For me, “[Rec]” symbolizes an apex of filmmaking in both the horror and cinéma vérité genres. Not only is it one of my favorite zombie movies, it may be my favorite “handheld camera” style film too, far surpassing “The Blair Witch Project” and even “Cloverfield.” It works well for so many reasons that I’ll cover in detail, and these different elements mesh together seamlessly into an absolutely terrifying film that makes me realize that there are two things in this world I will never do: outgrow my fear held in this movie, and live in a Spanish apartment complex.
Our two main protagonists are Ángela Vidal and her cameraman Pablo, who are spending the night in a fire station to film an episode for their documentary style television show, and tag a ride along with the firemen to an apartment where a mysterious rabies-like infection is beginning to spread and the whole team is forcibly quarantined inside the building.
The first thing that stands out to me is how great the acting is. As far as I could tell, for the first 10 minutes or so, I could have been watching a real documentary featuring real people. The dialogue is very human, with people occasionally stumbling over their words and talking over or interrupting each other as people are wont to do every so often. And when things get freaky and out of control, the dialogue doesn’t become punchy and dramatic, it becomes frantic. People scream over each other, making everything garbled and panicked. Ángela screams incoherently and stutters with fear, not once does she, as the main protagonist, rouse the survivors together with an inspiring speech, because you know what? Not every female lead needs to be a goddamned Ellen Ripley. In fact, it’s refreshing to see a horror movie heroine so completely defenseless to the environment around her, that just to see her survive another full minute is a triumph. Her character adds, as I said before, a realism to the film, which is extremely necessary in a case like this to draw the audience into it’s world.
I also applaud the fact that Pablo, the cameraman, while not as developed as his counterpart, is fully immersed in the movie as a character, with as much risk of getting killed as anyone else in the film (I can confidently say this because he does get killed, so there). The fact that even the source of what you’re seeing is vulnerable to physical harm makes you as the viewer feel the danger. It’s like if I told you that at this very moment, as you’re reading this, I’m in the next room fending off a rabid wolf. Once it’s killed me, what’s to say it won’t come after you next? The whole method of shooting gives you a sense of extreme intimacy with all the other characters around the camera, including the bitey, growly ones.
The setting itself is optimal for this type of movie. Almost the entire film is confined at gunpoint to an impossibly tall and narrow set of staircases, hallways and rooms. It’s like being trapped in a grain silo. Once we enter this building, we are not allowed to exit. This serves to make the viewer feel isolated, as they are not allowed to know what is going on outside the building, making it easy to relate to the mounting frustration of the characters trapped inside. Not only are we unaware of what’s going on outside, because we only see the events through one camera, we are not even sure of what else is going on in other parts of the same building, and the movie brilliantly reminds us of that with certain scenes like when one of the firemen mysteriously does a cordless bungie jump from some unknown place a few floors up and splatters in fried egg fashion across the foyer tile. The characters shortly debate what caused this to happen, but the matter is dropped as others arise and the question is left unanswered. Even in the small confines of the setting there are still things happening within that it’s very clear we won’t know about, and you know what? That’s alright, because the need to survive presents itself more boldly than any other topic.
There is an ever-increasing sense of paranoia throughout the film. You as the viewer get to watch as what was initially a very small problem blossoms into something beyond anyone’s control. At the beginning you find yourself saying, “Look out, you idiot! Stay focused on what you’re doing and there won’t be a probl-NO WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” and by the end you’re just like, “Fuck it, y’all are gonna die anyways.” It starts with mistakes the characters choose to make, but as things get worse and worse and the infection spreads, it forces the survivors to make decisions that are still stupid, but now necessary. It gives the film a sense of tragedy, of hopelessness, and considering how well “[Rec]” does all this, I couldn’t ask for anything more.
P.S. “[Rec]” is a Spanish movie and is therefore in Spanish. You could watch the American remake, “Quarantine” but you’d be an idiot because “Quarantine” is fucking terrible by comparison and should be ignored completely like a child laborer who hasn’t been pulling his weight recently and yet still has the gall to ask for a second serving of gruel.
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