Cinema Review: (REC)

Both zombies and video diaries have been getting a fair bit of screen time recently. The overrated Youtube video Cloverfield, the awful Zombie Diaries and the satirical Diary Of The Dead have all played with the idea of documenting reality with very mixed results. (REC), on the other hand, pretty much hits the nail on the head by creating a situation in which continuing to film actually makes sense.

A local news team are filming an editorial piece on the local Fire Brigade’s nightshift and soon find themselves sealed into a zombie-infested apartment building. This simple set up means the crew keep filming as journalists and once the horror really sets in they are forced them to keep going by practical limitations with the environment (broken lights etc). Unlike it’s predecessors you are not given a chance or reason to say ‘put the camera down and run!’.

(REC) is also very successful as a horror film. In a genre built upon limitations it manages to nail both smaller quiet moments and pack enough into the money-shots to convince you that it is bigger than you think. It is crammed with suspense and out-of-the-seat moments that work even when you are one step ahead of the characters.

Granted, as with all films in the ‘video diary’ sub-genre, it does lose some of it’s power on the big screen and will benefit greatly from home viewing, but there is no denying that this is a smart, exciting movie that in it’s brief 75 min runtime (incl. credits) does exactly what it says on the tin and does it well.

…to put it another way, it is a long time since a horror film has made me exclaim ‘what the f*$% is that?!’ quite so many times.

7/10

cast & crew info

trailer

p.s. (REC) has already been remade in the U.S. Quarantine will be released on 17 October 2008 and the trailer is on Youtube if you want to check out the annoying Hollywood habit of over-explaining everything and ruining the ending.