Sunday, October 7, 2012

Atrocious (2011)



A family decides to spend the Easter holidays at their summer home. Cristian (Cristian Valencia) and July (Clara Moraleda) are brother and sister, but they don’t always get along. Although, they do share one common bond: both of them LOVE to investigate paranormal occurrences. They decide to film all of the activity on their vacation, and both of them are obsessed with ghost stories and paranormal activity. They take a chance on investigating a local urban legend, but their search for the truth becomes more and more dangerous, as time goes on, and the terrifying secret could cost them their lives.

Well, this was a found-footage film, so I had to force myself into a positive mindset for this one. Still, my attempt to have an open mind for this film didn’t work. This film did have a nice little mystery, and the plot did feel intriguing at first. But Atrocious moves at this sluggish pace, and the unbelievably slow pacing for this film drove me nuts. NOTHING happens in this film for a long time, and the slow build to the conclusion can feel so tedious. Sure, they do show some signs of a violent and vengeful ghost. They show the brutal aftermath of the murdered family dog, and a broken glass could’ve been caused by a mysterious force.

They do throw some clues at you every now and then, but for the most part, Atrocious can be a very boring and dull film. Although, I will give this film some credit for the final moments. The final moments of this film can feel genuinely terrifying, the spook moments fly at you non stop, the surprise twist did feel shocking, and the tension is just great. Atrocious managed to pack a powerful punch at the end, and the ending did provide a nice jaw-dropping cliffhanger, but the satisfying late finish couldn’t save this film. The scares were great, but the horrifying moments at the end did have this strong “too little, too late” feeling. The final moments of this film did keep me on the edge of my seat, and I was glued to the screen, because I really wanted to see what would happen next. Still, Atrocious came up short for me, because the suspenseful final moments couldn’t make up for the over fifty minutes of painful boredom I had to sit through.

The acting in this film is decent enough, and July’s constant screaming didn’t annoy me too much. I really wanted to like this film, but Atrocious is just too damn boring most of the time. The production values actually looked pretty solid here (this shocked me, because when it comes to staying true to the “realism” factor, most found-footage films take everything too far), and the story did feel mysterious, but I can’t ignore the boredom here. I just can’t.

Oh, and if you’re wondering, Hollywood is planning a remake for Atrocious. That’s right. An American version (Atrocious 2011 was a Spanish language film) of this film will be made in the near future, and Hollywood will continue to ride the found-footage train even longer. Yeah, ANOTHER horror remake. I just couldn’t contain the levels of shock, when I first read this piece of news.

Final Rating: 3/10

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