User Reviews

(I don't think I included any spoilers, but just in case I marked it as such.)

I love horror movies, and have a particular weakness for found footage or hand-held camera shot movies. That said, i enjoyed the premise of this movie at the beginning, and thought they were going in an alright direction with it. By the end however I was fairly disappointed with the movie and felt that felt that the movie lacked a great deal of substance. For a good deal of the movie, especially towards the end, you cant see a damn thing, as the screen almost if not entirely black. Now I gave them some credit for taking the realism thing as far as humanly possible, but it ended up ruining the movie. There really wasn't any "story" to it at all.

The other thing that bothered me were the long stretches of the kid running through the woods in the dark. I felt that they lasted way too long and didn't really accomplish anything. they lasted so long that they destroyed any tension they may have been trying to create. The twists were about the only interesting thing about the movie, and the only bits that didn't seem to be about bushes. The girl in the movie aptly says early on, "There is nothing to tape, but trees." and she is right. I felt that the ending twist was a bit weak and uncalled for, especially since nothing pointed to such a conclusion. In fact the ending raised quite a few questions that the writers don't seem to realize exist.

All grievances aside, this was not the worst movie I have ever watched. It comfortably fits into the found footage genre, but doesn't really add much of anything to it. I would not however recommend this film to anyone, even a fellow found footage junkie.

The flick was shot in a first person view, so it is not for everyone. The dialogue is well constructed, the relationships between relatives are believable, the scene change is very fluent and modern - you might see the resemblances to other movies such as Paranormal Activity and REC. It starts with a slow pace and with a supernatural theme but it has a very nice twist in the end.

Being a fan of this type of movies myself, I was satisfied with the final result. Do not expect gore, sex or mutilations - that is another type of horror. Instead, this movie (like so many others) provides suspense and dread.

I'll give 7/10 because of how well it was produced and put together.

It's not that I am going to sit here and just say that this is the worst film i've ever seen to catch your attention. This IS the worst film I've ever laid my eyes on (and it's even worse than dungeon girl.

Not only do you never create a bond with any of the main characters but the movie is just down right dull. It has chase scenes of running and panting that lasts up to five minutes (not kidding, and all of this is filmed form a hand-held camera.)

The movie engulf itself in this whole "handheld camera" idea that it swallows the whole movie. Most scenes you wont know what's happening because it seems like the cameraman is having a some sort of spastic seizure which makes it impossible for him to hold the camera so you can get a glimpse of what's going on.

The lightning in the movie is horrendous as well, because sometimes it seems like they are screaming at what seems to be a bush or a stone when it is (suppousedly) something there.

This one gets a 2/10

Why? Because it feels like this movie is begging to be "different" but fails at doing so.

Do not watch this film.

Admittedly, it did build up some pretty terrible scares, but the mystery wasn't that mysterious and frankly it shouldn't have been much of a surprise to anyone, least of all the people investigating the incident. There was the possibility of supernatural occurrence, or completely mundane; from the beginning it's clear that it's not really a supernatural happening, or at least not likely to be. That leaves an impressive two people it could possibly be, which on retrospect isn't all that frightening. This is a film you can watch probably once and never again, which is disappointing; equally disappointing is how the killer isn't developed at all (and barely even has any screen time, nor are they referred to in any way to develop them) until literally the last minute, when it's really too late to build up anything.

As some have suggested, it would have worked far better at half its running time, since there's just far too much padding that adds pretty much nothing to the story. I found the frantic running around at night near the end to be genuinely tense and anxious initially, but eventually it got tiresome; either kill them and be done with it, or advance the plot.

The ending was also pretty ridiculous, I have to say, and seemed supremely implausible in the context, at least of what we can be assumed to know. There's just too much about it that makes the viewer think 'that doesn't make sense' or 'that's just stupid'. What were they trying for? It's one of those films that has a lot of 'fridge logic' with it; too many questions pop up after it's over and you think about it once you calm down a bit, and then it seems really flimsy. Which is a shame, because the characters seem realistic and are well-acted, and overall the film is pretty well-done. But really, it's a one-trick pony and you won't come back to it again. Still, if you have a little over an hour and want a one-time-only scare, this might be the one for you.

