Atrocious (2010) Reviews

• Screw the haters this was great, Spain proves they're strong with hand-camera horrors

  Chaosmetal692011-09-26

  First off to the reviewer complaining that it was too long the whole thing was an hour and 10 minutes! Have some patience It's one of the shortest movies i've ever watched! This movie is about a family that owns a house out in the countryside of Spain. There is a legend involving the maze that is attached to their house. 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. It's short and to the point before you know it. 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 scary Bottom line is, if you like hand camera horrors, realistic scenes and tense feelings with goose bumps watch this now and enjoy it! you won't be disappointed. 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. I guarantee you if you set that formula up for yourself you'll be wide awake after like I am.

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• Nauseous for all the wrong reasons

  cookie6662011-05-06

  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.

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• aptly named

  Colossusrocks2013-08-07

  (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. That said, i enjoyed the premise of this movie at the beginning, and thought they were going in an alright direction with it. By the end however I was fairly disappointed with the movie and felt that felt that the movie lacked a great deal of substance. 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. There really wasn't any "story" to it at all. The other thing that bothered me were the long stretches of the kid running through the woods in the dark. I felt that they lasted way too long and didn't really accomplish anything. they lasted so long that they destroyed any tension they may have been trying to create. The twists were about the only interesting thing about the movie, and the only bits that didn't seem to be about bushes. The girl in the movie aptly says early on, "There is nothing to tape, but trees." and she is right. I felt that the ending twist was a bit weak and uncalled for, especially since nothing pointed to such a conclusion. In fact the ending raised quite a few questions that the writers don't seem to realize exist. All grievances aside, this was not the worst movie I have ever watched. It comfortably fits into the found footage genre, but doesn't really add much of anything to it. I would not however recommend this film to anyone, even a fellow found footage junkie.

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• Could have been great if it was cut down to half the time...

  jennifer-25-9652312011-08-25

  This movie would have been awesome if it was cut down to about 30 min. I was excited about this movie hoping it would give me the same chills that "The Blair Witch" gave me when I first saw it and to its credit it did… to an extent. I found that this movie spend the majority of the time running around aimlessly in the woods breathing overly heavily with absolutely nothing happening. These scenes got very boring, very fast. I felt that these overly long scenes killed it for me. 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 relationship between the Brother and Sister and how they would go out and explore together even though they were not allowed. It reminded me of my Sister and I when we were younger. I also loved the whole storyline with a really awesome twist at the end. 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.

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• One of the big surprises of the year for me

  felixmai-576-3688062013-02-12

  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. But then a friend told me I have to watch this, and he was right! I have no idea why this movie got so few points (except perhaps because the end was such a let down), it has deserved more!!! This movie has a very thick atmosphere,especially SPOILER SPOILER all the parts done in this labyrinth are awesome. During the days you already get an eerie atmosphere, but during the night shots it is simply amazing !!! SPOILER END Another big plus for me is that at no point I asked myself why the hell are they still filming ??? SPOILER SPOILER Fernando Barreda Luna found a pretty clever solution for that, they needed the night view of their cameras to see something in the dark. They couldn't use their flashlights or who ever was after them could have easily found them. SPOILER END I must give it to him, that was a clever idea, and it fitted in really natural. You don't get the feeling OK, he had a clever idea here, no, it is just a part of the plot that I didn't even really realize during the movie. Only after it I suddenly thought "Hey, that was clever, since usually that's exactly the point where found footage films mess up" Usually EVERY found footage film has this weak point that you ask yourself why are they filming this, but he managed to find a good way to explain it, that felt in no way artificial or anything like that.I also really liked how he build up the suspension really slow but steady. Often you think that now something really bad will happen SPOILER SPOILER for example when the camera observes the dog at night, but nothing big happened,and yet you are left with a really unsettling feeling. SPOILER END Towards the end the suspension is so tight it is almost unbearable SPOILER for example when he is sitting on his bed after he fled to his room and barricades himself in. That scene is pure genius, you wait and wait that the axe is coming through that door, and the suspension was already near the limit before already,and then he just sits there. NOTHING happens for well over 2mins, yet this is one of the most unnerving scenes in the whole movie ! That one scene really shows the quality of Fernando Barreda Luna. In those 2 minutes your head is spinning like a roller-coaster, despite the fact nothing happens. This is so hard to do, but he pulls if of like a boss ! RESPECT !!! Now so far the movie was an absolutely brilliantly done film, but as soon as that door opens he suddenly messes up completely !!! It starts with the first time that he is filming where I thought why the hell is he filming this. So far the filming was always a logical part of the plot, and now this,and it is only downhill from now on ! 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 ? You also don't get to see how the 2 older siblings end. etc.etc. it is all just a big mess in the end SPOILER END

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