Atrocious [DVD]

I recently saw this at FrightFest, and although there are already a lot of other films that employ the `found footage' device, I was very impressed by both the quality and originality of this Spanish-language horror. Unlike its counterparts, Atrocious avoids the pitfalls of an overly tortuous plot and has the added bonus of having surprisingly likeable central characters, which is a first! Nevertheless, I was glued to my seat throughout the entire suspense-ridden 70 minutes, right up until the excellent twist ending which completely took me by surprise and made for a fantastic, thrilling end to the film. Atrocious is both well made and contains more than enough jumps and screams to keep any true horror fan happy. If you were a fan of similar films such as The Blair Witch Project, REC or Paranormal Activity, I would certainly recommend Atrocious.

!!!WARNING. CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!

Brother and sister Cristian and July, who film a web-cam paranormal show from the comfort of their house, see a great oppurtunity to investigate the mystery of a girl called Melinda who haunts the woods nearby the family's summer house. They are accompanied by mum and dad and younger brother Jose.
Once there, the pair set up their expensive camera equipment to film any potential bumps in the night. However, their plans certainly don't involve getting lost in a wooded labyrinth in the middle of the night....
Whether or not one finds Atrocious a wholly enjoyable entry to the found-footage genre will probably depend on your expectations. I guess that, being a sucker for a good supernatural horror, I was disappointed to say the least with the direction the film took in the last few minutes. More than that, I think that the film is disingeniously marketed and plotted along the lines of a film such as Paranormal Activity, so the giant red herring flung the audiences way was more of a jumping shark for me. Why for example did July have contacts in during the night vision filming to make her look possessed if it had nothing to do with the story.
There are compensations. Cristian Valencia and Clara Moraleda are both very good in their roles, coming across as very natural as a typical brother and sister. The lengthy sequence where the pair follow their mother into the maze in the woods only to get lost themselves, was very spooky, capturing well what it must feel like to be feeling totally helpless and alone.
Probably a film to be enjoyed as part of a festival crowd in a beer soaked cinema rather than in the comfort ogf one's own home, Atrocious failed for me on many levels, but there is a good film in there trying to get out, and for such a low budget film it did look rather good. A generous 3 out of 5.

Recently we've been flooded with horror movies riffing upon the Blair Witch documentary motif. Some of which have been excellent (Paranormal Activity, Lake Mungo) and others not worth renting let alone a purchase (La Casa Muda aka The Silent House). Fortunately Atrocious isn't too bad of an entry in the genre and despite sharing similarities with the inferior La Casa Muda actually contains some decent scares. My only issue with the film is it probably wouldn't hold up to repeated viewing as once you know the twist anymore that a second viewing could be overkill.