[REC]

Horrorphile

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Horrorphile - August 2008

[REC]

August 26th 2008 01:20

Damn, the Spanish are good. And I’m not just talking about the architecture, the tapas, the vino and the cerveza. They make bloody good horror movies too. They possess a bold and feverish approach which seems to often elude Hollywood and beyond. Not always, but often.

[REC] (2007) can be compared to numerous existing horror movies, primarily the work of George Romero; I’m talking about the flesh-eating undead. But [REC] also nods its head to the infectious rage disease of 28 Days Later (2001), whilst the movie’s cinema verite visual stylistic takes a few pages from the books of The Blair Witch Project (1999) and Cloverfield (2008). [REC] is flawed, but it’s a rough little gem.

Manuela Velasco as Angela

Plucky (not to mention spunky) young television presenter Angela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) and her cameraman colleague Pablo (he’s never seen and no one is credited to playing the character) are doing a piece on the night-shift at a Barcelona fire station for the programme While You’re Asleep and hoping for a little emergency action to spice things up.

Firemen Manu (Ferran Terraza) and Alex (David Vert) are quickly creeped out ...

Sure enough, the alarm bells ring in the wee hours and they’re off to rescue an older woman supposedly trapped in her apartment. When they get to the building the police are already there, suggesting the scene could be more serious than first thought. Inside the woman’s apartment they discover she’s covered in blood, deranged and dangerous. In fact, she’s raging ravenous and she chomps down on the neck of one of the police officers.

... and you would be too if a mad women like this came running at you

Everyone retreats, but not before one of the firemen gets bitten also. The two men have become infected. Adding a serious dilemma to the situation is when the rescue team, including Angela and Pablo, are confronted by the building entrance having been sealed shut. The entire building has been quarantined.

With several men down, the survivors gather at ground level

One by one the surviving occupants of the building and the rescuers are turned into rabid vicious beasts of prey. Meanwhile the whole ghastly experience is being videotaped by Pablo. Yup, despite the chaos and deadly threat, manages to keep the camera rolling. It’s a handy and important narrative licence for the movie to work so urgently and effectively as a horror movie.

Claudia Font as infected young Jennifer

[REC] is short; not even 80 minutes long. It’s a lean mean killing machine. Plot mechanics are pared back so vehemently one wonders if the original treatment ran longer than a paragraph. Directors Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza (each independently established) have cleverly tapped a throbbing juglar, pulsing with the tainted blood of a good old-fashioned things that go bump in the night flick. Sure, it’s not wholly original, and characterizations are cardboard thin, but the filmmakers work the trappings, for the most part, skillfully and efficiently.

Because the entire running time of the film takes place in real time (except for the handful of moments when Pablo turns the camera off, then turns it on again), and what the audience see is what he is taping, then the only sound is the location sound. The movie has no score to speak of. This is a risqué thing to do for a horror movie, but the directors pull it off.

The movie’s final ten or so minutes are when the tension and suspense is ratcheted up, and a series of revelations (spoiler pun unintended) present themselves to Angela and Pablo after they break into the penthouse apartment which had supposedly been abandoned by the owner. Inside they find the walls plastered with newspaper clippings detailing the case of a demonically possessed girl, church sanctions, and scientific experimentation. It seems like they stumbled onto a can of real nasty worms.

Angela and Pablo realise the only way is up

My only major gripe is that the blood - and there’s a fair amount of it – wasn’t convincing enough. I’m a stickler for fake blood looking as real as possible. I let some horror practitioners off the hook (Dario Argento being one) for using very fake looking blood, but that’s usually when other elements are so fantastical I let that indiscretion slide. However when it comes to zombie-and vampire-styled movies you gotta get the blood right. The blood consistency in [REC] looks too gloopy, and there’s something wrong with the colour too.

Angela, holding the night-vision camera in front of her, hides under a bed

But blood gripe aside [REC] kicks some butt, especially the second half. Manuela Velasco holds fort solidly, even though has the capacity to annoy, and the support cast are proficient. Let’s hope there’s enough left of Velasco to command the sequel which is already in pre-production. Whether the Hollywood remake, Quarantine (they probably didn’t call it [REC] ‘cos Joe Average would think it’s an experimental art film), will come close to capturing the same sense of genuine terror, chaos and urgency is another story.

Here's the original teaser trailer (which, once you've seen the actual movie, appears to have been shot especially for the trailer):

And here's the trailer (which reveals the movie's final moment!!!) for Quarantine, due for release in the US in October:

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

8 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Lara M

August 26th 2008 05:22

Love Speaks

Eeek...looks pretty scary!

Comment by Bryn

August 26th 2008 06:14

Horrorphile

Lara, well you'd be right there ... it is.

Comment by Damo

August 26th 2008 06:51

For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics

Victim Bingo. Bring it on.

I looks in tense.
I like intense.

Comment by Bethany

August 27th 2008 00:33

Martian Movies

You know, my list of movies I need to see isn't getting any shorter and you're *really* not helping, Bryn.

Good find, I'll have to check this one out soon. I am finding a growing fondness for Spanish horror- it helps that I half-understand the language.

Comment by Bryn

August 27th 2008 01:48

Horrorphile

Bethany, wish I could speak Spanish. I've been to Spain, fucking amazing, but only grasped a handful of words, like cortado and con leche LOL
Have you seen The Orphanage ...? Excellent ghost story.

Comment by Bethany

August 27th 2008 02:49

Martian Movies

Yeah, I have actually. I recently did a review on it, then I realized you'd already done one (much better than mine) after I posted it and felt like a dumbass- not the first time I've done that, but still...

I used to live in Texas, and through classes and exposure I've learned a bit of Spanish. I can converse well enough to get a point across in a tourist sense, I think. But I also understand a lot more than I actually speak.

Comment by JohnDoe

August 29th 2008 07:14

Film & TV on DVD

Yeah Bryn, I liked this one too.

Found some scenes very intense and the authentic feel that comes from this approach works to elevate the impact of attacks.

On the Spanish hporror kick I have to agree they are delivering quality beyond Del Torro's Cronos and Devil's Backbone....one called faust 5.0 was enjpoyable as a rework of the classic story

Comment by Bryn

September 3rd 2008 00:27

Horrorphile

I wanna own Faust 5.0, that was excellent! Saw it on SBS a few years ago.

[ Previous - Bad Moon ]

[ Next - Horror QUIZ #26: Mastermind Series - IV ]

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