‘[REC]‘ Review!
‘[REC]‘ is a Spanish made handi-cam horror film that did so well with both Spanish and American moviegoers that it was quickly remade into ‘Quarantine’, and if you made the same mistake I did by watching ‘Quarantine’ first, you might feel the same way I did about ‘[REC]‘. Heres the thing, the American Film Industry has been holding it’s weight with completely pointless remakes and sequels, they’re doing it now with the Spanish vampire chiller ‘Let Me In’, an American remake will be released later this year. To say that ‘Quarantine’ was a complete failure is wrong, it was a faithful remake in every way, but it took away that experience I was hoping for with ‘[REC]‘, and a decision I will regret forever.
‘[REC]‘ follows a late night news program doing coverage on the night shift at a local fire department, the news anchor is Angela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) is a faithful anchor working closely with her cameraman simply named Pablo (Pablo Rosso). At the fire department they get teamed with two firemen who they work with throughout the movie, and when they get a sudden call to help an elderly lady trapped in an apartment all hell breaks loose. For those who felt the need to puke during films like ‘The Blair With Project’ or ‘Cloverfield’ might want to stay cautious during this movie, though it’s nowhere near the degree of shakiness those films had.
Right from the start, the camera takes on more of a reality television show feel, it’s there and focuses on the important things without making you feel sick to your stomach. The scenes that open the film in the department are very well made and feel in fact, real. All the actors do a great job of doing more than acting, but becoming their characters and making themselves all stand out over one another. The call leads them to an apartment building, most of the neighbors sit in the lobby with a police officer when the firemen enter the apartment. As they enter, one police officer gets attacked by the elderly woman who is absolutely covered in blood.
Whether you want to call them zombies or not, they are infected with what is lead to believe a rabies type disease. Throughout the film we meet a health inspection officer who says that the disease started with a dog, and the owner of the dog is a sick little girl whose been in the lobby the entire movie. Shortly after they discover this woman, the doors are locked and everybody becomes trapped inside of this apartment building. The tension begins right away and never lets up, and one thing that helps is this camera style becase we don’t always see everything as clearly as we want.
Sometimes the lights go out causing the cameraman to have to turn on his light and in the final moments of the film, use a very eerie and effective night vision view to capture the action in the darkness. The plot of the film isn’t very original, but were so focused on the terror that we ignore reason and answer. In one scene, the infected little girl goes running up the stairs, dissapearing into a room. Pablo and Angela follow the firemen to find her, and the tension level hits it’s peak, then we see her in the background but only briefly. Another scene finds the cameraman, Angela and one remaining fireman fighting their way to the room on the top floor. As they run up the stairs they get attacked endlessly, and how they pulled this off is amazing, simply because it’s hectic and the camera is all over the place.
Most horror films with this perspective, one very big example would be ‘Paranormal Activity’, in which the scariest moment is indeed the ending, work on the creepiest, most insane endings you’ll see in a horror film. The final moments of ‘[REC]‘ are unsettling and nerveracking, as they face a creature like no other. One thing that makes this effective though is that we barely see it, we know it’s shape and what it does, but it’s hidden in shadows and seen briefly in the night vision view from the camera. Overall, ‘[REC]‘ is a success and a truly terrifying movie. If you plan on seeing it, save ‘Quarantine’ for after ‘[REC]‘, it’s just the smartest choice you could make when it comes to this movie.
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