REC

Masterpiece.

“REC” delivers a steady stream of frights because its camera man never knows quite where to look — and by the time he figures it out, it might be too late.

Guaranteed to scare the pantalones off you.

A brilliantly staged early scare signals that the safety rails are off and, despite an unexpected, last-minute swerve into the supernatural realm, the edge-of-the-seat tension is sustained to the very last second.

If you can tolerate 79 minutes of joggling images you’ll probably find this entertaining, though writer-directors Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza overplay their hand with a late-breaking back story that rips off one movie too many.

Lazily scripted, without even a pretense of character development or psychological depth, it offers nothing new for genre fans and no reason for mainstream auds to bite.

Midway through, the plot blows a gasket and the camerawork turns altogether crazed, joggling us about in the semi-darkness while the soundtrack rings to distorted screams. Expect pitch and yaw and lots of gore.

Un verdadero fenómeno del Cine de Terror de habla hispana que a estas alturas ya es todo un clásico, bien hecha, creíble, aterradora y muy entretenida.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

6/10 * >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Gruselig. Es gab einige Schreckensmomente. :-OO

I am going to warn you that I didn’t like this movie, to the point it annoyed me, mostly because the American remake, Quarantine (2008), fixes most of the issues that this film had. First thing that bothered me was that the movie looked horrible. It was so shaky that it looked terrible. It did kinda draw you in but I still hated it and it made me feel sick and I couldn’t tell what was going on. The camera operator was deliberately bad, no professional is ever this bad. The sound design was fine, it actually sounded good which doesn’t match the video but I actually don’t mind the lack of “authenticity”. The story was a bit lacking. It was slightly believable and thought provoking but too slow, basic and badly paced. The characters should have carried the movie but were forgettable. There are three exciting moments in the first half hour interspersed with lots of boredom. It does ramp up with ever-increasing fear but is completely destroyed due to the painful camerawork. Stick to the remake or avoid found-footage horror altogether.

Despite the short run time, Rec drags on heavily during the middle and fails to pick up steam. I appreciate the creativity and the premise is interesting enough but it just never gets going for me. It's a rather boring "zombie" movie that saves everything for the final act.