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REC (aka [REC] ) (Spain) (V)

Release Date: July 14, 2009
Director: Jaume Balaguero, Paco Plaza
Writer: Jaume Balaguero, Paco Plaza
Starring: Javier Botet Niña medeiros Manuel Bronchud Martha Carbonell Claudia Font Vicente Gil
Studio: Sony Home Entertainment
Rating: R
Official Site: Click Here

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Posted By: .::DyingBreed::. at 6:17pm, November 16, 2009

They Showed This On Free To Air Tv In Australia.!
Great Movie



Posted By: iNSANEmoments at 3:14am, November 8, 2009

GREAT MOVIE. I watch this every weekend when its thunder storming, actually. So much better than the american remake. I recommend this to anyone who has the guts to watch it. Lol.


Posted By: Da Storm at 12:27pm, November 5, 2009

Amazing movie!!!! Scary, intense, well directed. Highly recommended


Posted By: Atheist-American at 10:57am, November 5, 2009

This movie finally pulls of the hand-held camera idea about as perfectly as you can hope for. Not only that, but unlike Blair Witch (which is still good), this one delivers the goods. Although this movie still builds up to the a shocking, amazing ending like most of these types of films, this one doesn't just rely on suspense throughout the whole film, but payoffs throughout. Loved it and can't wait for the sequel.


Posted By: Mrmcd666 at 12:16pm, November 2, 2009

If you like films such as the blair witch project, diary of the dead then you will like this film. Unlike Blair witch which showed you nothing, this film shows everything. The films starts slow but halfway through the films just drops you. Can't wait to see rec 2


Posted By: JoshG16 at 1:29pm, November 1, 2009

For a Spanish horror this was pretty dam scary and i love it. Has soo much scars and gore in it and great story one of the best spanish horror film I've Ever seen :-)


Posted By: xXxZombie_HolocaustxXx at 7:10pm, October 20, 2009

i love this movie.better than quarentine. although quarentine was very cool they pretty just remade it scene for scene which is lame because even with a remake you can still have some originality. REC is awesome and if you haven't seen it go to your local blockbuster and rent it.


Posted By: _Boss_ at 9:13pm, October 15, 2009

A few creepy scenes, although I found it too short, should have been longer. Decent flick overall.


Posted By: Hacoon at 9:01am, October 4, 2009

Really awesome movie. Genuinely scary at the last scene. x]


Posted By: DIS.AR.RAY at 6:23am, September 29, 2009

Never seen it, but it sounds a LOT like quarentine.

Which I thought was pretty good. {I'm choosing the average rating so I don't affect the stats in any significant way]



Posted By: Chuletafilms1 at 2:50pm, September 24, 2009

WOW...


Posted By: destinie2loveu2 at 2:30am, September 23, 2009

Although I could say so many things about this movie I will say this Fantastic raw Masterpiece. Sense of claustrophobia and confusion, will definitely jangle the nerves. Better then Quarantine and looking forward to the sequel


Posted By: trickytreats at 4:04pm, September 21, 2009

What an awesome movie. I had never seen anything like it before and have a feeling I won't see anything like it again (except for the American remake which was a shot for shot copycat). The acting was great, the effects weren't overdone and the ending was scary as hell.


Posted By: leatherfacekillserinfan1 at 12:45pm, August 30, 2009

to me the movie quarantine was slightly better just due to the fact that it was in English but REC is still a horror movie masterpiece.

There isn't much of a difference between this and quarantine but all the characters were likable expecially Angela just like in the remake

The only thing better in this was the ending which was extremely chilling and terrifying




Posted By: screamzFIRE29 at 10:41pm, August 29, 2009

Screw Quarantine. This is a completely superior movie no matter what people say. Sure, it's almost shot by shot but the technical stuff is all different. This was the first movie to scare me in over a decade. It might just be the best horror movie ever made. The acting was also brilliant. Bravo!!


