Atrocious

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.

Despite that it treads very familiar territory and doesn't really bring anything that fresh to the found footage genre it still remains as formidable than ever. 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. The violence in this film though basically off screen is brutal and twisted once revealed after the fact and is the things of nightmares. 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. Worth a look just don't expect something with tons of jump scares just more shock value. 6.3 out of 10

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. The characters are annoying, the only thing they do is shout and freak out and shout, even about their everyday things. The main character is a scumbag...there I said it. It's impossible to empathize with any of these characters.

But they are not the usual level of annoying (for this type of movie), they have take it to the next level. Apparently it was the debut for some of these kids and they needed to let all their emotions out.

No need to mention that the story is bland. That's not so important I guess, since this movies are all about atmosphere and not really intricate plot twists.

The worst part though, is the camera shakes. They tried to make it believable by adding twice the shake (and zoom) as in the usual found footage movies. I don't need to tell you that the results are the worst I have ever seen. 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.

Despite the mostly negative reviews, Atrocious is actually not thát bad. I enjoyed it more than I expected, maybe because my expectations were low.

The good: The setting was pretty good, I loved the house and the labyrinth (sigh, I wish I lived in such a place) and though it started out a bit dull and has it's predictable bits, there are a few enjoyable creepy moments. I was pretty happy to see that the end was not what I expected, and better than what I did expect. An other good thing is the brutality shown through the police photo's. You don't see anything really happen, but at the end the police files combined with the basement video make up for that and fill in the hole your imagination was still left with.

The bad: It's not a movie to watch when you suffer from motion sickness. I do have a sensitive stomach for movements and I thought it was only just bearable. That's one of the weaknesses of many 'Found Footage' movies, the shaky camera-work is just too much overdone. 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. So that was actually pretty annoying. An other bad is that some bits are just too long, without anything happening, which makes you want to reach for the fast-forward button. There was too much darkness, and too much running through the night (yep, darkness, and night vision which shows nothing but trees). One last bad thing is the subtitling. I am not sure if I just had a bad version, but my, did it suck. All Spanish cursing was translated as 'drugs' which gives you a fair idea of the skills of the people who did the subbing.

I'm a bit left in the dark (pardon me the bad pun) when it comes to rating this movie. 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). Anyway, my advise would be to set your expectations low, and then you might even enjoy it like I did.

I am a fan of found footage films because if they are done right, they can be very scary. "Atrocious" definitely has some tense, scary moments but basically you're always waiting for something that never happens. Tension is one thing, but you need a payoff at some point.

My main problem with this film is that it falls victim to the same problem that many other found footage films have. Which is, why in the world would you be holding on to a camera at that particular moment? You're running, likely for your life, and you're actually thinking about capturing the moment? 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. Is this the story of a terrifying urban legend, or is it something else? Overall, I think it's worth a look, mainly because you're only investing a little over an hour of your time, but don't expect anything amazing.