Rec (2007) & Rec2 Review (2009)
10/10. Masterclasses of the found footage horror genre – these are not slow zombies! *MINOR SPOILERS*
[•REC] is a Spanish found-footage horror film co-written and directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza.
In [•REC], late-night TV news host Angela Vidal and her cameraman, Pablo, join a Barcelona fire department’s night shift, and attend a call to an apartment building where an old woman is trapped and screaming.
We follow the point of view of Pablo following Angela, and as they enter the apartment, the old woman becomes aggressive and attacks a fireman with super strength, biting his neck. They carry the bitten fireman downstairs and find the building’s residents gathered in the lobby, realising the police and military have sealed off the building and trapped them all inside, due to a virus inside…
[•REC] starts the same as any other found footage, unassuming and setting up the scenes, but quickly goes into full throttle action. The apartment building is a tall old building, with many stairs and a creepy basement and attic – obviously. I’ll never forget my first viewing of this, a fresh and adrenaline fuelled scary zombie ride, with good jump scares.
The encounter with the old woman sets off events to a fast pace, it’s around 1 hour 30 min, but manages to fit in setting the scene, lots of action, character development, some back story and explanations into this time, which is a great feat.
It features terrifying yet simple zombie effects, and fantastic zombie acting from all involved – these are not slow zombies! The use of night vision is effective and nerve-wracking. [•REC] was my first sight of the amazing Javier Botet, the versatile actor and monster portrayer, at this point I didn’t realise he was a real person and not CGI’d. Check out Javier on Instagram!
[•REC]², is the sequel to [•REC], also written and directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza. This film picks up immediately after the events of the first film.
A military SWAT team of four (Fernandez, Martos, Rosso and Larra) led by Dr Owen (Jonathan Mellor), an official from the Ministry of Health, equipped with video cameras enter the quarantined apartment building to neutralise the situation. The situation quickly escalates as Martos is infected after a scuffle with some of the infected residents. Then it turns out that Dr Owen is not quite who he says he is…
[•REC]² is as high octane as [•REC] and follows straight on during the same night from a different angle with different characters before they merge, which was a great idea.
The film is as good as the first, and kept a good action filled pace, scares and interesting reveals like the first film. Manuela Velasco gives a great energetic performance as Angela in both films.
Please don’t be put off by Spanish dialogue and English subtitles, these two films are masterclasses of the found footage horror genre.