Posted By: s111or at 6:23am, August 28, 2009

Once again a super-idea came from the old continent.
Been following Spanih e Norwegian from Europe, and Korean, Chinese, and Japanese from the East, and I keep finding the best concepts and ideas coming from there.
When I watch an original, I don't bother watching the remake... it's not original anymore!! he,he,he!



Posted By: herbert west austin at 10:27am, August 25, 2009

it's an insult to fucking favor Quaratine over Rec.


Posted By: nightmareslayer at 8:11am, August 25, 2009

Great movie! Loved it! don't see why the need to remake it though.


Posted By: stampede at 12:52am, August 25, 2009

seriously its the same movie as quarantine. only with subtitles or bad dubbing. not picking fights but i dont see why anyone would prefer this to quarantine.


Posted By: celticogam at 7:55am, August 17, 2009

Wow! I mean "WOW!" What a great movie. REC Delivers on every level, This is one you don't watch alone. Please give this a go, and ignore all the hype around the U.S remake. REC Is by far the scariest movie to come out of Spain in the last 10 years. You gotta see this......


Posted By: MattSlash at 1:57pm, August 16, 2009

Pretty much exactly like its remake Quarantine, it's a clone! I still think they're overrated and not as scary as most people are claiming and both doesn't even come close to the greatness Cloverfield brought but when it comes to zombie films it's in a league of its own and is the most intense, unsettling and freaky one I've seen in a long time. I thought everything was realisticly portrayed which makes everything that happens to them even more unnerving and the lead actress gave it her all just like the lead actress in the remake. I am really looking forward to the sequel even though I wasn't a huge fan of both but I'm interested where they are taking this in terms of story and location ect. Overall if you saw the remake you pretty much saw this so no need to rush to see this, just wait for the sequel. If you haven't seen both though I suggest you check out either one because they are equally the same and get ready for a spooky good time. Hopefully they will release Paranormal Activity ASAP and not wait until it gets remade just like they did with this one, RELEASE IT ALREADY!


Posted By: ChakorBloodMoon at 3:14pm, August 13, 2009

I just finished the movie 2 minutes ago.
Personally I enjoyed Quarantine better, but this still get a 10/10
great acting, gore and script



Posted By: cjr83 at 7:41am, August 9, 2009

i dont see why this gets 2 points higher than quarantine they are both at the same standard


Posted By: slackjaw328 at 10:18am, August 1, 2009

Although I'm not really a fan from first person Blair Witch perspectve, I managed to get through this whole film..It was pretty intense and I thought the ending was pure genius.


Posted By: notokay19 at 2:45am, July 28, 2009

[REC] is surprisingly scary in parts, disturbingly gory in others, and completely moody and atmospheric. The final ten minutes or so are so incredibly tense, I was praying for a cheap jump scare to shake me out of my horror.

This movie probably deserves a 9, but because I had already seen Quarantine, I couldn't bring myself to fall as deeply into this film's spell as I would've liked.

The Spanish are definately leading the horror world right now.



Posted By: !!rogue!! at 11:09pm, July 26, 2009

This film was very well made and did have many scares. Lots of replay value here.


Posted By: JGinthehouse at 12:58am, July 26, 2009

I have yet to see quarantine so i can't compare the two. but REC was a great scare to watch! sure the first little bit of the film started to drag out a little bit, but from then on it was great to see the "disease" evolve throughout the rest of the film. and the last about 20-30 mins. of the movie was an absolute thrill ride! especially the ending. :)


Posted By: horrorbuff28 at 6:52pm, July 25, 2009

a total fright-fest.
loads of scares in this fantastic movie.
quarantine was a good movie but then i saw this film and Rec. was a hell of alot better than quarantine.



Posted By: juankytown at 10:12am, July 24, 2009

It's weird the fact that one spanish horror movie have been almost better than the rest of movies released in 2007...
I can't wait to October 9th u.u



Posted By: horroranime700 at 4:13am, July 23, 2009

Okay. The movie starts it's action at about 10 minutes in. Towards the middle, I felt that there were just SOME parts that were a bit dragging, but from this point after to the ending is non-stop GENUINE terror! I don't think I've seen a movie that scares like this in a LONG time! Overall, it' really is worth what they say it is! Can't wait to see the sequel!


