Atrocious

Shot in the "The Blair Witch Project"-like first-person POV style, "Atrocious" centers on the Quintanilla family of five, whose horrifying experiences at their summer house in Sitges are recorded in handheld video cameras. There is one good idea in "Atrocious," but it is not enough to save this Spanish low-budget film from being another forgettable entry in the overcrowded horror subgenre of found-footage thriller.

Christian and July, a brother and sister making a web show about urban legends, investigate a local legend of a ghost girl named Melinda, while staying at the family's country house. What follows is a series of familiar horror devices including a barking dog and a disused well, except the final fifteen minutes.

The 75-minute film has several creepy moments, to be sure, but they are few and far between. Writer and director Fernando Barreda Luna knows how to enhance suspense, but achieved only limited success, as the film spends too much time trying to set up the atmosphere. The film's first half includes scenes of the protagonist wandering in the deserted hedge labyrinth and woods, which are disorienting at first, but then gets boring.

Filmmakers of "Atrocious" seem to rely too much on the idea I mentioned above, a genre-bending attempt that might have worked as a short film. I will not disclose what it is here. I only add that being stretched beyond its limit, this idea does not have enough substance to stand as a feature film, which "Atrocious" strives to be.

This film is set in the old family house and in a bamboo labryinth adjoining it. The siblings are new to the place and although it is setting the normal daily juxtapositions for what is to come it is little boring while they find their way around the labrynth. It is the same hand-held camera buisness as Blair Witch project yet whose banter kept me much better amused or on my toes.
There is later a long episode lost and very anxious at night in the labryinth. There is too much time spent panning the night vision beam on what might lie among the foliage and path. The film did not need another " it's a little boring " part.
The film returns to the house at night. Here where Blair Witch ends in the abandoned cottage Atrocious takes off into very scary realms.
I loved the irony at the end

To start with, the first half of this film is very slow. You will wonder what is happening, and what is the point of all of this. In fact, it is truly like watching someone's home videos from 1995 -- very amateur, very boring.

Yet, this is what makes this film succeed in the end. These are truly human characters without any of the Hollywood tricks. They are real; either you sympathize with them, or you don't. End of story. If you don't, you give this movie a one-star review and go on about your business. But if you do, the suspense will grow on you gradually, creep up on you from behind, until you find yourself checking the windows and doors to make sure they are locked.

When it comes to this kind of movie, I am no easy customer. Only Carpenter's _Halloween_ and Kubrick's _The_Shining_ have affected me. _The_Blair_Witch_Project_ (the iconic found-footage film) scared me the first time, but by the second viewing, I was hoping for the annoyingly contrived characters to be killed. Even after several viewings, _Atrocious_ has retained its intended effect. It is a well-crafted thriller that may seem tame by today's standards, but which creates an authentic atmosphere of horror and suspense unparalleled by few movies released in the past few years.

Is it perfect? No. Even though it achieves its intended effect, it really needs something to draw the attention of its audience much earlier in the film. I suspect most negative reviews are written by reviewers who only saw the first half. Do yourself a favor and watch the entire film, then let's hear what you think. You just might be pleasantly (unpleasantly?) surprised!