Distilled from thirty-seven hours of video footage shot over a period of five days (March 30, 2010 to April 3, 2010) by siblings Cristian (Cristian Valencia) and July (Clara Moraleda) Quintinilla while spending the Easter holidays with their father Santiago (Xavi Doz), mother Debora (Chus Pereiro), and younger brother Jose (Sergi Martin) at their long derelict country house in Sitges (recently fixed up by family friend Carlos [Jose Masegosa]). It is the perfect opportunity for the "urban legend" enthusiast siblings to explore the local "Girl on the Road" legend (which is not the same as our "Girl on the Bridge" urban legend). The gist of the story is that a young girl got lost in the Garraf woods in 1940 and was never found (it was rumored that she fell down a well). Travelers who find themselves in the woods at night will see her and she will show them the way. There are, however, many variations including the possibility that the girl is a demon or the devil leading travelers to their death. On their first day, they discover a set of gates that lead into an overgrown garden labyrinth with a strange altar and a well. That night, strange moaning sounds are heard from the woods that disturb their sleep. The next night, Cristian sets up a camera in night-vision to record the grounds from the upstairs window at night. The next morning, they discover that the family dog has disappeared. Cristian and July find it dead at the bottom of the well but do not tell their younger brother Jose, so he sneaks out that night to look for the dog which sends Debora, Cristian, and July (the latter two with their cameras, of course) into the labyrinth where they discover something far more "atrocious" than a silly urban legend. Shot in Spain by a Mexican crew, ATROCIOUS is another in the line of "found footage" horror movies - more in the THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT style, although likely inspired by the sub-genre's second wind with PARANORMAL ACTIVITY - in which characters who are not combat photojournalists hold desperately onto their professional HD cameras even when they are running for their lives against possibly demonic forces. Fernando Barreda Luna and his crew found some wonderfully atmospheric locations and the unknown cast is fine overall (although only Valencia and Moraleda have significant screen time). The two actors also operated the handheld cameras and - as with even the lesser post-PARANORMAL ACTIVITY examples - a modicum of chills are elicited by the combination of searching cameras, dark environs, and our tendency to search out humanoid shapes in the shadows. Unfortunately, while THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT laid out its legend clearly from the outset and built on it with the accumulation of creepy props, visuals, and sounds (in spite of the meandering argument scenes), ATROCIOUS's urban legend falls by the wayside and gives way to the usual half-heard sounds, sudden loud crashes, night-vision running, frightened profanity, and so forth. There are also some annoying irrationalities: July unplugging the camera recording the woods at night makes no sense (compared to the throwing away the map bit in BLAIR WITCH), and the survivor's decision to follow a trail of blood into the basement from which strange noises are emanating - even though it is finally dawn - will have horror fans shouting "Hey, stupid!" at the POV. Unlike the recent EVIL THINGS, ATROCIOUS does explain what happened and it is disturbing despite the contrived manner in which it is revealed. Press materials tell us that the material was acquired by a production company and edited into a feature from thirty-seven hours of video, but all we see onscreen at the start is a Spanish police department screen that suggests it is a piece of evidence (and will have attentive audience members wondering about the various aesthetic choices supposedly made by the police technicians, including the title card, music stings during the intertitles, and the fast rewind bits book-ending the story proper. What you end up with is a film that has some good moments (and was actually made with enthusiasm and conviction, going by the making-of featurette) but doesn't really reward the repeat viewer. The producers of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY and INSIDIOUS have picked up the US remake rights; however, American viewers need not worry about the original being held back as it is due out on DVD in the states in October.