I heard about "Rec" through all the fuss over the remake, "Quarantine", and the debates and justifiable anger of many people against the remaking of films just for the sake of the language; for people who are either too lazy or illiterate to read subtitles. I'm glad I saw this. It wasn't an amazing film and neither was it an awful one, but it was good entertaining cinema and very much the kind that I like. It's obviously in huge debt to films like Cloverfield and the earlier Blair Witch Project (not relevant here but terrible in my opinion) but it really doesn't matter because this is a good film all on it's own.
The progression of the film from laughable El Dorado fly-on-the-wall style docu-drama to full-on seat-jumping horror was fantastic. At times shakiness of the hand-held camera style made it hard to work out what was going on, one scene that comes to mind is when the Chinese family were killed, but this was obviously deliberate and only added to the shocks that were to come. It was also pretty funny as well, especially when it played on racist stereotypes, ie: one neighbours disgust at the Chinese family who are "always eating feng shui" and raw fish.
Sadly, there were in my opinion some big faults with this film and it's always easier to point out the bad than the good. The illogical reasoning behind the building being quarantined, the hacking together of the storyline behind the infections origins in the last 20mins (which was lame and could've been left out) and the incredible annoying lead from Manuela Velasco, but in the end these things didn't matter that much and Velasco's character was killed (Yes!). It ended perfectly, any other way and I would have felt cheated. We don't want her to survive or get rescued, and she doesn't.
If you can look past the faults in this film, and like I had to, try not to use your brain too much, you are in for a very enjoyable ride. Parts of it were wonderful, particularly the use of - or absence of - sound, and some very creepy and well put together shots of the zombies. An excellent effort and worthy addition to the Zombie genre with some original and genuinely scary moments. I won't bother watching the remake, I've seen the original. Thanks
The progression of the film from laughable El Dorado fly-on-the-wall style docu-drama to full-on seat-jumping horror was fantastic. At times shakiness of the hand-held camera style made it hard to work out what was going on, one scene that comes to mind is when the Chinese family were killed, but this was obviously deliberate and only added to the shocks that were to come. It was also pretty funny as well, especially when it played on racist stereotypes, ie: one neighbours disgust at the Chinese family who are "always eating feng shui" and raw fish.
Sadly, there were in my opinion some big faults with this film and it's always easier to point out the bad than the good. The illogical reasoning behind the building being quarantined, the hacking together of the storyline behind the infections origins in the last 20mins (which was lame and could've been left out) and the incredible annoying lead from Manuela Velasco, but in the end these things didn't matter that much and Velasco's character was killed (Yes!). It ended perfectly, any other way and I would have felt cheated. We don't want her to survive or get rescued, and she doesn't.
If you can look past the faults in this film, and like I had to, try not to use your brain too much, you are in for a very enjoyable ride. Parts of it were wonderful, particularly the use of - or absence of - sound, and some very creepy and well put together shots of the zombies. An excellent effort and worthy addition to the Zombie genre with some original and genuinely scary moments. I won't bother watching the remake, I've seen the original. Thanks