Veronika – FoxTrot Productions – A Fitz Of Horror Review

Synopsis- After getting her life back on track, an abused woman once again succumbs to a dark downward spiral of violence, torture and psychological torment.

Fully vaccinated and having hit my 2 week optimal immunization, I ventured out for a date night and caught a screening of Emir Skalonja’s psych-thriller ‘Veronika’. Veronika stars relatively-new Heather Dunham (Holland Road Massacre: The Legend of Pigman) and Mark Bogumil (A Grim Mini Series: Final Fracture, Clowns in the Woods) and features a small, yet heavily-featured supporting cast including Ryan Little as Detective Rhoads, Kristina Santiago & Brandon Machajewski as best friends Nathaniel and Marie.

Veronika has a muddy past that found her caught up in drugs and depression along with an abusive & co-dependent relationship. The film starts off with us watching Veronika try to break free of that and get her life in order. Easier said than done. She has two hysterically wonderful friends in Nathaniel and Marie but with their emotional support comes little to none of that for sobriety & independence. Like Nathaniel and Marie, albeit a little more reluctantly, Veronika soon gets enamored by handsome stranger John (played by Bogumil)…who just moved into town. John woos Veronika off her feet but not out of the dark past that continues to haunt her and it’s largely questionable whether or not John has an ulterior motive.

Mark Bogumil as John.

I tend to love films that border psych-thriller and horror versus just straight horror and Veronika is my kind of film. Veronika truly goes through some horrible shit and the wonderful thing about Dunham is that she is a natural actor. You’d be hard-pressed to ever hear her sound “scripted” and you can’t help but wonder if she’s just leveraging her own persona under the name of someone else. I’ve not seen anything else of Bogumil’s but I can’t help feel the same way about him and I look forward to seeing his other work, after this film. While Dunham is a stunning chameleon (in the second scene with a hoodie on, she was barely recognizable) her acting is so organic. My date even said “she looked so pretty [in the bar scene]”, and indeed, she did. Bogumil’s ‘John’ was a great temptation for the guarded Veronika, too. He has a voice for radio, clean appearance, slim physique and devilish good-looks that contrasts everything Veronika had in the past. Add some wine, a little bit of bad-boy intrigue with V’s friends drooling over him…and it just made sense that V would let her guard down and take a chance on this rebound. Veronika’s friends (Santiago & Machajewski) we’re equally delicate and outrageous with their dialogue. Even the serious Detective Rhoads (Little) had me “HA!” out loud after he delivered a pithy comment. This happened all the while he was going to meet up with John (Bogumil) to talk about a disappearance.

Ryan Little as Detective Rhoads. “Hehehe, you said Ro-ads”

I had a few questions about the plot, some actions of the characters and the ending left me wondering about the supporting actors while the film score and music were pretty great! I absolutely loved Andreas Vingbäck’s contribution to this film and Skalonja’s use of it. Even in its uniqueness it provided fantastically to the mood. The music at credit roll was absolutely blaring and aggressive, which startled the hell out of my date and I (as was the case for some of the sound effects)…but I know Skalonja is a big black-metal fan and he’d already explained his love for the band and the very personal reasons for which he chose it. Some of his camera angles and shots always get me in the feels, too. Just one, as an example, closer to the back end of the movie shows Dunham in a dusky building right after an intense scene. Even in Emir’s oft urban-guerilla style shooting, there’s these very intentional & artistically stunning moments. It’s similar to stopping to pick up a flower, while in crossfire. I’ve seen many FoxTrot films (which produces countless features at an impressive rate and often on a shoe-string budget) and I can say Veronika is one of my favorite films from Emir and producer Krystal Shenk.

Veronika is now available for streaming here!