Review of [REC] (2007) by Jeffrey C — 02 Oct 2010

The horror film [Rec] is directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza and stars Manuela Velasco and Ferran Terraza. The film takes place in a modern day apartment building in Barcelona.

The film starts off with a news reporter, Angela (Velasco), at the fire department with her cameraman Pablo. The two of them work for a program called While You're Asleep and are discovering what the night shift of a fireman is like. The department receives a call that there is an elderly woman who needs help. So the camera crew follows two firemen, Mani (Terraza) and his partner Alex. They arrive at the scene and all of the residents are making a big commotion and there are two police officers also at the scene. The police officers and firemen approach the elderly woman's apartment and enter. They see her there covered in blood just standing there looking oblivious. Until she attacks them...

The screenplay for this film was quite good. It is definitely one of the best horror films of the 2000s so far. I thought the characterization was quite good, I felt I knew Angela, Pablo, and Mani pretty well and I could definitely understand the terror they felt in the situation they were in. The scares were excellent because it was all about waiting and the suspense. Another great thing about this film is the scares actually come from the film, what I mean by that is there is no score that makes you scared. Definitely one of the best of the hand held horror subgenre.

The direction for this film by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza was quite goods as well. They got really great performances from there actors all around. Not one of the actors I thought were too over the top since they did need to be somewhat over the top for this film. I liked also how they did not try and put in any sort of nice shots into this film like some of the other hand held horrors try to do. It was just straight up filming and it was great for what it needed to be. The two of them did an excellent job at building up suspense such as when the police and firemen first contact the older woman. Many other horror directors should note this film on how to do suspense properly.

The acting in this film I thought was excellent. Velasco was great as the news reporter, I could never even tell she was acting. She was so believable in how she always wanted to get everything on film no matter how terrified she was of the situation that she was in. Terraza was as well very good as the fireman Manu. Even though the situation got tough he was still a leader and tried to do his best to help. Again I could not even tell that he was acting, maybe because I was so drawn in to the film and that it was in Spanish, but still I thought the two acted extremely well. The rest of the cast gave fine performances as well, like I said in the above paragraph no one was ridiculous in how they acted.

Overall I give this film an 8/10. It is one of the best horror films of the past decade and I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of horror. If you don't like subtitles you can watch the American remake Quarantine which is basically the same film.