Posted By: Skratchy at 11:56am, July 19, 2009

Perhaps it's because I saw Quarantine first, but I don't really see what made this movie so special. It was practically the same thing but LESS gory and intense. Quarantine just felt so much more brutal and raw and REAL. In REC they constantly move the camera around or focus on something else during a zombie attack but in Quarantine, BAM! blood flies everywhere as some poor bastard gets a hammer to the face. I realize it's harder to have gore effects when a movie is shot like this, but get a little more creative in the violence department, eh?

Overall Quarantine's a better movie, but REC has a superior climax. I don't know why they changed it for the American version, but I found it to be way more terrifying. Wish I had seen at least that final scene in the penthouse at the theater. Would've peed my pants.



Posted By: DeadArtist at 8:42am, July 19, 2009

I watched this twice in theaters and it I left the theatre in shock (twice)! I love the characters in this film and how all tension starts growing. Deffinetly one of the best horror films I've seen!


Posted By: NateW24 at 11:03pm, July 18, 2009

pretty good movie. I enjoyed it a lot. Not something that i think will be a classic, but very fun.


Posted By: twisted at 9:03pm, July 18, 2009

This movie is so much better than Inside or Haute Tension. It makes sense. I can't wait for Rec 2. I didn't even bother seeing Quarantine because American remakes always suck in comparison.


Posted By: gorypass at 10:35pm, July 16, 2009

I should of seen this first but I saw Quarantine first and they both sucked to me...I didn't think it was scary only the ending sure that was the scariet part you could say...European can make good films but this one was not one of them...I was dissapointed after hearing the hype about Rec.....it just goes to show ya don;t buy the hype.


Posted By: maynardmorrissey at 7:29am, July 16, 2009

One of the best European horror movies of all time. Fuck Quarantine!


Posted By: AvoidTheCheese at 12:49am, July 16, 2009

Just fucking perfect!
Scary, desperate, it's got everything you'd ever ever want and more!
Spanish and french man they've got the horror talent!



Posted By: kryptonite_soul at 6:25pm, July 15, 2009

ive had this a while now as i live in england, cant believe america has only just got this.

loved the whole idea it felt so fresh and realistic the gore fantastic quesy cam worked well with this. But im not gonna have a go at quarantine cus i loved that aswell but on a purely personal level i simply enjoyed this more.

a classic that is destined to be



Posted By: GRUDGE4life at 2:59pm, July 15, 2009

amazing movie!!!! the acting is much better and the overall feeling of the film is much better than the remake!!!


Posted By: scary_chick at 5:42am, July 15, 2009

Ok everyone that says they love this movie better also say they love Quarantine . Its the exact same movie just one is in english and one is foreign . Dont get me wrong i love foreign horror movies , but i saw Quarantine like a year or so ago and for this to come out in america i feel like its just a waste of my time .I know alot of you will probley comment back about how this movie was made in spain lets say 4 years ago and we took there idea and made it are own and thats fine my question is did u watch it 4years ago if not then shut up . This is the exact same movie nothing more and nothing less


Posted By: BK's Finest at 11:09pm, July 14, 2009

Good movie... 8.5/10


Posted By: JohnnyHorror30 at 9:14pm, July 14, 2009

Finally the long awaited wait for [REC] has come! [REC] is quite possibly one of the best horror films to come out in a long time. The award-winning, blockbuster Spanish horror film [REC] had already been remade for U.S. audiences under the name "Quarantine". Directed by Jaume Balaguero, "REC" is a film that adapts the first person, The film has the B-grade movie feel, but the director made it work. After all, what better way to emulate realism with a DV camera than for the movie to look very unpolished and rough around the edges? I enjoyed "Quarantine" but "REC" is a lot better, Think of cereal in a market, you can buy a generic bag but will it taste and be as fresh as the original, hell no!

