[Rec]

Title: [Rec]
Rating: 4/5
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Starring: Manuela Velasco, Pablo Rosso, Ferran Terraza
Language: Spanish

A horror film about zombies that runs for about 75 minutes is usually not expected to be that good, but I thought this one was good. Shot in the shaky camera style, we begin with a TV reporter, "Ángela" covering the night shift in a fire station, later an alarm is released for an emergency, and so they go to a building to rescue a woman trapped in her apartment, from there all things go wrong. Some of the things I found interesting in this film is that the makers brought some "zombie films clichés" and gave them a new look. I think the film was meant to bring chills, something it did well, rather than create a work of art. This is one of the best zombie films I saw, unlike many that came out lately like "Resident Evil" and its sequels, it made me feel tense at some moments.

Let me start with the direction. The team of "Jaume Balagueró" and "Paco Plaza" did a good job in bringing a horror film. They didn't intend it to be an artistic triumph, but I think it was intended to be a creepy experience. The shaky camera wasn't that annoying, we can notice the influence of "The Blair Witch Project", and it did add a good touch to the film. They didn't use music and extra materials to make the film seem more authentic, which I think was a good idea. I liked how they chose to represent the zombies, instead of dumb corpses walking around moaning, they were represented as vicious carnivores on the hunt, like in the film "28 Days Later". My main criticism for them is the slow building up of the action, especially with a short film. Similar to "The Descent", it begins slowly but then all hell breaks loose! I am sure all of have seen films with clichés such as "don't open the door" or "don't go into the basement", some things that seem stupid, but here I think these situations were effective. I think it should be noted that although we notice most of the back-up characters seem "one-dimensional", it won't bother us much, since as I said the main goal is to scare rather than to study human emotions under fear.

Now to the writing part, I liked how the origin of the infection was explained. The casual "secret government project went wrong" was not used, but something different which I will leave you to discover. The film was straight forward with no ambiguity; sometimes it bothered me a bit, but not too seriously. Some things could have been handled better, for instance the role of the reporter at times seemed as if it came from a "Resident Evil" game. Overall this is a cool example in horror how the writer and director can be the same, it was written by "Jaume Balagueró". He did will as a writer and co-director with introducing the element of surprise, which made the building they are at, appear creepier, especially how the sounds were used.

This recommended to horror fans in general, and to zombie horror to be specific. It's good to watch with some friends, or alone, after turning off the light to have a bumpy ride. It was remade in an American version called "Quarantine", that one didn't do it right, watch this one instead. Basically, it had all the elements of a good horror film, and I don't think it will disappoint. Now I am eager for the sequel coming out in some months.