The M Night Shymyalayalaylan school of story-telling: bore the viewers for 90 minutes (OK, less than 70 here) then hope the end-twist can appease them. The twist is sort of unexpected, although I should have known, considering how guarded their mother is all the time, it was her and not some forest ghost. But can one surprise revelation make up for an hour of nothing?

Besides, the found-footage night scenes in the woods are so damn boring. The movie isn't atrocious but it's far from great either.

It is a "shaky camera" film style,so if you don't like those types of movies don't watch it. I don't mind the "shaky camera" style and thought the use of a labyrinth in a horror movie was something you don't see too often. Your typical don't go out and investigate movies or you end up dead. There is also a dead dog in the movie and was pretty real looking just a warning for people who are sensitive to that type of thing. Other then that I thought the twist was predictable but you did not clue in till about half way through the movie. I knew someone was off their rocker but I thought it was the dad until they showed mom sleeping a lot.

Where to start..

As far as a "lost footage" film goes, this isn't much different then others in the genre. The film itself is only 73 minutes (99% sure) long, which is why I gave it a 6 instead of a lower grade. There are less "jump" then "Oh my God"/"What the Hell" scenes in the film, the dead family dog and the daughter strung up in a ritualistic pose come to mind. The big problem I had with the movie was part of the lost footage, there's almost a three minute segment where it's nothing but camera juggling while Christian (one of the two main characters) was getting chased through the labyrinth almost to the point of motion sickness if you watch to closely. Almost at the end of the movie everything is summed up after 71 minutes of shock value. Atrocius is not a bad watch but this is a rent at best, only if you're a horror fan of the genre.

At first I didn't really know if I should even watch it, since we have seen so many found footage movies already, and he only got 4.8 points here. But then a friend told me I have to watch this, and he was right! I have no idea why this movie got so few points (except perhaps because the end was such a let down), it has deserved more!!! This movie has a very thick atmosphere,especially SPOILER

SPOILER all the parts done in this labyrinth are awesome. During the days you already get an eerie atmosphere, but during the night shots it is simply amazing !!! SPOILER END

Another big plus for me is that at no point I asked myself why the hell are they still filming ??? SPOILER

SPOILER Fernando Barreda Luna found a pretty clever solution for that, they needed the night view of their cameras to see something in the dark. They couldn't use their flashlights or who ever was after them could have easily found them. SPOILER END

I must give it to him, that was a clever idea, and it fitted in really natural. You don't get the feeling OK, he had a clever idea here, no, it is just a part of the plot that I didn't even really realize during the movie. Only after it I suddenly thought "Hey, that was clever, since usually that's exactly the point where found footage films mess up" Usually EVERY found footage film has this weak point that you ask yourself why are they filming this, but he managed to find a good way to explain it, that felt in no way artificial or anything like that.I also really liked how he build up the suspension really slow but steady. Often you think that now something really bad will happen SPOILER

SPOILER for example when the camera observes the dog at night, but nothing big happened,and yet you are left with a really unsettling feeling. SPOILER END

Towards the end the suspension is so tight it is almost unbearable

SPOILER for example when he is sitting on his bed after he fled to his room and barricades himself in. That scene is pure genius, you wait and wait that the axe is coming through that door, and the suspension was already near the limit before already,and then he just sits there. NOTHING happens for well over 2mins, yet this is one of the most unnerving scenes in the whole movie ! That one scene really shows the quality of Fernando Barreda Luna. In those 2 minutes your head is spinning like a roller-coaster, despite the fact nothing happens. This is so hard to do, but he pulls if of like a boss ! RESPECT !!!

Now so far the movie was an absolutely brilliantly done film, but as soon as that door opens he suddenly messes up completely !!! It starts with the first time that he is filming where I thought why the hell is he filming this. So far the filming was always a logical part of the plot, and now this,and it is only downhill from now on ! This sudden introduction of a new character, the crazy axe killer, feels completely artificial, like he had some footage left from another movie and needed a few more minutes of film, so he used what he had lying around ^^

You also get the feeling he had no idea how to end the movie,and suddenly they started shooting and he had to come up with something in a hurry. I mean the introduction of that crazy chick at the end could have been a good idea, if the film would have been at least 20 minutes longer, so he has time to really tell her story, but like this ? You also don't get to see how the 2 older siblings end. etc.etc. it is all just a big mess in the end SPOILER END