Movie Info
Movie Name: [REC]2
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
Genre(s): Horror
Release Date(s): October 2, 2009
MPAA Rating: R
Can’t a zombie kid just chill in his pad without SWAT officers gunning him down?
A special force of police officers are being sent in to a quarantined apartment building on a search mission led by Dr. Owen (Jonathan Mellor) from the Ministry of Health, but Dr. Owen is not what he appears to be. Owen has special employers that need to find something inside of the building that could rock the world. Meanwhile a group of teens have also snuck into the building through the sewers and find themselves caught in horror…but someone else has survived the night and the truth of what is occurring could be shocking.
Directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, [REC]2 (often just written as REC 2) is a Spanish horror found-footage film. A sequel to the 2007 film [REC], the movie was released to mostly positive reviews.
I don’t want you to shoot her…she adorbs
[REC] was an entertain movie, not great, but entertaining. It utilized a formula that was becoming extremely popular at the time due to The Blair Witch Project. It was creative enough to be original, but still fell into the found-footage trap of being difficult to end. [REC]2 takes off immediately where [REC] left off and provides a kind of different story while providing closure to the original film. Due to the plotlines in the film, a ******spoiler alert****** is in effect for the rest of the review.
It is hard to talk about [REC]2 without talking about the twist that does make [REC]2 different from its predecessor. There are some scenes in [REC] that allude to the twist so I don’t feel it is random, though it could (and does) feel that way. It is revealed that Dr. Owen works for the church and that the “virus” is actually a form of demonic possession that is passed person to person from a source. This is a different take on the zombie picture and I admire it. It also really dooms the cast by turning the movie into a film similar to Prince of Darkness where getting out could mean death to everyone. This type of doom does cut down the fear for me in a way because I know that the characters plights are generally pointless…they’re going to die and have to die to stop the spread.
Wait…walk me through this whole “I survived because…” story again, lady
The cast is largely underdeveloped due to the style of the film. The SWAT team is indistinguishable because there is a decent group and when any action happens, the cameras get fuzzy. Jonathan Mellor gives the movie some direction as the shifty religious figure trying to keep everything under wraps while the return of Manuela Velasco provides a good (and surprising) connection to the first film…which is explained by the end of the movie. The movie weirdly splits the plot between the SWAT team and a group of teens and it feels like besides being a cautionary tale (don’t break into quarantined buildings), they do not serve much of a purpose since they are introduced late and barely survive half of the movie.
When is a zombie movie not a zombie movie?
One of the best parts of [REC] was the ending which introduced the source of the infection in a creepy, night-footage sequence before the abrupt ending. I had hoped that [REC]2 would feature the nightmarish monster more, but every time the SWAT team reaches the location where she was hiding, she never showed up. Eventually this was explained, but I also felt I was ripped off from a cool monster. The movie supplements the monster with some creepy zombie kids, but the original monster needed more screentime.
I admire that they tried to change the themes of the movie and take [REC]2 in a different direction, but in some ways, I would have rather stuck with the original (though generic) zombie format). In addition to that the military people make some really, really stupid moves. This combines with some dangling plotlines, and [REC]2 comes off as not as memorable or fun as the original. [REC]2 was followed by [REC]3: Genesis in 2012.
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