REC (Jaume Balaguero/Paco Plaza, 2008)

Fear spreads like a deadly virus, as a reporter and her cameraman become possessed by an ungodly terror: while the world sleeps, the government quarantine leaves them little hope of survival. Ángela and Pablo are filming their assignment at a Barcelona fire station, going about the boring routine of interviews and introductions, hoping that something exciting will happen.

It does.

They race through the darkened streets, passengers with a group of veteran firemen who must rescue a person trapped in an apartment. The tension builds as what seems to be a simple emergency call soon degenerates into an orgy of violence and bloodshed, and the apartment becomes a steel cage, unattainable freedom seen through the ethereal curtain of plastic while commanding threats are shouted by military police.

The film’s cinéma vérité style brings a frustrating realism to the events utilizing overlapping dialogue improvised chaos: the characters behave like people trapped, not actors spouting rigid dialogue. An obese bloody woman ravages the first victim as Hell breaks loose upon the world, and we see the new reality where nothing is believable unless it is seen through a camera’s digital iris, where the optic nerve connects to the hard drive.

The narrative accelerates creating intense friction between characters and events but then slows down, letting us catch our breath before the tumultuous shadows cloud our perceptions once again. The cloying darkness becomes a living thing, embracing the victims in the primal fright as the human mind becomes reactionary, uncivilized, the repressed survival instinct taking control and instructing them to run, run…but where? Ángela and Pablo are the last survivors and reach the forgotten penthouse where they discover a mystery that reaches into the Vatican and the chasm of Catholic ideology itself. In the tremors of night vision, a demented creature stalks the gloom and their fate is sealed, the camera ever watchful as they disappear into that evil night. Final Grade: (B+)

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“Subjective Horror”. That’s how I call this new subgenre that’s been taking over horror movies, filmed with a single camera that’s not only acknowledged by the characters but filmed by one of them. I liked “Blair’s Witch”, I really liked “Cloverfield” (horror movie in epic scale) and I was most definitely impressed by this Spanish “[REC]“, in which irresistibly beautiful reporter Angela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) is trying to get a fireman’s night on tape with her cameraman Pablo (Pablo Rosso, director of photography as well) for her show “While You Sleep”. Interviewing the firemen as she waits for something to happen, the alarm finally rings and she follows them into a domestic call – an old woman apparently trapped in her apartment, screaming. Once they get there, the call turns out to be much more serious when granny injures a policeman with her teeth in a fit of inexplicable rage – and to make things worse, government agents seal the entire building off, not letting anyone outside, claiming it’s to protect against an infection.

Trapped inside their own building, the denizens obviously dislike the situation and behave accordingly – which is one of “[REC]“’s strenghts: nobody acts like an utter imbecile. The characters do exactly as you would expect from anyone in their situation: some freak out, some try keeping it together, Angela attempts to understand what’s going on and get it on tape. They all act like human beings – ocasionally that means doing stupid things, yes, ocasionally it means doing noble things. A moment that exemplifies the movie’s tridimensional characters is the scene in which a policeman points his gun to the people in order to quiet them down and proceeds to apologise, ashamed, afterwards.

This effect is achieved also thanks to the excellent actors – and while all of them do a great job (especially the elderly couple), it’s Manuela Velasco who stands out – thanks not only to her nice b — er, beauty, but also the realism of her performance – she actually LOOKS scared, ACTS scared. This is very clear in a sequence that happens in the dark and is seen in nightvision – her reaction to the pitch-black darkness is absolutely perfect.

Directors Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, along with director of photography Pablo Rosso, do a terrific job of making the footage sound natural and spur-of-the-moment. “Cloverfield” did have some exaggeratedly clear takes – not to mention the guy handling the camera wasn’t a professional, so his talent in focusing the action was a mystery. In “[REC]“, the camera behaves with surprising realism to the events – i.e. with a lot of confusion and zooming – and Pablo being a professional cinematographer forgives the way he always captures what’s happening, no matter how shakily or blurredly.

