shows and films you watch. It also supports Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and Dolby Atmos audio, which provide a little extra boost to picture and sound as well. And with support for Wi-Fi 6, you’ll get to enjoy smooth streaming quality. If it sounds like the streaming package you’ve been searching for, this early deal at Amazon is well worth jumping on.
More early Amazon device deals
Best early Lego deal
$23.99
at Amazon
$29.99
Save $6
Why we like it
The Lego Botanicals Petite Sunny Bouquet is a lovely little set to have up on display this spring, and what better time to grab it than while it’s on sale? At the moment, Amazon has knocked the price of this 373-piece set down to $23.99, allowing you to save a few dollars off its list price of $29.99. If its caught your eye, this is a great time to grab it and piece together a pretty bouquet to have up during the warmer months ahead.
Mashable Deals
More early Lego deals
Best early Bluetooth tracker deal
$14.99
at Amazon
$27.99
Save $13.00
Why we like it
Want a better way to keep an eye on items like your wallet, keys, or bags? It’s worth looking into a Bluetooth tracker, like the Life360 Tile. This helpful little device can be attached to a wide variety of items so you can easily track them if they escape your eyesight. If it sounds like something you need, Amazon’s dropped their price for a limited time to just $14.99 ahead of the Big Spring Sale.
Usually they’re listed for $27.99, so this deal saves you 46% overall. Plus, a variety of different colors have been discounted to this price, so you can pick out the option that best suits you.
More early deals under $25
Entertainment
The Channing Tatum Action Movie That Blew Away The Competition
By Phillip Moyer
| Updated
White House Down stars Channing Tatum as Marine Corps veteran John Cale, who is working as a Capitol Police officer who applied for a job in the Secret Service before getting rejected as unqualified. However, after a paramilitary group seizes the White House, it’s up to Cale to save the president and stop the terrorists from starting a nuclear war.
While not seen as a bad movie, per se, White House Down wasn’t warmly received by critics when it was released in 2013, leaving the film with a 52 percent Tomatometer rating. The film, directed by Independence Day and Moonfall director Roland Emmerich, was praised for the chemistry between Channing Tatum and co-stars Jamie Foxx and Maggie Gyllenhaal, but derided for its overuse of action movie tropes.
Some critics noted the level of self-awareness the movie had, leading them to consider White House Down a parody rather than a straightforward action thriller.
A Box Office Disappointment
Audiences seemed to enjoy the White House Down, with CinemaScore giving the film an A- audience rating. However, those who took to the internet to share their reviews were similarly lukewarm towards the film, as demonstrated by the film’s 62 percent Popcornmeter score.
Regardless of how audiences felt about White House Down, the movie ended up with disappointing box office returns. The film made $205 million worldwide and only $73 million domestically. With a production budget of $150 million, these numbers were probably not enough for the film to break even after marketing and distribution costs are taken into consideration.
Another Film Hurt White House Down’s Chance Of Box Office Success
One thing that probably didn’t help White House Down was the fact that it was released three months after Olympus Has Fallen; another movie about a terrorist attack on the White House. Olympus Has Fallen starred Gerald Butler as a secret service agent tasked with rescuing President Benjamen Asher (played by Aaron Eckhart) after North Korean terrorists take over the White House.
When raw numbers are taken into account Olympus Has Fallen actually performed slightly worse than White House Down. While both films received an A- CinemaScore, Olympus Has Fallen received a 49 percent Tomatometer score and made $170 million at the box office. However, Olympus Has Fallen only cost $70 million to make, making the less-watched film yield a higher financial return.
While White House Down quitely left theaters, never to be heard from again, Olympus has Fallen spawned two sequels, London Has Fallen (2016) and Angel Has Fallen (2019). Neither sequel ended up selling more tickets than White House Down, but each sequel in the Has Fallen film series cost less to produce than the previous film making each entry into the series a box office success.
Channing Tatum’s Career After White House Down
Channing Tatum went on to receive top billing in a wide variety of films after the moderate failure of White House Down.
This includes reprising the role of the undercover cop Jekno in 22 Jump Street, the villainous Jody Domergue in Quentin Tarantinos The Hateful Eight, and the American spy Tequila in Kingsman: The Golden Circle. He also reprised the role of the male stripper Mike Lane in the sequels Magic Mike XXL and Magic Mike’s Last Dance.
Magic Mike’s Last Dance, coincidentally enough, is another poorly-performing movie that has proved its staying power on streaming. The film only made $57 million off of a $45 million budget. However, after being released on Max, the conclusion of Channing Tatum’s stripper trilogy spent several days in the streaming service’s top three films.
While it’s probably far too late for a White House Down sequel to ever materialize, it remains to be seen whether the recent surge in White House Down’s popularity on streaming will lead to Channing Tatum being given more lead roles in straightforward action films.
White House Down is streaming on Paramount+.
Entertainment
Metas VR Metaverse takes one more step into the grave
When Facebook changed its name to Meta a few years ago, the idea was that the VR metaverse would become a huge pillar for the company. I think we can safely say that’s not going to happen.
On its community forums, Meta confirmed that Horizon Worlds, the flagship “hanging out and doing work meetings in VR” app for Quest headsets, will no longer be available in VR after June 15. It’s not going away entirely, as Meta recently reoriented its metaverse efforts toward a Horizon Worlds mobile app. But Mark Zuckerberg’s COVID-era dream of people spending huge portions of their days wearing VR headsets and messing around in Horizon Worlds seems to be dead.
In fairness to Meta, the multi-platform approach to Horizon Worlds isn’t new. It’s been available on mobile and desktop since 2023, and it must be successful enough in the mobile format for Meta to keep supporting and building upon that version of the Horizon Worlds metaverse. But when it was supposed to be a VR system seller, Horizon Worlds was often the subject of mockery online for its underwhelming visual quality, initial lack of legs for avatars, and its reputation as a virtual ghost town.
Mashable Light Speed
Of course, as of right now, that doesn’t mean Meta is giving up on VR. When it announced that Horizon was going mobile earlier this year, Meta reaffirmed its commitment to VR as a format.
“We have a robust roadmap of future VR headsets that will be tailored to different audience segments as the market grows and matures,” Meta said in a press release. “And Meta remains the single biggest investor in the VR industry. Why? Because we believe in VR as a critical technology on the path to the next computing platform.”
The enduring popularity of things like VRChat signals that there is a market for these sorts of virtual hangout spaces, but Zuckerberg’s specific vision of the metaverse just never really took off as intended. At least we got a few memes out of it.
Check out some of the best deals under $25 available to buy ahead of Amazons Big Spring Sale
Mave Health aims to improve attention and mood with its brain-stimulating headset
