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Emma
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Feb 04, 2009 02:16PM

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[REC:] (Jaume Balaguero & Paco Plaza, 2007, Spain) Fear spreads like a deadly virus, as a reporter and her cameraman become possessed by an ungodly terror: while the world sleeps, the government quarantine leaves them little hope of survival. Ángela and Pablo are filming their assignment at a Barcelona fire station, going about the boring routine of interviews and introductions, hoping that something exciting will happen. It does. They race through the darkened streets, passengers with a group of veteran firemen who must rescue a person trapped in an apartment. The tension builds as what seems to be a simple emergency call soon degenerates into an orgy of violence and bloodshed, and the apartment becomes a steel cage, unattainable freedom seen through the ethereal curtain of plastic while commanding threats are shouted by military police. The film’s cinéma vérité style brings a frustrating realism to the events utilizing overlapping dialogue improvised chaos: the characters behave like people trapped, not actors spouting rigid dialogue. An obese bloody woman ravages the first victim as Hell breaks loose upon the world, and we see the new reality where nothing is believable unless it is seen through a camera’s digital iris, where the optic nerve connects to the hard drive. The narrative accelerates creating intense friction between characters and events but then slows down, letting us catch our breath before the tumultuous shadows cloud our perceptions once again. The cloying darkness becomes a living thing, embracing the victims in the primal fright as the human mind becomes reactionary, uncivilized, the repressed survival instinct taking control and instructing them to run, run…but where? Ángela and Pablo are the last survivors and reach the forgotten penthouse where they discover a mystery that reaches into the Vatican and the chasm of Catholic ideology itself. In the tremors of night vision, a demented creature stalks the gloom and their fate is sealed, the camera ever watchful as they disappear into that evil night. (B+)

oh, now i see. i read in your earlier post that you it's a region 2 copy...curses!

One point I forgot to mention, the song at the end of the film brings the momentum to a screetching halt, it's overblown and out-of-place. WTF were they thinking? We're taken on a 70 minute ride through Hell to end on a stupid pop-rock song?!? Try to hit the mute button quickly:) Otherwise, as you can read, I thought it a very good horror film.

pop music inserted in cinema....usually a bad idea.

Warning: an entire plague of SPOILERS
Alex and a few other friends have been raving about this film for months, but it wasn't until just recently that the film has been widely distributed on DVD in the United States. Almost immediately after the film's release in Europe, an American remake entitled "Quarantine" was released. Apparently, there are miniscule differences between the Spanish version and the American remake. I'm going to focus on the original Spanish film, and don't really have an interest in seeing the remake, but if you like horror and don't like reading subtitles you might choose Quarantine. Since I haven't seen the remake, I can't comment on the similarity or quality of the remake.
[REC:] is the story of a young and enthusiastic televison crew whose weekly program presents portraits of everyday life "after dark" (ala reality TV). The team of cameraman and anchor-woman go on an assignment with a pair of firefighters who answer a distress call in a paramedic capacity. The film begins rather suddenly without titles or anything at all to draw your attention to the idea that you are watching a movie. From beginning to end, [REC :] maintains a live-TV broadcast feel, composed mainly in long shots with very little editing. The first few minutes of the film, where the directors are developing their characters in a natural way, presents a sense of the ordinary that puts the viewer at ease.
Once the crew and the paramedics arrive at their destination things begin to quickly fall apart. A woman in an upper floor unit is reported "in distress", and her screams are heard from above. The crew investigates and enters the apartment to find her clothed in a silk slip that is covered in blood.
From there until the end things go terribly bad, and this terminal tragedy ends with the camera crashing to the floor...and along with it our hope for a happy ending.
What is really startling about the film is the quality of the performances, which never feel like performances at all. Due to the lack of editing and the improvised feel of the "script", the audience feels it is privvy to a lost surviving document from a night in hell. In the making of documentary included on the disc, the filmmakers reveal that the cast was never privvy to what would happen from day to day. The actors were given an idea of what would unfold in a scene (but a few of the key players knew what they were to do). So a lot of emotional reaction to the scenes really play out naturally, with candid responses of fear and terror on the faces of the participants.
For all zombie flick fans and those that like tight-rope suspense, I highly recommend this one. I could hardly breathe throughout. The violence is fairly minimal, a lot is semi-hidden from the camera, but as Hitchcock proved again and again, whatever the audience concocts in it's own mind is usually more horrible that what can be seen in concrete images.


so, which one did you like best?
i haven't seen quarantine and i don't really see the point.

I have to say I was kind of underwhelmed when I originally watched it on the small screen (I think I ended up giving it *** and laughing at the plot holes), but I got a chance to see it on the big screen two weekends ago, and it was a LOT more fun that way...
