[Rec]

Chances are that you've heard of this Spanish shocker or its influences on Cloverfield and Diary of the Dead. The similarities between this and Diary of the Dead are perhaps too much. This film follows a first person camera into a routine mission for a group of firefighters being recorded by a T.V. anchorwoman for her show. This all turns to hell when they encounter "zombies."

To me, the zombie film has been dead for a while. All these recent incarnations of the same monster that has ruled the horror screen are just trying to give life to a dead genre. Kicking a dead body won't bring it back to life, nor will making a pointless and vain attempt at altering the myth of zombies. In recent zombie films, directors try and spend too much time coming up with a new method of a zombie outbreak instead of focusing on the scares. After 30 - 40 years of zombie story lines, I crave the terror, not the spooky plot.

[Rec] does just that. It provides non-stop terror, and even manages to mix in a great reasoning behind it. The film is believable for the most part, and has very nice dialogue that is very true to it's own screenplay. I often found myself feeling as if i was in on these tenants conversations. Like with most modern foreign horror, these directors pair up in order to share some artistic thoughts and work together. Possibly even an easier way to get their names out there.


The directors were successful on their part. The created a terrifying film that starts off slow and lets out with a bang. As with most world cinema, we get a terrifying look at tenants tension mixed with a small bit of racial discourse. Due to the remakes over on American soil being so speedy, US has a shot-by-shot remake in the works already under the title Quarantine. Too bad this gem most likely won't be released until after the remake.


What really shines here is the films clever use of its audio capabilities. Grunts, static, breath, and screaming play a large part. In scenes, the audio even goes out due to blunt force trauma on the camera. Wildly inventive and stunningly tense, this only raises the horror factor a couple knotches. [Rec] is a horrifying new-age zombie film. There is no 28 Days Later, no 28 Weeks Later, and no Day/Dawn/Diary of the Dead. These end-of-the-world movies are really pissing me off. I thank the directors for having enough decency and dignity in making this a concealed incident. The claustrophobia of it all is way more terrifying than being trapped in a lovely mall.

-mAQ