When Paco Plaza's Spanish horror film "Verónica" was released in North America in 2017, it instantly received acclaim for its insidious sense of dread, and for some of its more terrifying images. There is a scene about halfway through "Verónica" where the title character (Sandra Escacena) is walking through her apartment, and a shadowy, ghostly figure is standing in the hallway behind her, merely watching. There's no musical sting, and nothing about the camera placement that suggests the photographer even sees the ghost. Verónica doesn't even seem to notice. And yet it is undoubtedly there. 

Like many horror films of recent vintage, "Verónica" is a film about mourning, trauma, and domestic strife. The ghost glimpsed in the hallway may very well be the ghost of her father who passed away recently. Verónica, just 15, wasn't quite permitted to grieve, as she's had to become a more parental figure for her two...