Atrocious Review

• 19th Sep 2011

The UK release of Atrocious is timed perfectly to coincide with Britain’s mini horror season. As an avid horror fan I love this time of year, the lead up to Halloween, which is filled with tempting treats in the form of new releases. Atrocious is the debut of writer/director Fernando Barredo Luna and is a Spanish language film subtitled in English. It fits neatly into the ‘found footage’ genre, which was first pioneered by Blair Witch Project and has gained popularity with the release of Paranormal Activity and REC. For fan’s of this sub genre of horror Atrocious will be a welcome new comer to the screen.

The story focuses on two teenage siblings, Christian and July, who are taken to their family’s old farm house for the Easter holiday. As young film makers they intend to discover the truth about an old story their father told them and begin to film everything; documentary style.

In the woods behind the house a woman went missing. This woman ‘Melinda’ was never found, some claim she fell down a well and her spirit remained in the woods appearing to lost walkers. The ending to the tale is unclear, as so many have told it, in some tales she is evil but in others she is good.

Christian and July want to discover the truth but their parents forbid exploration of the wood. When their father is forced to leave for work they take advantage and head to the woods. Inside the over grown labyrinth the kids discover a well.

There is a temptation for all writer/directors to overwork a story and the pitfall is you can lose your objectivity. Sometimes when you are closely involved in a script you can lose the ability to see the scenes or characters that are holding it down. This is the case with Atrocious, while it is clear this is a labour of love Barredo Luna loses objectivity. He misses opportunities to expand on characters and set up the unexpected twists and turns.

Horror begins in our love of the characters; we should care about their fate and therefore begin to care what happens to them. The first two victims in the film are the dog and the little brother, they appear in the peripheral and their disappearances should act as a catalyst for my fear. However Barredo Luna does not achieve this. Perhaps I am being unnecessarily harsh- the longer I analyse this film the fonder I grow. You see this is a story within a story, the film is shot by two teenagers and their attention is neither the dog nor their younger brother, it would be unnatural to increase screen time of either victim without arousing suspicion in the audience.

It is the end of the film when it changes gear, police photographs reveal the aftermath of the story- while news reports and emergency telephone calls clarify the unclear moments of the plot. This exposition is a risky move by Burredo Luna, it breaks the tension and gives the audience enough time to judge before the credits have rolled. By placing this section at the end, the twist is preserved but the shock of it has dissipated the DVD is back in the case. This is not the type of film to leave you with nightmares. An alternative would be to break up the narrative with extracts from the news reports, just enough to see the odd body part, this should keep audience anticipation high and primed for the jumps. However Burredo Luna favoured the ‘authentic police evidence footage’ approach and the film suffers as a result. Objectivity! Write your own film but get enough people to workshop it with you!

The missed opportunities do not end with the story structure. The character of the mother, who turns out to be pivotal to the narrative, lacks development early in the film. While the teenagers might not feasibly film their mother for extended periods of time, she could be more of a presence in the background. Burredo Luna attempts this and there are clever moments of madness which later can be attributed to the mother but not enough of a good thing. The father leaving the children alone with her is later unexplainable and seems like a weak plot point. Some more development on the parents is needed to make this more convincing.

Twists are difficult narrative devices, they can be wonderful as in The Usual Suspects but can seem lazy as is the case with many an A-level student film. To make one work in a feature length film, the clues have to be there in the background. The cinematographer’s job must work in tandem with the acting ability, to present a version of reality which will fit both before and after the reveal. The wonderful thing about this film, is once you have seen the end you can infer new meanings from the beginning, it all seems delightfully well laid out. While there is more the team could do to improve the horror, it is not a failure but a good low budget debut and a lesson learnt.

The language barrier might deter some viewers but with horror I have always preferred subtitles. Reading as well as watching forces me to invest more interest in the piece and I am less likely to be distracted- a bonus for tension building. Don’t avoid international films! They are not for academics and critics alone! They will open doors and it is never too late to start. This is delightfully ‘mainstream’ and would be a good film for an American Horror fan to broaden his/her horizon with. If I were forced to make a prediction, I do not see awards but I do see an entertaining night in hiding behind a pillow on the couch, followed by a fruitful career for one Fernando Barredo Luna.

Lauren Hounsome