Atrocious

Plot synopsis:
Cristian Quintanilla (Cristian Valencia) and his sister July (Clara Moraleda) have a web-show of paranormal investigations covering urban legends. When they are invited to spend the Easter holidays at the family's summer home, they intend to investigate the story of Melinda, a girl that went missing in 1940 and supposedly haunts the woods. Cristian and July spend a great deal of time wandering around the hedge maze there with their video cameras. Their father reveals that their mother once knew the maze quite well in her youth.
Upon finding a well in the maze, Cristian leans into it and calls Melinda's name. July chastises him for being disrespectful. The morning after, their dog goes missing and Cristian and July eventually find him dead at the bottom of the well. That night, the mother enters their room, screaming that their younger brother José has gone missing. When she and the two children head for the maze to search for him, they are separated. Eventually, Cristian finds July, tied to the pillars of a small gazebo, bleeding profusely. He leads her back to the house, where they find José's burnt body in the fireplace. Hearing noises outside, July hides in a kitchen cupboard, while Cristian goes to the front door. An axe blade bursts through the door and Cristian runs upstairs to hide.
The next morning, Cristian goes downstairs to find the kitchen cupboard empty and drenched in blood. Down in the basement he finds an old video recorder playing. It is a tape of his mother being interviewed in a mental institution by her doctors. They mention that schizophrenic episodes in adolescent women have a tendency to reoccur, and that night can bring them on. It is established that Cristian and July once had a baby sister named Michelle and that their mother had a psychotic break as the result of postpartum depression and killed her. The mother blames the episodes on a woman named Elvira, about whom the doctors question her.
As Cristian watches this tape, his mother comes up behind him and slaughters him with an axe. Five days later, the police find the bodies of the Quintanilla family and recover the video footage shot by Cristian and July.

Tags: violence, dark, cruelty, murder, sadist

Review:
However the kids who are curious types are forbidden from their father from going in there.Being a huge fan of hand camera horrors I was eager to discover this little gem.
I have seen various ones such as Noroi, rec, etc, i am a veteran in this vein so take it from me it's good!The thing I liked the most about it was it was very realistic feeling and very intense and creepy and at one point when they're in the woods I checked how much time was left on the movie cause i was anticipating a scare in one scene and I rarely do that with movies unless they're scaryBottom line is, if you like hand camera horrors, realistic scenes and tense feelings with goose bumps watch this now and enjoy it!
People on IMDb tend to rate hand camera horrors really low for some reason but I think most people that review and hate on them don't actually like that "genre" To create a great environment for this type of movie: turn the lights out, watch on a big screen, and by yourself its only 70 minutes who cares if you're alone.
The film has a very promising premise for any horror fan - a story with paranormal elements, a small cast and filmed with a hand-held camera (think of the suspense!).
This immediately sets the expectations high - I was expecting a Spanish Blair Witch Project or perhaps a successful spin-off of Rec.In reality, the friends I went to the movies with got nauseous because of the constant shaking of the camera and I did not flinch once.
It must be said, though, that Atrocious does a good job of misleading the viewer - something I rather enjoyed, but some others might find disappointing.The biggest flaw, however, was that the movie got lost in itself.
The producers were clearly so caught up with the whole amateur-footage-spooky-places-run-and-scream theme that it engulfed the whole movie, making everything else that happened inbetween seem like one long filler.
And then combined with the completely unexpected ending, Atrocious might just leave you feeling a little indifferent about the whole thing - and nauseous, if you're like one of my friends.Overall, it's a decent little horror flick, but nothing that would keep you up at night..
I found that this movie spend the majority of the time running around aimlessly in the woods breathing overly heavily with absolutely nothing happening.
At times I felt chills at the back of my neck and that paranoid feeling I get when I'm scared watching a movie and then quickly that would fade away to boredom and annoyance due to a scene that was ridiculously long.To the movies credit, if they cut those horribly boring long scenes this would have been a great movie.
I loved the creepy maze, creepy house, creepy basement, creepy ghost stories and Etc. There was so much amazing about this movie but when you add overly long scenes of someone annoyingly breathing super close into a mic and a camera shaking and running so much you cant even see what's going on it absolutely kills anything good and creepy about the movie.Zombiesteak.com - Discover a new world of horror films, designed just for you..
The "hand-held" technique has brought some good movies (such as REC, Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity and Chronicle), some mediocre ones (such as The Last Exorcism, The Devil Inside, Apollo 18 and Paranormal Activity 3) and some bad ones (such as REC², Paranormal Activity: Tokyo Night, Grave Encounters and Paranormal Entity), but none of them was as poor and tedious as Atrocious.
This means that, from now on, things can only get better whenever I watch another "hand-held" movie in the future.
Or that's what I would like to believe as a pathetic consolation after having wasted my time and my money in this piece of junk.There's very few material in Atrocious in order to sustain a whole film, so screenwriter Fernando Barreda Luna (who was also the director) makes us to spend uncountable minutes walking through the woods in a useless attempt to create suspense or impulse the narrative to a more interesting direction...we will never find.
