[REC] is the latest horror film to emerge from Spain, following the success of its critically acclaimed big brother “The Orphanage” (which is produced by Pan's Labyrinth's Guillermo Del Toro), as well as winning two Goya awards, the Spanish equivalent of the Oscars. Borrowing much from The Blair Witch Project and the recent monster film Cloverfield, REC adopts the amateur hand-camera approach from those films, yet infuses it with an unrelenting intensity that they seemed to lack. In short, REC is a terrifying foray into the unknown, tapping into our primal fears of things that go bump in the night.

The film revolves around a news reporter named Angela and her cameraman, Pablo, who become sealed inside an apartment building by the police whilst filming a documentary with the local fire department. Soon it appears that something very sinister is going on, as the apartment residents begin turning into crazed, flesh-hungry zombies, and those yet to come in contact with the infected must fight for their lives. Given that the film runs in at a mere 78 minutes, its set-up is slightly too long, yet once it slams into gear, it is an intense thrill-ride that lends a little more grittiness to itself than its predecessors.

REC is certainly not as action-packed or well-made as Cloverfield, for example, yet it shocks and terrifies on a level that Matt Reeves’ film did not; REC is certainly not a pretty endeavour by any stretch of the imagination; even with its striking lead, played by Manuela Velasco, REC is full of foul language, raw violence, and incoherent screaming, not to mention disorientating camerawork which effectively prevents the viewer from ever getting comfortable.

Whilst REC is not without its arbitrary jump scares, its true genius lies within taking a fairly rudimentary story, and ratcheting up the intensity to near-unbearable levels as our protagonist’s situation becomes increasingly more hopeless. The film’s final half hour in particular is a masterclass of tension; the frenzied performances, the deliberately grotty camerawork and dingy locales converge to provide director Jaume Balaguero with the platform to redefine the horror genre, and in crafting REC,  Balaguero has nearly done that; he takes a simple zombie infection story, and particularly in the film’s final sequence, shot entirely in night vision, effortlessly elicits a sense of unease rarely seen in contemporary horror films.

Much like other films of the genre, the film’s characters are frenzied and a little irrational, yet the raw authenticity of the camerawork augments the actor’s performances to make their choices believable. To this effect, whilst the film takes full advantage of Velasco’s aesthetic qualities, REC largely steers away from horror clichés, and even the aforementioned jump scares are fairly unpredictable, making REC already leagues ahead of its frankly dismal competition.

REC is not perfect; its camerawork will alienate those similarly bemused by the cinematography of the latter two films in the Bourne series, and the end credits music is so poorly placed that it detracts slightly from the otherwise disquieting atmosphere of the film’s final shot. The subtitles will unfortunately deter many from seeing REC, yet by it sheer nature, REC is a film which has its substance better defined by its aesthetic than its dialogue, and so, even the most adamant philistine would not find watching the film a chore.

REC is a thrilling return to the horror genre, proudly debunking the cliché-ridden Western horror films of the last decade (as well as a few racial stereotypes also), although such success has already lead to the production of a shot-for-shot American remake, which is due out in October of this year.  Even with its derivative concept, REC is a considerable achievement, with genuine scares and remarkable performances, and so and earns four out of five stars.

Thanks for reading,
Reefer