Review: [REC]

[REC] is a movie that stars Angela(Manuela Velasco), a reporter tasked with following a group of firefighters with her cameraman Pablo(Pablo Rosso) to see what it’s like in a life of a firefighter. On a regular emergency call to an apartment building leads to some unexpected run-ins with the undead variety. Soon after the first encounter, the residents to the apartment as well as the firefighter officials and police find themselves trapped in the ticking time bomb of zombies by the government. Filmed from only the camera man’s perspective, it automatically show’s it’s Shaky Cam view.

Does that sound familiar any? It should, as 2008’s Quarantine(Dowdle) was based off this 2007 international film. The difference here is that [REC] seems to pull off the horror genre quite well. I think the biggest draw to [REC] is that it is filmed with Spanish as the primary language with English(or whichever other country) subtitles. The fast paced, dramatic language lends itself quite well to this genre of horror. In typical shaky cam movies I find that it is difficult to maintain momentum during the fast parts because of the slower language barrier, whereas with the Spanish language, it really has a good sense of urgency.

While the initial story presented seems a bit simple and straightforward, there is a whole other layer of story that, unfortunately presented at the end of the film, could have been more elaborated on. Stuff about the girl presented in the film being more than innocent as well as her roots tracing all the way to the Vatican and the Holy Church. It feels like this whole other story was to be meant as an ARG(Alternate Reality Game look them up) or something. It would be more effecive I think for this whole meta story to be placed through the movie rather than at the end.

That being said, [REC] is probably one of the best horror movie I’ve seen in quite some time. Though I have to give it a lower score just because of the pop scares that really get old fast, but I have to concede that other than that, the movie has really has no other methods of doing what it does best. The bottom line is this: Is this movie good? Answer? Yes. It is pretty good.

Netflix Rating Prediction: 4/5

My Rating: 4/5