Phenomena: The True Story Behind the Netflix Film of The Hepta Group

Phenomena is one of the Spanish films that you can find in the Netflix catalog, and, like the stories of The Conjuring, it is based on real events and on the story of a group that was founded in the 80s to investigate paranormal cases, ghosts and many more terrifying things. The film combines a bit of comedy and horror, and stars Belén Rueda, from Los Ojos de Julia, Gracia Olayo, from Spanish series like Veneno and Paquita Salas, and Toni Acosta, from Dangerous Moms, who play three women who are part of an investigative group that was formed by a priest to help solve paranormal cases.

The film begins when, while investigating a supposed case of poltergeist, Father Pilón, founder of the group, is attacked and ends up in a coma, so Sagrario, Paz, and Gloria, the 3 members of the group, must go to the same house to discover what happened. There, they discover that the house is possessed by an evil spirit and that they must defeat it to save their father’s life, but also to free the inhabitants of that place from the terror they have been experiencing.

What Really is the Hepta Group of Phenomena?

Of course, the horror film has many fictional elements, but everything is based on the real Hepta Group, which was founded by the Jesuit priest José María Pilón (who died in 012) in 1987 and who was also in charge of personally selecting to the team members, whom all have different professions and careers, or at least that’s what the official Hepta Group site says. “There is no aid or subsidies for this type of work. The research that Hepta carries out has to be adapted to the means that the members of the team can afford. The Hepta Group is altruistic and only accepts, from those who come to it, the help in expenses that may be generated in the transfers”, the site reads.

Supposedly, the case shown in the film is based on a real one in which the group participated and that happened in Madrid at the end of the 90s. According to the Auralcrave site, Sagrario, Paz, and Gloria, the three protagonists, are also based on 3 members of the Hepta Group, called Sol Blanco-Soler, Piedad Cavero, and Paloma Navarrete, who died in 2022 as the Netflix movie is dedicated. The site also explains that the case in the film took place in an antique store called El Baúl del Monje, where inexplicable things kept happening, such as mysterious noises, moving objects, and shadows that appeared for no good reason, leaving the owners more and more frightened.

It’s not the same as what you see in the movie (the group, for example, is made up of many more people), as it is with any horror movie, but this case is considered one of the most famous of the group. In addition to the fact that it is connected to another of the cases in which they participated, which took place in what was known at the time as the Palacio de Linares, as reported by Infobae. The interesting thing about the film is that it has a lot of comedy elements, but in the end, it becomes more and more terrifying and presents moments of drama, grief, and pain, as part of the search for the protagonists, and this makes it much more fun, along with references to classic horror movies and other films that have marked the genre.

What must be highlighted is the performance of the three women at the center of the story, Rueda, Olayo, and Acosta, whose characters approach the mission from different points. Gloria, for example, is a medium who connects with the dead, Paz is a grandmother who investigates the paranormal in her spare time, and Sagrario is a widow who has a personal interest in the paranormal.

The Hepta Group and the ‘Fourth Millennium’

Today, the researchers have updated the situation of the enclave in various appearances on ‘Cuarto Milenio’, Iker Jiménez’s program on mysteries, clarifying that the place is now home and that strange phenomena no longer occur. The recently deceased Paloma Navarrete (July 2022) and Sol Blanco-Soler were and are regulars on the program, presenting their services as “mediums” and experts in parapsychology in field investigations of television space. Until recently, Blanco-Soler herself offered a guided tour of Madrid in which she explained the cases of the Reina Sofía Museum and the Linares Palace to those present from the places where they were investigated in situ.

The Hepta Group is still active, offering its services from the Internet. It is maintained as an informal and “altruistic association and only accepts, from those who come to it, the help in expenses that may be generated in the transfers.” If you suffer from paranormal phenomena at your home or you think there is a spirit hanging around your workplace… Whom are you gonna call?:  info@grupohepta.com