Atrocious (2011)

The great part of this project is digging out old favorites that I haven’t seen in years and discovering new films that I haven’t heard about before. “Atrocious” is a very recent discovery and is now one of my all-time favorites. It’s a found footage style movie that takes place in Sitges, Spain, following two teenage siblings filming clips for their web-series about urban legends. It has a very strong likeness to both “The Blair Witch Project” and “Paranormal Activity”. This is also one of the very few films that has ever really gotten to me. The first half of the movie does a great job establishing the everyday relationships of the characters and their environment and when the action begins in the second half, it doesn’t stop until the movie is done! This film also has one of the better endings for a horror movie I’ve seen in a long time, because let’s be honest, that is one of the genres’ largest challenges.

Christian and his sister are being dragged to the family’s countryside summer home for the Easter holiday. Before leaving, Christian is given two camcorders from his friend David so Christian and July can record clips for their web-series about urban legends. The summer home is next to a forest where a girl named Melinda went missing in 1940. Since then, people who get lost in the forest are found by Melinda and she points the way out. The two days after they arrive, the pair sneak away from their parents and their younger brother behind, they sneak through a metal gate and find a large tree labyrinth. The siblings split up, get lost, and finally find each other. Before leaving on the second day, they find a small gazebo in one area and an old well in a different area. After the father is called back to work in the city, things start to happen. First the family dog goes missing and is later found by Christian and July. Then their little brother disappears in the middle of the night. Their mother, in a panic, runs into the labyrinth looking for him as the siblings try to stay together. Everyone gets split up in the dark and then the bad scary things happen….

Favorite moment – the last 15 minutes. This is a short film at only 75 minutes long, but it has wonderful pacing and this IS one the best endings I’ve seen in a long time. The pacing is perfect and the story is kept very simple.

Another favorite moment – I love the times when the tape is rewound or fast forwarded and shown again or is inserted with police reports or media coverage. This is a found footage movie after all, so the events have all happened in the past.