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[REC]
Directed by: Jaume Balageuro,Luis Berdejo
Starring: Manuela Velasco, Ferran Terraza, Pep Sais Synopsis:
While recording a fly-on-the-wall TV show called "While You Are Sleeping" at a small fire department during a night-shift, an ambitious young television reporter (Manuela Velasco) and her cameraman follow the crew as they respond to a call to assist with care of an elderly woman who has been taken ill. A seemingly mundane night turns into a living nightmare as the nature of the illness becomes all too clear and the remaining survivors look for a way out of a sealed building.
I love the zombie genre when it's at it's best. Quite often I find myself watching a dire movie in the hope that there is something good about it. I was looking forward to Romero's Diary of the Dead, but when I discovered [REC] I soon forgot about Romero's new venture. At the beginning of the movie, it is quite easy to groan and think that it could be Blair Witch all over again. In other words it begins with a tedious journey and makes you want to get to the tension and the reason you've paid $15 to see a horror movie. Sure, Manuela Velasco is easy on the eye as the enthusiastic reporter but when is the action going to kick in? Well, you don't have to wait too long before the peril reveals itself. The elderly woman, it transpires, wants a bit of supper and a fireman provides this as she takes a chunk out of his face. This prompts an understandable reaction from the onlookers. In typical early twenty-first century fashion, Manuela orders Pablo the cameraman to keep shooting. Chaos ensues as you would expect as the corpses mount up and reanimate. The authorities seem to know what is going on, and seal the building forcing the occupants to remain trapped inside, at the mercy of the recently dead. All the while, Pablo is recording and Manuela is helping or interviewing. As time goes on and the danger increases, the truth is revealed as to why the dead are returning. Or does it? I'm still not entirely sure what the cause is. it doesn't matter.
The reason that I feel this film is a cut above most zombie/horror movies is the realism of the film. There is no score to signpost scares or help you emotionally work out what you should be feeling. The acting, on the whole, is natural. You could drop in halfway through and show an unsuspecting person the footage and easily persuade them that it was actual footage. Most of the characters are well defined. All react in different ways and you could well spot the character who would react most like you, to add to the feeling of being drawn into the movie. To the Romero purists; yes the zombies do run. Although the very last image, before the credits, is a bit cliched, the final 10 minutes are excruciatingly tense. Imagine the very final punchline in the Blair Witch Project strung out for about 10-15 minutes. Like Cloverfield, if you get into and "dig" this kind of movie you won't be disappointed. It's one of those movie you want to forget about only so that you can watch it and experience it again. It reminds me also of the good things about horrors in the eighties, including the sealed cinema in the movie Demons. Verdict: I must stress that this is a good movie for fans of horror movies in general and not specific to zombie movie fans. Unlike most horror movies, this film has a very palpable feeling of dread and uncertainty. Overall, I thoroughly recommend it.
9/10 (Review by Wayfarer)
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