[REC] (2007)

A television reporter and cameraman follow emergency workers into a dark apartment building and are quickly locked inside with something terrifying.

REC is a 2007 Spanish horror film co-written and co-directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza. The film follows a television reporter, Ángela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) and her cameraman Pablo (Pablo Rosso), who cover the night shift in one of Barcelona’s local fire stations for the fictional documentary television series ‘While You’re Asleep’. The firehouse receives a call about an old woman who is trapped in her apartment, so the camera crew follow the firefighters, led by Manu (Ferran Terraza), to the apartment building. When they arrive, nothing can prepare them for what lies ahead.

I have been meaning to try and see REC for a long time now. I actually did see the US remake ‘Quarantine’ a few years back, and whilst I thought that was a good film, I kept hearing people say how much better the original spanish version was and so this past week I managed to finally watch it (along with parts 2 & 3!). WOW!! Why the hell did I wait so long to watch this film?! Quite honestly one of the best horror films I have seen in years, I really wasn’t expecting to enjoy it quite this much. I wrongly assumed that the whole shaky-cam and faux-documentry premise had been done to death in recent years, and that surely REC could offer nothing new and fresh. Unbelievably it does, and then some! We get a superb claustrophobic location, an actual reason for people to keep filming the situation, incredible looking zombies of all age, shape and sizes, blood, guts, gore and most of all scares, lots of scares. Pretty much all any horror fan can ask for.

I don’t really want to go into the plot very much here, as this is definitely a film that you should just approach knowing as little as possible about, and then just sit back and watch this journey into hell unravel. Without ruining anything, REC is a zombie film but with a difference. At under 80 minutes the film flew by, and I just wanted to find out what happened next (so I watched REC 2, click for review!). As the night progresses and the disease is infecting the residents, it causes them to turn into bloodthirsty savages. More and more people in the building become infected, and Ángela and Pablo are forced to fight them off. Eventually they learn that there is a key to a door in the apartment building workshop, which leads to an exit via the sewer system. However, the key is located on the third floor in the manager’s apartment. Here secrets are revealed and the true nature of the virus is revealed. The final 20 minutes or so are a masterclass in suspense and horror as we begin to discover what has been perpetrated here. We are even treated to some night vision action (not of the Paris Hilton variety luckily) and these scenes in particular are gut wrenching and tense to watch.

REC is quite simply brilliant. The directors did a superb job of creating something unique and different, and gave us a great story with an interesting twist. Visually it looked great, despite being filmed as a documentary and therefore using a hand-held camera, the camera-work, pacing, scripting, and special effects all combine to create a superb thriller. So many individual moments combine to keep us in a constant state of terror and claustrophobia. Creepy zombie kids, old zombies, night vision zombies, just so many different and brilliant treats and scares! I like that the concept of the typical zombie genre has been turned on its head with REC. Usually in zombie movies survivors board themselves inside some place and fight to keep the monsters out. In REC, survivors are trapped inside with the monsters, and must resort to more drastic measures to find a way out. Kudos to Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza for creating this.

As for the acting, going above and beyond the call of duty was the leading lady Manuela Velasco as Ángela. I was amazed to learn she is a spanish television presenter with no real acting experience. She was a total natural on camera and put in a truly excellent performance. She was cool and calm when she needed to be, and portrayed fear and emotion as the night progressed. The fact that she was beautiful to look at didn’t hurt either!

In closing, REC really should be seen by all horror fans, and I’m just annoyed at myself it took me around 5 years to finally see it. Please try and see it wherever and whenever you can if you havent already seen it, and if you have seen it I envy you for beating me to it. I genuinely can’t imagine anyone not loving this movie. Bravo España 🙂

Posted by Tysoncarter182 on August 6, 2012

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