Speaking about not understanding, the "horror" moments are so badly filmed that I could never notice what terrified the characters so much.And then, we have a twist in the end from Atrocious, which pretends to surprise us, even though I found it so arbitrary and gratuitous that it doesn't satisfy, and it looks like an obligatory goop to bring some posthumous sense to the story.
Unfortunately, Atrocious doesn't belong to that group, and I can't recommend it, because I found it a deplorable film in which the only suspense came from hoping the movie not to extend itself too much..
The film starts off pretty much like The Blair Witch Project introducing us to ordinary people who are documenting their research on figuring out an old legend but soon get attacked by an unknown force or being and things turn from normal to terrifying.
This film is uber creepy with an fantastic atmospheric setting that will send chills to your bones and intense suspense that will have you grabbing you seat as well as believable performances from the likable leads that makes the whole ordeal that more effective and downright disturbing.
It was scary but doesn't have a lot of nonstop jolts like the Paranormal Activity series but the intensity is their and the fear of the unknown and the big reveal at the end was clever and shocking and gave it an even more sinister tone that will get under your skin but still expected something bigger and different but liked the direction it took which was a different change of pace.
Overall I wouldn't say it's with the top dogs of the found footage genre but I liked it a little bit more than the very disappointing Paranormal Activity 3 and I liked the direction it took more and this one was just more unsettling and better executed and a more disturbing story.
But the characters is just running around with a shaky camera, so if you have problem with dizziness don't watch this movie.
One night, their brother José vanishes and something evil happens with the family."Atrocious" is another garbage made with hand-held camera.
I usually don't write reviews but I wanted to warn anyone that may be planning to watch this movie.A 5 in this type of movies is not that bad, so I decided to watch it, knowing it wasn't going to be great, but I was in for some cheap thrills.Truth is, this movie is terrible.
It's hard (if not impossible) to know what's going on, at some point I thought this movie was going to give me a seizure.Conclusion: be warned, don't waste your time, this movie isn't worth 5 minutes of your time even if someone pays you to watch it..
Two teenagers on vacation with their younger brother and parents bring cameras to their summer house in Spain in the hopes of catching some paranormal footage.
One of the things I liked about this movie is that unlike a lot of other found footage entries nowadays, it didn't leave everything ambiguous at the end.
I've enjoyed a lot of the open ended ones, but it's nice to have some variety.Spain has given the world quite a bounty of well made horror films, and this one is no exception..
However, after their dog goes missing one day, things soon start taking a horrible turn for the worse.Atrocious is a POV "documentary" style of film and while we all know that's not an original style anymore, the film is still very good.
Making a labyrinth the subject matter for the myth of Melinda was good because they can be creepy enough through the day if you get lost, but to be lost in one at night (especially the one shown in the movie) and knowing of a myth surrounding the labyrinth is downright terrifying.The night scenes are obviously where the movie escalates, and they ARE scary.
Even when he's supposedly safe in the house at times after, there is still that unsettled feeling of "what's going to happen?" The movie may be considered a wee bit slow for about the first 30 minutes or so, but I didn't feel that it was.
For me it was all a good build up to the inevitable scarier scenes and climax of the movie.The actors are all very believable in their parts, and do a really good job in making it seem like a real documentary of events.
The end scene of the movie is a nice touch to make it that wee bit more convincing too (obviously can't say anything else it will give it away).If you enjoy watching movies of this style then there's a good chance you'll enjoy Atrocious.
First half of the movie is brilliant, you really get to know the intense story and start to fear of what to come and you get to really know the people in the movie, and when the horror finally begins..omg I was so scared!
The crisis point is the remaining 35 minutes of running around with the camera from an unknown assailant while screaming.No real scares, no real excitement, nothing but Atrocious..
Hello all first i would like to explain you why is this movie looks so real ,couse there is no fake ghosts like in paranormal activity,It has the same atmosphere like the blair witch project nothing happens till the end and that is reality.Similar movie is as above so below nothing till the end and that is masterpiece storyline.So this movie is one of the best made with pov camera along blair witch.And once again the point is waiting and waiting and than boom not just jumping from the seat all of the time and slashing the people in film.the point is story not gore.At least my recommendation is Asian horror movies with pov cams lot more scarier and realistic than US movies..
I am willing to let a lot of things go when I watch a movie, but this just bothers me every time.Secondly, it seems that the writers and director were unsure as to what to do with the plot.
There not much I can say about this, I did not like it at all.Yes, this yet another Found footage horror movie but this time it's of Spain.The story is focuses on the case of a brother and sister who investigate a local urban myth , while on holiday, resulting in strange occurrences at the family's summer house.
