It must be a nightmare trying to conjure up an entirely new idea for a horror film these days, but the Spanish writer/directors of REC, Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza, take a good stab at it.A TV reporter (the amazingly cute Manuela Velasco) and her camerman are filming a "day in the life" documentary about a local fire crew, when the call comes in to rescue a woman trapped in her apartment.
Unfortunately this routine job turns out to be anything but when the old woman suddenly attacks and bites one of her saviours.
Things spiral out of control from there, when the people in the apartment block find they have been sealed in by the police and special forces - because of a "possible infectious outbreak".
As with Cloverfield, The Blair Witch Project, Man Bites Dog, Diary Of The Dead and probably several others I've missed, the film is entirely seen from the point-of-view of the unseen TV cameraman, making the audience very much a part of the action, limiting our knowledge of what's going on to what the reporter sees and hears.
It's superbly paced from the get go, with events almost happening in 'real time', with thrills and spills snowballing as the 'outbreak' in the apartment block gets increasingly out of control.
As TV journalist Ángela, Manuela Velasco is amazingly easy on the eye, and a convincing actress to boot, while the rest of the cast were clearly chosen for their 'non-film star' looks, which adds to the authenticity of the piece.
REC drip feeds the clues as to what's really going on, but it doesn't long for a savvy audience to grasp the fact that we're seeing a zombie outbreak up close and personal, which is why it's mystifying - and intriguing - when the plot takes a sudden and unexpected left turn into Exorcist terrority towards the end.
I love films that let me figure out what's going on for myself, but this sudden shift from scientific reasoning to supernatural wierdness caught me totally off balance. There had been mutterings from an elderly couple earlier, that hinted at there being more to this than meets the eye, but this was a major leap of faith by the film-makers that I wish had been developed slightly earlier.
Nevertheless, REC is a brilliant zombie flick, and a major change of pace from the usual Romero fare (not that there's anything wrong with that), so is well worth checking out if you're into zombie action horror... or just want to watch a really cute Spanish babe running around in a vest top for the better part of 75 minutes.
REC has recently been remade in the States, for audiences who can't handle sub-titles, as Quarantine, which is due out the week before Halloween over here in the UK.
This was easily one of the scariest films that I have ever seen. It was absolutely fantastic.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I speak Spanish, I think that the film could easily be enjoyed by those who can't even without the subtitles.
Have to agree on the language front, like any great film REC "shows" rather than "tells" you what's going on and, for the most part, the language is secondary.
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