Viewed at Manchester Cornerhouse Viva film festival. REC is one of the most terrifying and thrilling horror films to come out of recent years, that displays some clever inventiveness along with the traditional 'boo' scares expected of the horror genre. Filmed from the point of view of a local Madrid TV crew who are profiling fire fighters as part of a fly on the wall documentary series. Though the night consists at the beginning of nothing much happening at all, things take an unexpected turn when the crew follow a call out to an apartment where they find a crazed old women who attacks and bites a policemen present, infecting him and turning him into a crazed zombie. Its not long before there chance of finding outside help is stopped as the authority's isolate all the apartment block inhabitants and essentially quarantine them, leading the inhabitants and the TV crew to fight against and avoid the ever increasing zombie infection. REC achieves its scares and intensity through the use of close up point of view camera, that has most notably been used in two American films this year CLOVERFIELD and GEORGE ROMERO'S DIARY OF THE DEAD, and also the night vision sequence in THE DESCENT, where the scare comes from, the camera panning to one side and revealing something you don't want to see. This use of p.o.v makes the film more intense and personal, and interestingly enough, the director who was present at the screening, explained in a Q &A after the film that he didn't tell or inform the cast of what was going to happen in the scenes thereby increasing the realism of there horrified reactions. It's this brilliant style and memorable shocks that lend REC as one of the most clever and inventive horror films of recent memory. Go see it at the cinema, as this is the only way that will make you appreciate the intensity of the film, though be prepared to be exhausted, of ever a film had the mantle of shakiest camera in the world, this is it, and also see it before the Hollywood remake QUARANTINE is released later this year.