[REC] is overly scary!! A movie so driven that it makes washing your hair with battery acid feel more pleasant. It rocks you in the face and stabs your brain with your nose bone. The fear and look of this film is like a look into reality caught on camera and it will disturb most viewers, The quick scenes of rabid attacks are like ice picks piercing ones eyes, This movie is a film that will give you the shivers, The same kind of feeling you might get when you think about flossing your teeth with razor wire. [REC] is the movie I'm describing.

The film's style feels very rough and edgy. (Quarantine was polished and beautified) The film looks very simple and stays close to realism. The apartment looks very normal until the lights go off then we see how horrific and claustrophobic the setting really gets. The film is nicely paced clocking at 79 minutes, those 79 minutes will go down in history like a prostitute bobbing on your apples!

[REC] starts off with a news reporter, The ever so cute Manuela Velasco and her camera man Pablo. They are making a documentary at a small time fire station dept. Soon they will realize that it's going to be a a night of sheer terror. They receive a call to rescue an elderly woman, They never would have suspected that a first call to that night would be their last. As the group of fireman, police and the camera crew begin to walk upstairs they find a gentle night air is pierced by the sound of horrific screams and things take a turn for the worse. So they find the elderly woman creeping around her apartment dripping with blood from her mouth, All the police, fireman try to help her out until CRUNCH!!! She takes a livid bite out of one of the fire mans body and leaves him in a shaking frenzy, As this is happening the building is being sealed off by the government allowing no one from the building to escape. With no escape the crew finds out later that they have no way of escape, They find themselves surrounded by frightened residents who are infected with a violent bacterial infection.

These infected have so much power, A bitten little girl had the power to attack a police officer. As the carnage is building deeper and deeper the government sends in the center of disease and control to take samples of the infected. As all hell starts to break loose like a soccer riot we have the infected fleeing up the stairs like they were on crack cocaine, They were freakin animals!!! They were like a pack of wolves looking to feed on anything they could sink their teeth and gum lines into, If they got a chance they would Pop your blood sockets and drink you friggen dry.

As we get deeper into the film we get to the final 20 minute mark, all I can say is that the last 20 minutes will carve a memory in your mind so that you will never forget what you have witnessed. Angela and Pablo are still fleeing these infected maniacs to try to find a way out, one of the infected was bashed in the head with a sledge hammer to the violent use of a video camera, blood was oozing and the tension was building to the climax of the film.

Angela and her camera man Pablo are searching for a key to release themselves from this building and end up in this room, The last room they could possibly see if they don't find a way out. Both Angela and Pablo come across news articles and audio tapes of some kind of demonic possession. Moments later there’s a segment where the lights go out and Pablo's forced to use night vision and when the possessed creature jumps out of the dark to attack its almost as if you are standing right there. In fact you never even see the cameraman its almost as if he's you! The ending in what could be one of the scariest and deranged moments ever caught on film. My teeth were clenched and my jaw felt locked as I found myself tense in excitement nearly ever couple of minutes. [REC] is one of the best Spanish horror films in recent memory. Those final 10 minutes will go down in history, I can assure you that.


I Am What I Say I Am - Rated R [JohnnyHorror]



Posted By: JasonFlett at 9:01pm, July 14, 2009

Amazing Foreign Movie!!


Posted By: MGM at 6:26pm, July 14, 2009

two thumbs up!!! . best movie i see


Posted By: PromNight2008 at 5:15pm, July 14, 2009

Very good film, but perhaps not as good as it was hyped up to be. I liked the short running time, which really added to the suspense because there wasn't a whole lot of "filler", although I would've enjoyed some more development before the action took place; character development is certainly never a bad thing.

The acting was great, although I always find it hard to really tell in foreign films that I watch with subtitles. I think the main actress was much better than Jennifer Carpenter in 'Quarantine,' who equated acting scared with loud hyperventilating sounds.



