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Angela, a young
TV-reporter, is shooting a documentary
about firemen. It seems like a fairly uneventful night,
as usual, until they receive a rescue call to an
apartment building. Since it doesn't seem to be anything
out of the ordinary, Angela and her cameraman, Pablo,
decide to come with them to the scene. It turns out
that this was a very bad idea as they soon find
themselves trapped inside the building with a bunch
of ravenous zombies after them...
When the atrociously boring "The Blair Witch Project"
became a success it spawned several rip-offs as well
as kicked off the whole reality-tv horror subgenre.
Now, for whatever reason, this trend is back, but this
time, it's back with a vengeance. The movies are more
action-filled, more realistic and have severely better
scripts, and REC is no exception. I'm not sure why so
many people dislike Jaume Balagueró as I've always
been a big fan of his. Los Sin Nombre was brilliant,
Darkness was really good, Fragile was... errr... it
was okay but his best work so far was his TV-flick
"To Let", and while not even "REC" can beat that movie,
it's obvious that Jaume Balagueró has stepped up his
game again and is ready to scare the hell out of
audiences all over the world.
Just like in "To Let", REC takes place in an apartment
building where horror ensues. This time the entire
thing is filmed with a hand-held camera to give it a
more realistic look and it really works. Together with
Paco Plaza he has created a memorable and original
zombie movie that you won't forget easily. It doesn't
come without its flaws and it's not as terrifying as
some people have made it out to be but REC is overall
a great zombie flick but I'm just getting started here
so let's break the movie down shall we?
REC starts out fairly dull without any opening credits
or anything, it didn't really peek my interest at all
but since I've seen many Balagueró films before, I knew
that it was bound to get better. Well it did get better
but after half an hour I still wasn't convinced. So far
it had only been a rather mediocre ride and it wasn't
all that entertaining. I now realize that it was meant
to be this way so that it would feel more realistic
because life is overall fairly uneventful. After the
first half of the movie was over, things started to
happen, and they happened fast. I soon found myself
on a wild rollercoaster as everything that REC lacked
in the first half, came back threefold in the second
half. There's not a moment of calmness, it doesn't
let up until the end credits start to roll.
But let's talk about what happens right before the end
credits appear on the screen. The final five minutes
of this movie are clearly the best and is probably the
entire reason as to why I ended up liking this movie
so much. Up until that point I only thought that it
was a mildly entertaining movie, but those final five
minutes will go to history. I can assure you that.
No, they didn't scare the hell out of me, I jumped
once, but they sure were intense minutes. Jaume and
Pazo obviously make a great team and I will definitely
recommend this movie to all horror fans out there.
It's the most original zombie flick that I've had the
pleasure of viewing in years. It's not quite as good
as people make it out to be but it's still an
entertaining ride and I strongly recommend it.
Not a lot of gore, some gory wounds, some blood splatter
and very little more. Could have used more gore.
Nothing.
Highly recommended zombie movie which brings something
new to the plate. While not quite as terrifying and
shocking as I had heard that it would be, it's still
a very entertaining horror flick and it's nice to see
that Jaume Balagueró is back in the game after his
mediocre thriller "Fragile". Still, it doesn't beat
"To Let" though so be sure to watch that as well.
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