Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.0

Atroz Blu-ray Movie Review

A Mexican Film?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 12, 2016

Horror fans are among the most vocal in the film community, and they’ve let several of us reviewers here at Blu-ray.com have it when our opinions haven’t jived with theirs. I got some significant blowback from some (not all, mind you) when I didn’t give A Serbian Film a rave, with some critics of my critique alleging I simply didn’t have the intellectual capacity to “understand” the film. Personally, I think I “understood” A Serbian Film just fine, including its supposed subtext, but guess what? — I just didn’t care for it, and in fact it kind of appalled me in a way that I had never before experienced when viewing a film. So I’ll begin this review by simply stating if you liked A Serbian Film, chances are you will like, maybe even love, Atroz, though it would be hard to argue that this Mexican horror outing by Lex Ortega has even the pretense of “subtext”, something that supposedly gave A Serbian Film some (questionable) kind of imprimatur (hey, would someone lacking intellectual capacity use a word like “imprimatur”?, and, yes, that's a joke). Those who parse scores will notice that I gave A Serbian Film 1.5 while I’m bestowing a whopping 2.0 on Atroz, because in fits and starts this film has some interesting concepts, even if they’re buried underneath a deluge of absolutely disgusting imagery that (get ready) includes lots of genital mutilation and other horrors. But as an exposé of the unseemlier side of Mexico City (something co-writer and director Ortega mentions was a goal of his, especially after the scrubbed clean version of the city presented in Spectre), Atroz has something to say, if again in a questionable manner and with some intentionally abhorrent imagery.

An opening montage details the gritty, grimy and crime filled world of Mexico City and offers an arresting (no pun intended, considering what’s about to happen) view of this urban metropolis. The film’s actual narrative starts in the aftermath of a horrendous car accident that has left a young girl dead in the street when two drunk guys in a vehicle have hit her and actually run over her. In what is one of the last moments of Atroz actually declining to show blood and guts, the victim’s body is covered with a sheet, albeit one splattered with, well, blood and guts (there’s also what I assume is supposed to be a spew of brain matter emanating from the top of her body across the street). A supervising cop shows up and berates the beat cop for not having looked in the vehicle, despite the fact that the beat cop has at least gotten the perps handcuffed and in the back of his police car.

The cop finds a couple of items in the glove compartment, including a gun (which he just takes, the first clue as to his particular moral compass, or lack thereof) and more saliently a video camera. It’s here that Atroz starts tipping over into “found footage” territory, as the intrepid policeman starts watching the “evidence” on the minicam. It’s spectacularly gruesome stuff, including the aforementioned genital mutilation and everything from rape, murder and (maybe) even necrophilia. Obviously these perps have more to answer for than “merely” hit and (attempted) run. The film then ping pongs a bit between some vicious interrogation scenes (Ortega isn’t especially subtle in his formulation that the cops are as nasty as the bad guys) and more found footage material that seeks to offer some kind of motivation for these horrific crimes.

If Ortega had been able to rein in his tendency to show everything in his probably twisted imagination, Atroz might have actually had more impact, at least with regard to one element where the film actually toys with if never completely exploits some putative subtext, namely gender identity and what seems to be (in Ortega’s formulation, anyway) an almost genetic homophobia on the part of some Mexicans. But any laudable thesis arguing for tolerance and understanding is simply lost in a film that traffics in so much intentionally horrifying imagery. There’s a visceral intensity to Atroz, probably unavoidably so given that very imagery, but anyone looking for a meaningful message is on a hunt for lost, not found, footage.

Atroz Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Atroz is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Unearthed Films and MVD Visual with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer (mostly) in 1.78:1 (several of the different "found footage" moments offer varying aspect ratios, as I've attempted to document in some of the screenshots accompanying this review). This was digitally shot with a variety of cameras and resolutions, and the results are understandably pretty heterogeneous looking. The bulk of the police interrogation sequences are the sharpest and best detailed in this presentation, with excellent levels of fine detail and similarly excellent sharpness and clarity. The rest of the presentation is intentionally all over the map, with some supposedly older videotape elements looking pretty soft and even smeary, and some interstitial, supposedly newer, videotape elements looking at least a bit sharper by comparison. A lot of the found footage elements feature pretty copious "jiggly cam", something that probably inherently adds at least the perception of softness to the image since nothing is ever anchored firmly enough to really get a good bead on. Various sequences look at least slightly color graded, and in fact the nicely sharp police interrogation sequences have a slightly brownish tint that looks a bit unusual under what appears to be pretty harsh fluorescent lighting conditions.

Atroz Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Atroz features DTS-HD Master Audio in both 2.0 and 5.1. The 5.1 mix spreads the film's pulsating score and ambient effects rather widely around the surround channels, helping to provide a sense of immersion that is otherwise somewhat tamped down in the interrogation scenes. Some of the violent moments have pretty gruesome sound effects which are rendered very realistically. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range wide on this problem free track.

Atroz Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Atroz Original Short Film (1080i; 14:25) presents the original short by Ortega, focusing on the transvestite prostitute, which sparked this longer feature. Much of the footage is found in the feature film.


• Crowdfunding Video (729p; 3:54)


• Behind the Scenes Featurette (1080p; 4:02)


• Music & Sound Featurette (1080i; 4:34) visits the LSD Studios. Hey, they named it, I didn't.


• Practical FX Featurette (1080p; 3:43) similarly visits Reality FX Studios.


• Production Gallery (1080i)


• Commentary by Ortega is available in either English or Spanish.

Additionally, a Soundtrack CD and DVD Copy are included in the release.

Atroz Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Atroz bears the translated title Atrocious, and that may just be truth in advertising, folks. For those who enjoy torture porn and immolated genitals, look no further. Technical merits are strong for those considering a purchase.