Posted By: jula at 4:35pm, July 14, 2009

not that great...


Posted By: UltimateToronto.com at 3:01pm, July 14, 2009

Saw it last year and it made my top 10 list. I LOVED it, loved that you couldn't anticipate when you would jump via the score (or lack thereof). Looking forward to the sequel!


Posted By: LadyLucifera at 3:01pm, July 14, 2009

Easily the best horror movie I've seen in such a long time. I really cannot enough positive things about REC. Everyone should see this movie so you can erase that horrible Quarantine from your mind.


Posted By: bluegrasslass at 11:47am, July 14, 2009

I cannot recommend this film enough - the Spanish & French are really leading the field at the moment.
Do yourselves a favour: Buy REC and Frontiere(s), watch them back-to-back and try to sleep!
To those who complain it's too 'slow', it's not a cartoon; you have to get to know the characters and watch the story take shape!



Posted By: Dr. Evil at 2:49am, July 14, 2009

Awesome!


Posted By: Scurgar at 7:48pm, November 20, 2008

Awesome awesome awesome. Needed more gore, but still awesome.


Posted By: justincantrell at 1:25pm, November 20, 2008

finally seen it..and i loved it..but i am going to be honest..i did not like it as much as quarantine.Quarantine added much more to the story and extra gore.Now as far as endings i thought REC'S was scarier. and the lead chick was hotter in REC.Overall both are phenomenal.


Posted By: rusted31 at 2:48am, November 14, 2008

Finally got around to seeing this last night on DVD, not cinema and all I can say is Wow what a film. Short,intense and made me jump not once,not twice but three times. Love how urgent and fast paced this film is with just the right amount of running time to keep things tense. The whole point of what is going on and why is deftly wrapped up in a few short scenes, add some great blood and gore effects and characters that are likeable and you have yourself a nasty bile spitting zombie movie. Blair Witch meets 28 Days Later but scarier than both put together .Highly recommended.


Posted By: riotsquid1408 at 2:23am, November 12, 2008

the best movie ever


Posted By: Jacques at 1:13pm, November 11, 2008

"If it's American, it's bad. If it's foreign, it's good." You've heard it all your life, especially with the Asian horror craze a few years ago, then now with the recent French horror craze. And, sorry to be honest, I've seen every foreign "masterpiece", and not one of them has ever given that argument a backbone. REC. is no different. At best, it's well-done, but sadly typical. At worst, it's unoriginal and just like everything else you've seen a thousand times.

It always amuses me when I hear critics say things like, "Oh, just another Saw sequel, nothing I haven't seen before . . ." but then jump on the mindless bandwagon for movies like REC., which are just carbon copies of every other lame movie ever made. If you've seen any other handheld camera movie, you've seen REC. If you've seen any other virus-turns-people-into-zombies movie, you've seen REC. The only thing that even hints at different is the confinement, and that is simply it. There is zero originality, and nothing that doesn't fit into the trite, safe, cliché horror box. REC. plays it safe. It brings back the stuff that made your great uncle shiver, and that is the single reason it's getting good reviews. It's safe. It's a proven formula, critically acclaimed in the past, viewer loved, and REC. doesn't take a single risk at trying to be different.

I've grown up on video games like Resident Evil and played recent games like Condemned and BioShock, and it seems now Hollywood (and foreign filmmakers, as well) is trying to copy them. I have nothing against that—Resident Evil and BioShock put 95% of horror movies to thumb-sucking shame, and if filmmakers want to put that on screen, I'm all for it. But with REC., they totally miss what makes those games so scary and engaging: originality. Bringing people to places they've never seen before, then trying to get them to explode in their pants. REC. does the exact opposite: it takes you to the familiar, then tries to scare you with the familiar. REC. is a giant cliché, and it looks like I'm the only one alive who realizes this. It uses scares you've seen in 1950's horror movies, let alone seen in the standard slasher remake. It rehashes horror grounds that you've tread on hundreds, if not thousands of times, then expects you to take it as if its oh-so-original and shocking. Sorry, kids who aren't even old enough to legally see this movie without a parent, and sorry old people who are so stuck in the cheesy horror past (with giant flesh-eating flies), anyone with a brain can say this is the most unoriginal movie to be this acclaimed in years.

