The old tradition of scaring the hell out of you may be on the way back, Hollywood has long catered to the indestructible bad guy, one who dies but comes right back, so it is refreshing to see a movie that takes this theory and shoves it relentlessly in your face. The majority of this movie takes place in dark rooms, attics and stairwells. "Rec2" is the first sequel in what is planned as a four part story arc. Rec was filmed in Spain in 2006 and shortly was remade in America in 2008 as Quarantine. They remade the movie scene for scene, and word for word. The words Original and Hollywood don’t seem to go hand in hand anymore.
Following the events that took place in Rec a small S.W.A.T. unit is dispatched to clear the apartment building, when they arrive they are told that they will be accompanying a health minister inside the building. The unit members are each equipped with on- helmet cameras, which can be linked to their main camera that is being used to film their progress. The unit is led by Chief Jefe (Oscar Zafra), Rosso (Pablo Rosso) is the camera man, Larra (Ariel Casas) and Martos (Alejandro Casaseca). The health minister, Dr Owen ( Jonathan Mellor) has his own hidden agenda behind his entering the building, he also controls the only means of egress from the building.
Once inside the building the unit is beset upon by savage killers, one loses his life and becomes a ravaging killer like the rest of the apartment dwellers. Jefe confronts Dr. Owen and Owen reveals his true purpose behind his visit. He is there trying to recover a vial of blood, blood from the girl who started the spread of the contagion. Soon The group is attacked again and Larra is separated from the rest of the men and is attacked.
Here the movie jumps to a second group of people who will enter the building through a storm drain, this group consists of another fireman, a residents father, and three teenagers. Tito (Pau Poch) Uri (Alex Batllori) and Mire (Andrea Ros) soon meet up with what is left of the S.W.A.T. team and soon also become victims to the house’s evil. A survivor; the news reporter from the first movie appears and leads the group up to the penthouse where they use their night vision equipment to discover the hideout of the girl who is spreading the contagion. On the way up the stairs one of the group wonders aloud why they are not being attacked anymore, if you follow movies as much as I do you will at this point know how the film will end, needless to say it did end the way I figured it would, but the discovery of the new villain is scary and there is a rather eerie scene at the end that shows how this event transpired.
The directors Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza have teamed up for the first two films but have decided to do the remaining two stories Rec Apocalypse and Rec Genesis individually. If you have seen Quarantine and like it then you should do yourself a favor and search out the original. Rec is a faster paced story and the violence in often in your face. If you didn’t enjoy Quarantine then maybe you should see how well the original story was done and by all means when Rec2 opens State side- July in many cities- I recommend seeing the follow up movie that ties almost everything up into a neat package and does a grand job of leading into the follow up films.
I give Rec2 a 3 and on my avoidance scale a 0, I recommend seeing both of these movies in their original format, they are in Spanish with English subtitles that are easy to follow. If you like scary movies these two will please even the cynic in you. The only thing that may get to many of the movies viewers is the shaky camera work with a first person’s point of view. Rec Apocalypse is scheduled to hit theaters in 2011.
Rec2 is unrated Running time is 1 hr. 25 mins. Distributed by Magnet Releasing
