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Film: [REC]2
Release date: 20th September 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 85 mins
Director: Jaume Balagueró & Paco Plaza
Starring: Óscar Zafra, Jonathan Mellor, Manuela Velasco, Ariel Casas, Alejandro Casaseca
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Studio: E1
Format: DVD & Blu-ray
Country: Spain
[REC] splattered its way onto our screens three years ago, and part of its power was the fact this small-budget Spanish horror tale seemed to come out of nowhere. The sequel will struggle to match it simply because it lacks the surprise element which made the first one so great, right?
Actually, no, this is just as scary and surprising as the first film, with added gore, certainly more laughs , and some twists which take the story in some unexpected directions.
It starts 15 minutes after [REC] ended, which means we’re back on the streets of Barcelona with a SWAT team, who have been called in to sort out the mess in the ‘infected’ block of flats. Remember, something has caused the inhabitants of a building to turn into blood-thirsty zombies, but the authorities don’t know what is causing it, so they send in the team, along with a medical officer, Owen, to sort it out.
Of course, in true horror style, they get split up, and set upon by the nasty beasties, but Doctor Owen is convinced the infection is coming from the penthouse attic. He’s right, and there’s a blood sample there to prove it, but the gormless SWAT team make a pig’s ear of retrieving it, and there are lots of nasty-looking bald creatures up there, too…
The film turns down a road clearly marked ‘Exorcist’ about half an hour in, but somehow it still manages to maintain the suspense, scares and thrills, while still threading together a coherent storyline. At the heart of this one is the battle between Dr. Owen, who is not what he seems, and the forces of evil, just about everyone else in the building. What deficiencies there are in the script are more than made up for in the visual style, which uses every trick in the book to maintain the spell.
The action is all filmed by the characters, whose cameras shake, flicker, fail, the sound muffles, and the lights sometimes don’t work, all adding to the atmosphere. The screen does go blank a few times too often, and the battery indicator in the corner becomes irritating, especially as it never actually appears on video tape. Minor quibbles, though, in what is essentially a thoroughly successful, sweaty-palmed horror tale.
Fans of the first story of course will know that [REC] starts with a camera crew who get stuck inside the building and slowly get bumped off one by one. The filmmakers haven’t forgotten that, and the one survivor does appear here, too - right at the end - but it’s a stunning cameo, far more successful than a long middle section, which involves a group of kids. As the SWAT team battle the infected, they spot a gang who have somehow got into the building and are making their own video. We then rewind to see the two boys and a girl, bored and up to no good. They spot a sewer which leads to the building where all the fun is happening, and decide to go down it. It’s an unnecessary distraction which breaks the tension and leads, ultimately, nowhere that the existing characters couldn’t have gone.
Apparently there are to be two more films, one a straight sequel and a prequel. The sequel will, like this one, carry on pretty much straight after the ending, but it will be hard matched to equal this one. [REC]2 introduces some humour which the first one lacked, but to go down that road too much will spoil all the hard work that the first two. We’ll see…
A gloriously nasty Spanish roller-coaster ride up and down the stairs of that Barcelona apartment block – just don’t eat too close to the film. Seriously, it’s that gory.
Film: [Rec]
Release date: 20th September 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 78 mins
Director: Jaume Balaguero & Paco Plaza
Starring: Manuela Velasco, Javier Botet, Manuel Bronchud, Martha Carbonell, Vicente Gil
Genre: Horror/Mystery/Thriller
Studio: E1
Format: Blu-ray
Country: Spain
Want proof that a night out with the a Catalonian fire crew can produce more fireworks than a Barcelona Vs. Real Madrid derby? Well then, it sounds like you could do with a dose of Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza's shaky-cam-filled-zombie-fest [REC].
The film follows feisty television presenter Angela Vidal and her trusty cameraman Pablo as they tag along with a team of fire fighters as part of a late-night TV show: 'While You're Asleep' – something akin to all of those god-awful hand-held police camera programmes.
After firemen Manu and Alex are introduced, the group set off on what seems to be a fairly innocuous call out to assist an elderly woman who has become trapped in her apartment. Upon their arrival at the aggressively cramped building, they are greeted by the other tenants, as well as two police officers who we soon learn were summoned after screams were heard.
Together with officers Joven and Adulto, the rescue party proceeds up the stairs and into an apartment where it rapidly becomes clear that it is not the elderly woman who requires assistance, but themselves. Upon rushing back to the hall, they find the block sealed from the outside and are informed that the building has been declared a BNC (biological, nuclear or chemical) threat.
The still-living authority figures are now faced with a situation where they must contend with growing panic amongst the surviving occupants whilst seeking an escape route from the nightmare upstairs…
[REC] is, above all things, a breath of fresh air. With George Romero's attempts to rekindle his former glory growing progressively tedious, and any other contenders to his zombie throne close to non-existent, [REC] stands out as a bold attempt to take the sub-genre in a different direction. And while many of its ideas are not entirely original (the concept of zombies in an apartment block having been covered in the first half hour of the original Dawn Of The Dead), the way it utilises them often is. Moreover, the shift away from Romero's incessant focus on humanity and towards the terror of the monster itself feels – however surprisingly – like a new approach.
What is perhaps the most tired aspect of [REC] is the use of the hand-held camera as a tool for instilling realism. If you're just a little bit sick of Hollywood's constant attempts to relive the Blair Witch Project with character's-view camera work then you'd be forgiven for initially rolling your eyes at the thought of sitting through what has the potential to be nothing more than a Spanish version of American snore-fests like Cloverfield. However, [REC] commits uncompromisingly to the format as a dramatic device in a way that most other films do not, and, in doing so, maintains a consistent and effective dynamic. In short, [REC] achieves with that method of filming what it was originally created to do: transport the viewer into the body of the character - in this case to heighten the terror.
And make no mistake about it, [REC] is scary - really scary. In fact, the camera work sometimes pales in comparison to the horribly dark and narrow apartment building whose winding staircase slowly and inexorably leads the characters to the structures summit where the beating (or not in this case) heart of the nightmare waits. It really is watch-through-your-fingers stuff as the characters struggle to find any kind of sanctuary in a building which obviously was not designed to withstand an internal siege. Character's are bumped off so mercilessly that you're left with the feeling that anything could happen - at any time - and never is this more evident than at [REC]'s nerve-shredding climax.
There really aren't very many negatives about [REC]. It's low-budget but this fact is brilliantly contorted to work in the films favour. Characters die brutally and rapidly, but you still feel like they've been well established enough to make their demise tragic and horrific. It's perhaps not as gory as fans of Romero would like, and the zombies aren't used as an unstoppable horde but as individual nightmares, which could put off hardcore fans.
What [REC] does is single-handedly add another facet to a sub-genre that was in danger of going stale again, and it does so masterfully. It might not be for purists, or heavy Romero fans, but frankly it's their loss because this is one damn fine zombie flick. JD
