DVD Of The Week: [REC] 3 - Genesis

Although sub-titled "Genesis", I got the impression that this latest Spanish zombie flick was supposedly taking place simultaneously with the first two found-footage [REC] movies, rather than being any sort of definite "origin story".

It is the wedding day of Koldo (Diego Martin) and Clara (Leticia Dolera) and the first twenty minutes or so of [REC] 3 is spliced together from footage shot at the their wedding and then the start of their reception at an out-of-town stately home.

Barring an innocuous comment from an uncle about being bitten by a dog before the wedding this first act could almost be the set-up for a rom-com or a drama, but then uncle takes a header off a balcony into the middle of the ball room while everyone's partying... and things start to go a bit mental.

The zombie virus spreads like wildfire as the survivors split up and try to make it to safety.

The found-footage format is quickly abandoned once [REC] 3 shows its true colours as a straight-up zombie film and while some people might say this is what made the [REC] movies special, I prefer to think of their USP as their treatment of zombies.

Flesh-eaters here are not the plague-creatures we are used to from The Walking Dead or George Romero movies, but supernatural entities unable to enter holy ground, burned by holy water and whose true demonic visages are revealed in mirrored surfaces.

It here that "Genesis" comes in to play, for its Biblical reference, and the suggestions that these are fallen angels/demons rather than typical Hollywood zombies.

"Found-footage" movies have had their day anyway, so I for one was quite pleased when [REC] 3 reverted to a more mainstream style.

It worked brilliantly for the first [REC] and quite well again in the second, but did people really want yet another rehash?

It was a brave step by writer/director Paco Plaza to take a franchise so integrally-attached to to one particular style of film-making and, in mid-stream, switch to a more traditional method of telling a horror story.

Around this point, [REC] 3 also takes a distinct Dungeons & Dragons twist with Koldo tooling up in a suit of armour found in the stately home's chapel to St George and wielding a wicked looking spiked mace (not that I remember him actually using it), while a priest finds he is able to hold the undead at bay through the power of prayer.

As well as a clever zombie survival tale, [REC] 3 also manages to be a brilliant love story - with Koldo and Clara forced apart at the start of the carnage and then forever driven to get back to each other, sensing that that soul mate is still alive and motivating them not to abandon the scene.

Also, unlike the earlier films in the franchise, there is a distinct vein of black humour running through what is ultimately a tragic tale, but without diminishing the splatter quotient for the gorehounds among us.

My exposure to Spanish cinema is, admittedly, limited so I don't know if it's common to all Spanish movies or simply the [REC] ones, but they do manage to secure the most amazing-looking female leads. I didn't think it was possible for anyone to out-cute Manuela Velasco from the first films, but Leticia Dolera is simply stunning - and a fine action-actress to boot.

I could quite easily have watched just 77 minutes of Leticia, but as an added bonus she's thrown in to a superb zombie movie that also serves as an antidote to those who are less than keen about the staid formality of family weddings.