The movie also deserves credit for not sparing children – in fact, one of the best scenes involves a child and her mother. Always aiming for realism, this film shows blood, wounds and gore without giving a fuck, something I most definitely admire. Not to mention the lack of any kind of soundtrack: instead, the sound editing is phenomenally good.

There’s a scene that tries to explain what happened – a scene that might sound excessively expositional, but actually it’s used to build up the ending – which is one of the scariest sequences I’ve seen in horror films. After a particularly well-filmed escape (involving a staircase), “[REC]” creates the spookiest situation it can think of and doesn’t hold back filming it. Shame that right after the ending, an ill-placed heavy rock song plays in the credits – no sound at all would be much more appropriate – or maybe sound effects of screams and gore – in order to allow the spectator to absorb what he’s just seen.

This “Subjective Horror” subgenre can be used in other genres as well to good effect – the motion-sickness-sensitive audience won’t appreciate it much, but the rest probably will. Subjective camera or not, “[REC]” is a shining example of a good horror movie. Yes, the script trips here or there with a convenient stroke of luck (the key to the penthouse) or something similar, but mostly it portrays the terrifying situation with extreme realism and horror.

PS: I fell in love with actress Jennifer Carpenter in the show “Dexter”, so that’s the only reason I’ll watch the absolutely useless remake “Quarantine”. “[REC]“’s only reason to get a remake is not being in English, and that’s not reason enough.

Written by André Navarro on December 27th 2008 

http://andrenavarro.wordpress.com/

Last updated: 2009-12-21 04:01:38 by andre_navarro

One of the most outstanding horror films in recent years, [Rec] is an example of efficient filmmaking made within a tight budget and with limited resources. A product of the Spanish cinema, this Blair Witch Project-like film is actually way much better than the 1999 sleeper hit which I truly dislike despite its influence towards the style of horror pictures of the last decade. Nearly always devoid of original ideas, Hollywood has made remaking successful foreign horror films part of its capitalistic agenda. [Rec] is reworked into Quarantine (2008), a sub-par effort and one of the weakest of its genre in that same year.  
 
[Rec] is superior to Quarantine in every way. Directed by Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza, the original leaves viewers chilled to the bone. Employing many standard horror tactics to scare viewers, the film surprisingly feels unfamiliar, giving us a unique experience (but of the kind we wouldn’t want to sit through again). Shot with a handheld camera, [Rec] has no proper narrative. In the film, a cameraman captures a blond, pretty reporter, as she follows a group of firemen to a building in the wee hours after the latter received a distress call. The intent to film the firemen as they go about doing their jobs for an informative television show “When You Are Sleeping” turns into a reality show of nightmarish proportions.
 
 
 [Rec] becomes the footage that is salvaged from the hellhole. Much like The Blair Witch Project, the grittiness comes with the shaky camera feel and the actors leaving behind their acting skills. The first sequence featuring a crazed old woman drenched in blood gives a taste of horrible things to come. And they come one after another through strategically-timed shock moments which, no matter how well one prepares for, still scare the living daylights out of anyone.
 
The plot devices are clever: First, the building is quarantined by the authorities to stem the outbreak of an infectious disease of some sort; this means the protagonists are trapped inside a confined area. Second, the ‘disease’ infects healthy persons through saliva (from bites) and turns them into aggressive zombie-like creatures. In a nutshell, [Rec] is 28 Days Later set within the confines of an eerie building, and shot Cloverfield-style. These two aspects combine excellently to strike maximum fear in viewers. In one of the film’s most tense moments, a pack of ‘zombies’ rushes up a flight of stairs towards the survivors whom are frantically searching for the right key to unlock the door into temporary safety.
 
Another positive thing to note about [Rec] is its clear direction. Although seen through the point-of-view of a hand-held camera together with the disorientation and nauseousness associated with such a filmmaking style, [Rec] manages to remain intelligible throughout; viewers know what is going on, and understand the plight of its defenseless characters. Here, the filmmakers are at the top of their game, creating a highly original horror picture which leaves viewers shivering just thinking about the film, let alone watching it.
 
SCORE: 8/10
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Last updated: 2009-11-04 00:09:24 by eternality_tan