Despite the raving reviews that call this "intense", the vast majority of the runtime is nothing but people running (pun unintended). Run, scream, OH-SCARY-LITTLE-GIRL!, run, scream, run, run, scream. That's it. When I wasn't laughing at the absolute cheesiness of some of the scares, I was bored out of my mind! If they were to take out the amount of repeated scenes, the movie would be 15 minutes long. And those 15 minutes are almost entirely the slow, boring opening.

With that said, there were some genuinely intense—if not clichéd—moments in the end, and I wish a lot of other movies would have that. However, it's just style and no substance. I can care less what happens at that point in the movie because everything before it has been just boring and predictable.

I'm not going to withhold the information that I viewed the remake, Quarantine, before I watched REC., and that may be why my opinion is so negative. I hated Quarantine for the same reasons I disliked REC., and though REC. is by far superior, Quarantine was much more intense and well-done. A lot of the scenes in REC. just looked sloppy compared to the scenes in Quarantine, and nowhere near as effective. But none of that really matters because both movies were pathetic—one was just a little better done (Quarantine), and one was a little more realistic and overall better (REC.).

Overall, REC. isn't quite a waste of time, but it isn't a necessary watch, either. Don't go out of your way to view it, because if yourself up, you'll realize, "Wait . . . this is exactly like every other standard horror movie! I feel cheated!" like I did.

I can guarantee in two days from now I'll forget I even watched this movie. More than anything, I just wish a movie could be memorable again, no matter what country made it.



Posted By: draculaghost at 8:01pm, November 7, 2008

Excellent


Posted By: Lucksaw at 2:06pm, November 6, 2008

Just one word: Masterpiece.


Posted By: horrorfan1988 at 1:00pm, November 3, 2008

Scariest movie I've ever seen. I had the awesome experience of seeing it on the big screen and I believe that's they way it's meant to be seen. So freaking scary. Best foreign horror film in years.


Posted By: thedescent08 at 10:28pm, October 29, 2008

Fantastic movie! A must-see!!!!


Posted By: tcmassacre at 10:16pm, October 29, 2008

I want to put this right out in the open to begin with.

I'm not what you can call an usual movie fan. My favorite movies tend to be rather specific, genre wise (unless it really translates itself in an absolute masterpiece), mainly because there simply are a couple of genres that I can "feel" and relate to more than the rest of them. Some of the aspects I mention in my reviews as being simply brilliant are usually minor ones to the rest of the reviewers around here. I rarely enjoy blockbusters, Hollywood cliches, remakes, recent movies, movies with Ben Affleck or one of the others 325632,3 actors exactly like him, and so on.

This is simply for you to know that I'm more than aware of the fact that probably none of you who will end up reading this will be willing to give [REC] the same amount of consideration I did.
This is not a movie to "get". So if you go see it for your fair amount of twists and turns (although it does have a few surprises, specially towards the end), then you're likely to be disappointed.
This is, quite simply, a movie to feel.
And either you will or you won't, and that's what will make you like it or not.

[REC] is easily one of the very best movies I've seen in the past few years.
Probably one of its greatest features is that it's purposedly minimalistic, and yet it's also a masterpiece that will make you shiver (but truly shiver), and want to think and talk about it long after it's over.
If you're one of the lucky ones, that is.

This movie (surely THE best Spanish one I've seen to date) is probably one of the most realistically haunting experiences you'll find in a screen up until this moment. Everything in it, from the most insignificant, ordinary thing, to the truly surreal and hard to believe ones, is presented in the most perfect possible way and in all its aspects: acting, pace, action - reaction moments, emotions... you name it, and I'll add it here for you. It's simply that good.

