Atrocious (2010) - Horror Found Footage

Atrocious (2010) - QUICK HIT! I just wanted to do a short review on this film. It is a found footage style film about a brother and sister filming there family visit to the country house their mother (Chus Pereiro) frequented in the past. She has not been there in many years and the family has mixed feelings about going there. To kill time and hopefully make it more interesting the two older kids, Christian (Cristian Valencia) and July (Clara Moraleda) spend their time filming the area, the hedge maze and about a local ghost legend in the area.
Now I have to say the amount of set up time where the kids are wandering around the maze with their cameras on and sort of point forward and down was pretty annoying. First off I think we can all let go of the idea that when filming anything we always leave the camera on. It implies that no one outside of Hollywood knows to plan a shot. Even when goofing at home with the video camera we often plan what we are going to do before turning it on, and certainly when wandering around a maze we would likely only shoot those features that are interesting. These guys leave the cameras running but they are often looking at the side of the hedge or the ground. Granted they are teenagers so you can expect a bit of that.
Early in the film the Father says a line that for me at least really gave the film away. Now I am not sure the average viewer will notice but I see way too many of these films to not. Things start to pick up about three quarters the way into the film, the father is called away on business and things get a bit crazy rather quickly. Unfortunately for the viewer that means a whole lot of running around with a shaky camera in night mode. It it trying to show the panic the teens are feeling but really just makes you want to shut the film off. The story ends up being incredibly sad for the family. There is a video played on an old television in the cellar in case you don't understand what happened that just clearly tells you. So apparently the film maker Ferando Barreda Luna did not feel it was clear enough and added this explanation. Finally we see the police footage of what at the end of the movie is a crime scene, just in case the audience still does not get it. It explains the happenings at the house from the outsiders point of view and all of it is more sad than scary. I wish it was better executed because there is some value in the film.
I am leaning towards not recommending this film, 5.0 means it is an adequate watch but unfortunately this is more hard to watch. Not because it is gross out disgusting but just because the found footage is so amateur it is hard to sit through. I had a general idea what was going to happen a third of the way through the film and the ending was not really surprising to me.
Rating (4.2) In the Zombiegrrlz system I would say SKIP IT!