Movie Info
Movie Name: [REC]
Studio: Filmax
Genre(s): Horror
Release Date(s): November 23, 2007
MPAA Rating: R
Crap…I missed my audition for Rabid Grannies!
A journalist in Barcelona covers a nightshift at a local fire department for an “up all night” segment of the news. When the fire department is called in for a sick woman at a nearby apartment building, Angela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) ends up getting the story of a lifetime that could very well end her life.
Directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, [REC] or REC (depending how you spell it) is a Spanish found-footage style zombie horror film. The movie was released to critical acclaim and won many prizes at festivals where it played.
It’s like Jodie Foster at the end of Silence of the Lambs and that snot nosed Blair Witch girl all wrapped up in one!
[REC] follows the Cloverfield or The Blair Witch style of shooting. Vidal’s camera man records the action through his camera, so like with many first person perspective films, the camera sometimes can get very jerky or out and out not visible if the character is running. This can be hard on some viewers with motion sickness and frustrating to others who what to see what the characters are running from. Fortunately, [REC] is one of the better made of these movies and does a good job not being jarring (especially amazing since much of the movie is spent running up and down stairs).
The zombies in [REC] fall into the running type zombies of 28 Days Later and the remake of Dawn of the Dead. They are scary and violent and turn quickly from the dead to the walking dead instead of slowly rising. The movie does add a couple of twists to the zombies that are alluded to near the end of the movie and expanded upon in the second film.
I like to eat people
The movie also is good because it is about confinement. Even if the survivors can avoid the zombies, they can’t avoid the snipers gunning for them outside. They have to find a way to circumvent the situation entirely and get out of the building. It becomes a claustrophobic type of horror where there is no escape…something I particularly get uncomfortable and terrified during.
[REC] was remade for American audiences in 2008 as Quarantine and starred Jennifer Carpenter (of Dexter). The remake is almost a shot-for-shot film, so just see the original, unless you just can’t stand subtitles. [REC] like most of the “found footage” movies has an abrupt ending and that could be unsatisfying to some viewers. The sequel is the type of movie that “changes” the original’s story and might be avoided if you are satisfied with this movie. [REC] was followed by [REC]2 in 2009.
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