Now, the filming.
If I had to depend on previous movies to explain what kind of movie is [REC], I'd say it's a clear refinement of a mixture between The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield (by the way, if you feel like talking about ripping off issues, do yourself a favor, and do your homework properly before bringing that up). Better than either one of them. Better than the two combined.
And that's actually saying much, as I really liked both.

Another brilliant highlight of this movie. It's as intense as they come, it's all going up until the end, it has a very short length (nowadays, less than an hour is either insane or brilliant. In this case, it's both.), and yet not even once you see them rushing things.

And then there's the ending.
Exactly how it should be.
I wouldn't change a thing, and that's something you very rarely see me saying, specially about an ending.

And children.

Long review.
Longer than it should.

Bottom line: if you know me, and somehow understand why I rated this movie as I did, and if you feel that you somehow relate yourselves with it...
Then don't waste anymore time, and go watch it.

Maybe, in the end, you'll be as lucky as I was.

Muy bien España!
La mejor película de horror de los últimos años!



Posted By: bdwolfe312 at 1:00pm, October 25, 2008

Let me start by saying this is a much better film than "Quarantine." I say that having seen this film first, so that may taint my opinion of it, but the scares in [REC] were genuine, as opposed to replication. I normally require dubs over subtitles for foreign films, but I was so engrossed in this one that I managed to keep up, and for me, that's saying something.

I do feel, however, that this format is growing tired. Within the past year or so, I've seen "Cloverfield", "Diary of the Dead", "Zombie Diaries", "REC", and "Quarantine. It's becoming a little ridiculous. Let's try to remember that feeling of utter disappoinment we all had after walking out of "Blair Witch Project." Let's just hope the [REC] sequel isn't as bad as "Blair Witch 2."



Posted By: asinyne at 6:36pm, February 5, 2008

Let me start of by saying that it is 6:14 in the morning on New Years Day of 2008 and I am (obviously) sitting at my computer, thinking about the film I just finished watching. Yes, this is in fact my 2 cents on a film. A horror film, no less. You see what I did there? With the title? Clever, I know. Anywho, for those of you who aren't interested in horror movies or just don't care what I have to say, go ahead and skip class this morning. No offense taken. For everyone else...

Alright, the topic of discussion is the Spanish horror film [REC]. I came across this film on upcominghorrormovies.com and was immediately interested. So, I did a bit MORE research, tapping my favorite resource, IMDb.com. My interest grew. I had to see it. Sadly, foreign films are hard to come by, especially if they've only just been released in their country of origin. But, after much searching and dedication, I found it. The rub? It was in Spanish with nary a subtitle in sight. What did this mean for me? Duh, it meant I was going to be watching a film without understanding a word of what was being said. Yes, I did watch this foreign film with out a translation. No, I have no real idea what all was said. Interestingly enough, this had no negative impact on the viewing.

[REC], as I said, is a horror film from Spain, that can be best described as a cross between the Blair Witch Project and Danny Boyle's excellent film 28 Days Later... In other words: first person camera perspective + "zombies" = joygasm! This is about a TV reporter who, with the help of her cameraman (us), is covering the night shift at the fire department. In the middle of the night the men get a call and soon enough we are on our way to an apartment building to offer assistance and film the events that transpire. Once there, we see that something is amiss. It appears an old lady upstairs is off her rocker. Let me rephrase: she's fuckin' psycho! Covered in blood and, for all intents and purposes, rabid, she attacks. Things get... a bit hectic, the movie slows back down, then things get good. I have to say, watching this film at 4 in the morning in a dark house was great. Honestly, the last 15 minutes of this movie had me riveted. I finally know what "edge of your seat" means. Blinking is not an option here, people.

Because this is shot in the same style as the Blair Witch, there is a lot of shaking. There is a lot of blurriness. There is a LOT of chaos. While some will probably find it annoying, it adds so much to the tension. This isn't a film set with directors and steady-cams and make-up artists. This movie is on the move, the camera is in a man's hands, running up and down stairs, wrestling with the infected, fighting for survival. You feel as if you are actually there, holding the camera, and that makes everything that much more visceral.