The most of the movies is about walking few Maze and nothing happens at all, there were no suspense or atmosphere in any of the movie.The acting is movie, Well you guessed it, It was really bad and what makes worse, you can stand, one single character in this movieBy the end, I was not really paying too much attention to movie as I just wanted the movie to end, there was a plot twist at the end, Which I didn't really understand at all.With all bad stuff out the way, there maybe just one good I can say this movie, That some of scene in the very dark cellar, can be a little creepy.BeCause of that One scene, I am going to Give this movie 2 out of 10.
OK, when you are running you won't ever have a steady shot, but in the beginning of the movie one would expect at least a bit more of a steady hand.
It has a lot of flaws, but the ending does make up for it, and I have seen worse Found Footage movies (like Paranormal Activity).
While watching Atrocious, my expectations were low - probably because I have been desensitised by the slew of found footage horror movies that have cropped up in the last 10 years starting with the Blair Witch project and culminating with the Paranormal Activity trilogy.
I am certainly a fan of the genre - Rec 1 & 2 (Spanish version) are two of the best examples of this type of film.Rest assured however that even though this film is quite slow most of the way through with unpacking the story and the camera work is extremely shaky the overall experience is entirely worthwhile - it will make you feel suitably foolish (as I did) for having made assumptions about what kind of a movie you were watching.Good things come to those who wait, and I am eager to see more from a genuinely smart horror auteur like Mr. Luna..
Atrocious (2010) *** (out of 4) This Spanish entry in the "found footage" genre has a brother and sister going to their summer house with their parents and younger brother.
These found footage films, in my opinion, delivers some of the greatest scares in regards to horror movies and this one I found to be quite effective.
ATROCIOUS isn't the best the genre has to offers as there are a few plot points that I'd question but there's still no doubt that the film was very effective and very scary at times.
ATROCIOUS is a good, creepy film that manages to use atmosphere and suspense over gore, which is always a good thing..
The film had very good potential to be a solid scare, however the distributor decided to wrap this movie into a Paranormal Activity type hype.
However, there's several things that undermine this, not the least of which is the found-footage angle this employs, which means that a lot of the scenes captured never really should have because trying to hold a video camera up to capture them during such moments is quite ludicrous, unless it happens to them you can't see anything so a lot of time is spent running from something we can't see and thus nothing happens, and then the final reel is so insanely stupid it knocks a lot off the film right off the bat.
I should not even have to say it, but I feel like not saying it would be letting them off the hook for their derivative story.However, unlike the Blair Witch, there is pretty much no way anyone would believe this was really a pair of kids with cameras.
(I don't think I included any spoilers, but just in case I marked it as such.)I love horror movies, and have a particular weakness for found footage or hand-held camera shot movies.
For a good deal of the movie, especially towards the end, you cant see a damn thing, as the screen almost if not entirely black.
Now I gave them some credit for taking the realism thing as far as humanly possible, but it ended up ruining the movie.
At first I didn't really know if I should even watch it, since we have seen so many found footage movies already, and he only got 4.8 points here.
This sudden introduction of a new character, the crazy axe killer, feels completely artificial, like he had some footage left from another movie and needed a few more minutes of film, so he used what he had lying around ^^You also get the feeling he had no idea how to end the movie,and suddenly they started shooting and he had to come up with something in a hurry.
I mean the introduction of that crazy chick at the end could have been a good idea, if the film would have been at least 20 minutes longer, so he has time to really tell her story, but like this ?
It starts with a slow pace and with a supernatural theme but it has a very nice twist in the end.Being a fan of this type of movies myself, I was satisfied with the final result.
It has chase scenes of running and panting that lasts up to five minutes (not kidding, and all of this is filmed form a hand-held camera.) The movie engulf itself in this whole "handheld camera" idea that it swallows the whole movie.
Most scenes you wont know what's happening because it seems like the cameraman is having a some sort of spastic seizure which makes it impossible for him to hold the camera so you can get a glimpse of what's going on.
Because it feels like this movie is begging to be "different" but fails at doing so.Do not watch this film..
This is a film you can watch probably once and never again, which is disappointing; equally disappointing is how the killer isn't developed at all (and barely even has any screen time, nor are they referred to in any way to develop them) until literally the last minute, when it's really too late to build up anything.As some have suggested, it would have worked far better at half its running time, since there's just far too much padding that adds pretty much nothing to the story.
The only other Spanish films that I've seen of this type are "Rec" and "Rec2" which I rate quite highly, and it's good to see that "Atrocious" keeps up with these titles.
Where to start..As far as a "lost footage" film goes, this isn't much different then others in the genre.
The big problem I had with the movie was part of the lost footage, there's almost a three minute segment where it's nothing but camera juggling while Christian (one of the two main characters) was getting chased through the labyrinth almost to the point of motion sickness if you watch to closely.
It is a "shaky camera" film style,so if you don't like those types of movies don't watch it.
I don't mind the "shaky camera" style and thought the use of a labyrinth in a horror movie was something you don't see too often.
There is also a dead dog in the movie and was pretty real looking just a warning for people who are sensitive to that type of thing.