Film Review: [REC] 2

Watching the sequel [REC] 2 just this past week reminds me of how timid and inept modern American horror has become. The original [REC] was an amazing camera-POV film most closely resembling the films MAN BITES DOG, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, and more recently PARANORMAL ACTIVITY and DIARY OF THE DEAD. [REC] is the story of television reporter Angela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) and her cameraman who follow two firemen on what should have been a routine call to a tenement building. The situation goes to hell fast when they realize that they've been quarantined from the outside world and they now find themselves trapped in a building not only with the building's residents but with a highly contagious disease that may become the death of them all.

Most American audiences were unable to see the original [REC] until its American remake QUARANTINE had gone through its theatrical run and DVD release. The two films are virtually identical except the origin of the outbreak/disease (QUARANTINE decided it was easier to make the disease a highly contagious form of rabies).

I was lucky enough to get a hold of a Region 0 version of [REC] (from ebay no less) prior to the theatrical release of QUARANTINE and I was immediately taken back by the sheer terror and vitality of the film. The film was a fast paced tour de force of suspense and terror. This was a feeling I thought was missing from the current slate of American horror films. Although I enjoyed the American remake QUARANTINE, its biggest flaw was having familiar actors in the film. [REC] was more suspenseful and terrifying because I was unfamiliar with any of the actors, whereas, QUARANTINE was littered with actors and character actors familiar from both television and film. This is the biggest problem of all modern day American horror films. They are always cast with rising stars and television actors rather than "unknowns" like horror films of the '70s to mid- '90s.

The reasons why I like [REC] are why such films like THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY work so well (and even the similarly executed film CLOVERFIELD). When I heard that a [REC] 2 had been produced I was a little apprehensive (kind of like hearing about THE DESCENT 2 and DOG SOLDIERS 2 and CABIN FEVER 2). The first film was so good that I didn't think there could ever be a way a sequel could match the original. Boy was I wrong. When I heard reviews from advance previews and festival screenings that the film was actually really well received.

[REC] 2 takes the simple concept of the first film and turns it on its head. The sequel takes place just moments after the events of the first film in which a SWAT team enter the building with a medical official for the purpose of recording and documenting what happened in the building and how to prevent the disease from spreading. The situation gets more complicated when the SWAT team encounters the infected and realize that the medical official knows more than what he is revealing. To reveal the medical official's purpose in the building is to reveal the true nature of the outbreak/disease and it really needs to be seen to be believed. Writers Jaume Balaguero & Manu Diez have crafted a smart new chapter in this horror saga that is far from predictable. Balaguero and Paco
Plaza, as co-directors, also change the style of the film as the camera-POV goes from one SWAT team member to the next creating an even more suspenseful film especially when the story starts to unfold.

Like the first film, I got a hold of [REC] 2 as a Region 0 version from ebay (which means you should all go out there and find a copy) mainly because I believe American distributors are slow when it comes to foreign films. I've picked up the following films as Region 0 from ebay prior to any American release - RED CLIFF PART 1 & 2, THE HOST, 4BIA, DEATH BELL, DEAD SNO, [REC], MULAN, Jet Li's WARLORDS, and numerous others. I normally wouldn't recommend this as I'm a huge supporter of watching films theatrically but the sad fact is that fewer and fewer foreign horror films are going theatrical and the lag time between when I hear about these films and when they actually get an American release has been way too long for me to actually continue to wait. If I had waited to see the original [REC] until its American DVD release it would have been almost two years after its original International release and almost eight months after the release of the QUARANTINE remake.

[REC] 2 is set for a limited American theatrical release this July 9 before eventually getting a DVD release and I've been hearing about this film for almost a year now. I just couldn't wait, especially considering I bought the film for only $14.99 on ebay which will be about the amount of a movie ticket. When the film is released theatrically, I'll probably still go see it (if it plays near me) since this is one of the few horror films I've seen in the last year that is actually worth seeing theatrically. I just hope that amid all the other dredge of American sequels and remakes that this film does not get lost or buried.