As I have stated many many times, I love me some zombie movie. Sure, the last few have been terrible, even from the master of the genre, George Romero. As I stated in my review of Diary of the Dead, Romero has lost his touch and directors Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza, the two men credited for this film, may be the answer to my zombie loving prayers.
Rec is, first off, a Spanish film and thus you will be forced, if you don't know Spanish, to read while you watch. I generally dislike subtitled films because it has the habit of pulling you out of the movie as you read. Rec manages to solve some of that problem with its new broadcast format. From the outset, you start to feel as though you are watching news footage instead of a movie. The subtitles feel as though they are part of the footage and thus they become almost acceptable.
The film opens with an attractive young reporter filming a story about local firemen and their daily duties. This opening footage really does set the "news" like feel of the movie as interviews are done and characters are slowly developed. This section of the feel may seem to drag on for some but it is needed for what is to come later in the movie. The first person perspective always gets a bit annoying in any film and you are locked into seeing only what the camera sees, which has its ups and downs. A multiple camera view, for this film, would have ruined it though and I am glad the directors stuck with it. After a few minutes of boring, the film starts to pick up and we find our characters in a small apartment building where an older woman was screaming. Its here where the movie starts to become a horror flick, and a good one.
Things in the apartment building quickly start to spiral out of control and you begin to understand why everyone is freaking the fuck out like they are. In rapid fire Spanish, its hard to keep up with EVERYTHING that is being said during some parts and you begin to read so much you wonder if you are missing things. Quickly, the body count starts to rise, the police show up and lock down the building for no reason, as far as the oblivious tenants, firemen and tv crew are concerned. We, the audience, know better. Rec takes the path of "the less you know, the better". The cause of the lock down is explained and once things really start going to shit, a handy doctor comes a long and tries to explain what is occurring. Rec then goes on to become a full on zombie movie but where the characters have no where to run.
It is a different spin on an old story, one that works very well. In typical zombie films, the heroes are on the run in the big world. Here, they are locked in an apartment building where they know no one, they have no idea how to escape. Cops to the left of them, zombies to the right. While they never show anyone trying to escape by breaking out of a window, it is clear that if anyone tried it, they would be shot. Of course, towards the end of the movie I began to wonder why the fuck they didn't at least try it. You start to feel for the trapped characters and the directors do a good job setting the pace and ramping it up and slowing it down when needed.
I have only one problem with the film. Its ending. Of course everyone dies, thats expected. Its a damn zombie movie. Its the explanation of where the virus came from and its not totally understood. The film suddenly runs off course and into the religious. Possessed little girl, a mystery man who recorded some vague stuff and creepy fucking sounds. At this point, you would expect our heroes to understand, its not fucking safe ANYWHERE in that apartment building. As they explore the final apartment, slowly learning where this virus spread from and that some one knew about it, you start to wonder whats going to get them and the result felt...wrong. You see the camera operator filming and a little boy, I assume, reaches out and screams, breaking the camera and plunging our last two heroes into darkness. From there, you never see the little zombie kid again, though a larger, nastier threat quickly presents itself. What we can only assume is the possessed girl makes her appearance and it feels very J-Horror to me. She stumbles in the darkness, reaching out with some hammer trying to find where the noise came from. Our heroes hide and start to make a break for it but are caught and bingo. End of film.
Up until the end, it was classic zombie goodness. Even going off into the religious as the cause was ok with me. At least we knew where the outbreak came from. It was the zombie boy, again I am guessing you don't get a good look at him/her/it, in the attic that made me wince. It was the, now grown, possessed/zombie child that has been stumbling around in the penthouse for years. Thumping around, making noise but never being found. Questions, such as how in the fuck the dog was infected in the first place are never answered. Why the police and military didn't send in a fucking special forces team to kill everyone and burn down the building are never answered. A lot of logic seems to be missing at points and in my opinion, if you are making a movie based in the real world about zombies, have people react accordingly.
But these are minor gripes over a nice little zombie film. I highly suggest everyone pick it up and check it out. Because lets be honest, Hollywood is so stretched for ideas, this will be remade in the US before to long.
