Atrocious (2010)

Two teenage siblings endure a terrifying experience while investigating a rural legend near their family's vacation home.

Director:

Fernando Barreda Luna

Writer:

Fernando Barreda Luna

Stars:

Cristian Valencia, Clara Moraleda, Chus Pereiro

Cast

Credited cast:
Cristian Valencia	...	Cristian
Clara Moraleda	...	July
Chus Pereiro	...	Debora
Sergi Martin	...	Jose
Xavi Doz	...	Santiago
Jose Masegosa	...	Carlos
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Rafael Amaya	...	(voice)
Silvia Arnau	...	Policewoman #5
Carlos Blanco	...	Policeman #2
Ferran Casterà Mosquera	...	Policeman #1
Sammy Gad	...	David
Carlos Gaya	...	Policeman #6
Rebecca Gil	...	Policewoman #3
Luis Lorenzo	...	Policeman #9
Hector Perez	...	Policeman #8

Storyline

Cristian and his sister, July, travel from Madrid to El Garraf with their parents and their little brother to spend the Holy Week in their old vacation home. They learn the legend of Melinda, a girl wearing a red dress that got lost in the labyrinth near the house, who helps people that also get lost in the spot. Carlos, a visiting family friend, tells the siblings that there are different, more sinister versions of the legend. July and Cristian use two hand-held cameras to explore the labyrinth and investigate the mystery of Melinda, until something horrible happens.

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Plot Keywords:

labyrinth | woods | 2010s | family vacation | blood | 

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Taglines:

A Local Legend Becomes a Terrifying Reality

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for grisly images and language throughout

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Spain Mexico

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

17 August 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Atroz

Filming Locations:

Cunit, Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain

Company Credits

Production Co:

Catalan Film and Television, Ibermedia, Nabu Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

75 min 82 min (original)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

References Battle Royale (2000)

User Reviews

A really bad horror film

We have reached the bottom. 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 Acticity 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. And if that weren't enough, we are accompanied by the main character's redundant narration the whole time, which ended up irritating me with his insipid comments and extremely limited vocabulary of 15 words (at most), ten of which are profanity while the other ones are Spanish idioms I didn't understand (even though that was definitely my fault). 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. The poor dog could have been the guilty one of the whole thing, and it would have been exactly the same. Anyway...Spanish cinema has brought us some excellent horror films (such as El Día de la Bestia, The Others and the previously mentioned REC). 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.