If Netflix has proved anything over the last few months, it’s that the streaming service has ambitious plans for both original and exclusive content. It’s also proved that it’s not afraid to drop a movie with little notice to audiences. VERÓNICA, the latest movie from [REC] creator Paco Plaza, is the latest surprise to hit Netflix. While VERÓNICA, a Spanish movie, does little to change up the tried-and-true formula of supernatural thrillers, the presentation and superb acting set it apart from others in the genre.

The film is a paint-by-numbers supernatural thriller with three girls trying to contact the dead during a solar eclipse with an Ouija board bought at a local magazine stand—which is one aspect of the movie I enjoyed. All too often the Ouija board is seen as this ancient relic hidden away in an old house, but in VERÓNICA, it’s marketed with a magazine covering the occult, blurring the line between toy and religious artifact through marketing. It’s sold at a local magazine stand.

Plaza uses the camera like a surgeon uses a scalpel—both precise and deadly.

The three girls, Verónica (Sandra Escacena), Rosa (Ángela Fabián) and Diana (Carla Campra), attempt to summon Diana’s dead boyfriend while in their religious school’s basement. Instead, they contact Verónica’s dead father. What follows are your standard horror clichés. Objects mysteriously moving, shadowy figures in the background and the main character’s general descent into a religious madness as she tries to fight off the demon while protecting her three younger siblings as her mother Ana (Ana Torrent) works long shifts at a bar not too far from the family’s apartment.

Two things set VERÓNICA apart from other films in the genre. One is the stellar acting from the cast, especially the children, while the other is the film’s presentation. This is Escacena’s feature-film debut, and she expertly carries the film with nuance and innocence that only accentuates Verónica’s position as the de facto matriarchal figurehead of the household. Verónica’s three siblings, Irene (Bruna González), Lucía (Claudia Placer) and Antoñito (Iván Chavero) all deserve praise for their acting. It’s difficult to capture kids just being kids, but somehow Plaza does a stellar job.

This is Escacena’s feature-film debut, and she expertly carries the film.

The camerawork in VERÓNICA gives the movie its own aesthetic and personality. Yes, the horror clichés are abundant, but Plaza plays with the camera movements and your expectations as the audience. Plaza uses the camera like a surgeon uses a scalpel—both precise and deadly. There are a handful of long, deliberate shots that slowly increase the tension, your body expecting a loud, audacious jump scare, which the film lacks. Instead of opting for something loud to signal the horror, Plaza pulls back, silence building as you wait for something terrible to happen. It’s jarring and far more effective than a cat in a trash can or a wayward bird in an attic audiences are now expecting when they watch a horror movie.

No, VERÓNICA isn’t new nor does it tell a story you haven’t already experienced. The movie opens with a spiel that VERÓNICA is based on “actual events” that happened in the early 1990s in a Madrid barrio where a young girl used an Ouija board before falling ill and dying while hospitalized. It’s difficult not to draw some comparison between Plaza’s latest film and THE CONJURING franchise. However, VERÓNICA is different. It’s almost an antithesis to the U.S. franchise with its unique aesthetic and camerawork, child-centric cast and slow-burning tension. And those unique aspects make it worth your time to watch.

VERÓNICA is currently streaming on Netflix.