I can't say it enough: I absolutely loved this flick. Sadly, it's over much too soon with a little over a 70 minute run time. On the plus side, those 70 minutes are very well spent. If this sounds like something you'd be interested in (if you're a horror buff like me), I'm sad to say you're most likely going to have to wait a couple of months for a DVD release here in the States (with subtitles though!). I, myself, am working on getting some subs and I'm sure once I do the film will be that much better. Again, a must-see for horror movie fanatics.



Posted By: Morbid at 9:25pm, February 2, 2008

Angela is a television reporter and the host of a segment called "When You're Asleep." Angela and her camera man, Pablo, film people and things active in the city while most of the inhabitants are sleeping. On this particular night, Angela and Pablo will be filming a group of firefighters at their station and on any calls they may have to go on. After a fireman's typical night of waiting and participating in boring activities such as eating, sleeping and a game of basketball, the station finally gets a call from a nearby apartment building, much to Angela's relief. Residents have reported that an elderly shut-in is locked in her apartment and is screaming like a banshee. When the firemen get to the location, with Angela and Pablo in tow, they find that the police are also there and the apartment buildings residents are all huddled on the ground floor foyer.

With Angela reporting on the events as they transpire, and Pablo continually filming, the situation turns from from mundane to hellish in the blink of an eye. It gets even worse when everyone in the building, including the police and firemen who initially answered the call, are all quarantined inside the building. Any attempt to escape would offer certain death from the military who are now outside guarding the building, and staying inside could mean an even worse fate. Angela, Pablo, the other residents of the apartment building must try and survive and ultimately find a way out. And so begins [REC]. A roller coaster ride of a movie, if the roller coaster consisted only of a slow, 30 minute roller coaster ride up a hill and then proceeded into a 40 minute, break-neck free fall.

Directed by Jaume Balageuro and Paco PlazaIn, [REC] is a white-knuckler filmed in the same voyeuristic style as films such as Blair Witch Project. It is of the "found footage" variety that some of you love and some of you loathe. Luckily, after a few terrible BWP copycats (The St. Francisville Experiment, anyone?), the "found footage" genre has seen some decent films of late such as Romero's Diary of the Dead and even some recent entries like The PoughKeepsie Tapes and the upcoming Cloverfield. Does [REC] bring anything worthwhile to the table? Absolutely. [REC] delivers the goods and is easily one of the better horror films to use the cinéma-vérité technique to date. With outstanding performances by the cast and the lack of a soundtrack, the entire film achieves it's goal of making the viewing experience personal and putting you there with these people and their plight. Whether the camera is shaky, out of focus, or on the floor, the style and atmosphere created make everything seem very realistic and necessary. It also helps that unlike other films that attempt this free style type of filming, [REC] never feels too much like any of the scenes were staged or scripted, avoiding one of the major pitfalls associated with this type of film. There is blood in the film, but it is not a splatter-fest. The film is more effective portraying the escalating terror instead of trying to use any elaborate gore effects to achieve it's goal.

What helps sell the film, and it's Descent-like death spiral, is how Pablo handles the camera. In the beginning, it is deliberate, methodical and familiar with any type of documentary or news report. But the more the film progresses, the more things spiral completely out of control, the camera works echoes it's handler. It is now shaky, frenzied. Later, the camera is used not only to film, but when the lights go off, it is their only source of light. When that fails? Nightvision. It is at this point in the film when viewers will get what they came for if they wanted to be scared in any way. While the film is laden with tension and a few "jump scares" it's the last 5 minutes of the film are spectacularly creepy and unnerving. It is also what helps thrust this already competent horror movie into the top tiers of horror films with an ending that will be hard for viewers to forget.

An American remake is in the works already, picked up by Sony's Screen Gems, who have reportedly hired John and Drew Dowdle, the filmmakers behind the already mentioned The Poughkeepsie Tapes. They will write and direct the film (called Quarantine).



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