READERS' CHOICE #49: REC (2007)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

9.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

No, but I have seen Quarantine, the American version from 2008

BEST SEQUENCE

The scenes that revolve around the little girl

BEST LINE

“We have to tape everything, Pablo. For fuck’s sake.”

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

89%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Plunging viewers into the nightmarish hellscape of an apartment complex under siege, [Rec] proves that found footage can still be used as an effective delivery mechanism for sparse, economic horror"

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A television reporter and cameraman follow emergency workers into a dark apartment building and are quickly locked inside with something terrifying."

THOUGHTS

• This is probably the scariest movie I've reviewed so far, at least judging by the number of times I yelled and swore out loud while watching it. The setting is effectively claustrophobic, the tension ratchets up without much time to breathe, and it keeps surprising us with barely a moment's notice. I almost gave this 10/10 on the Thrill Scale, but I wanted to leave some room for even scarier, more thrilling movies. This one came pretty close, though
• A lot of the big moments are jump scares, which are often seen as a crutch for the lazy horror filmmaker. But you know what? Jump scares, when filmed effectively and justified by the story, are scary! If they're all a movie has to offer, then sure, that can get tiresome. But in a movie like this, with a tense atmosphere, and with the danger stemming from lightning-quick changes in behaviour from the characters, the jump scares definitely work, and if anything they help put us in the mindset of the protagonists
• And speaking of controversial horror movie tactics, it's a bit of a gamble to decide to make your movie found footage. Beyond just trying to, you know, make a good, scary movie, you need to ensure your plot and characters can support the idea that these people would continue filming even after survival becomes what should be the main priority. Some movies handle this well (I think Paranormal Activity is pretty flawless in this regard) and some don't (from what I recall, I was really not impressed with Cloverfield). I think REC straddles the line, but mostly comes down on the side of effective found footage. The main character is a reporter, and when it becomes clear that things are going bad, she insists that her cameraman, Pablo, keep filming for journalistic integrity because "people need to see this" (and presumably Pablo agrees, although we never see him, since he does indeed keep filming). I liked that the cops and firemen didn't just ignore the camera continuing to roll; at various points they knock the camera away or tell Pablo to turn it off. Around the late middle part of the movie, when the main characters are in very real, obvious danger, it becomes a lot harder to believe the camera would still be running instead of just thrown to the floor at some point. The final scenes are quite clever (and terrifying) in this regard, though, as the lights in the building go out entirely and they need to rely on the camera's spotlight, and then night vision, to navigate their surroundings
• Looking at my favourite parts of this movie, and also Night of the Living Dead, apparently all good zombie movies need to have a scary little girl?
• After watching REC I also gave Quarantine a rewatch, and I've decided that REC is the better movie. They are indeed very similar, a lot of the same beats and even the same scares, but I can't pinpoint exactly why, I felt like REC used more effective filming techniques to shock me more than Quarantine did. Also, while Jennifer Carpenter from Quarantine may not be the most famous actress in the world, I've seen Dexter. I know she's an actress. Manuela Velasco, from REC, I've never seen before, adding to the verisimilitude of this being real footage from a real event. And, while I don't think the acting in Quarantine was bad, it still felt a little actorly at times. By default, with REC being in Spanish, it was more believable for me; I wasn't judging the line deliveries, and everything I saw on screen seemed pretty convincing. If you have a preference against subtitles, Quarantine isn't bad, but I'd definitely recommend REC before it (and if you do have a preference against subtitles, you're missing out on a lot of amazing movies)

Up next: Christopher Nolan's Memento from 2000

READERS' CHOICE #50: THE GAME (1997)

TW: Suicide

THRILL SCALE 1-10

7.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, a few times

BEST SEQUENCE

I think the ending is tremendously effective, but the runaway cab scene might be the most thrilling

BEST LINE

"This is your game, Nicholas, and welcome to it."

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

76%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"The ending could use a little work but this is otherwise another sterling example of David Fincher's iron grip on atmosphere and storytelling. "

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"After a wealthy San Francisco banker is given an opportunity to participate in a mysterious game, his life is turned upside down as he begins to question if it might really be a concealed conspiracy to destroy him."

THOUGHTS

• If you haven't seen The Game yet, stop reading this and go watch it. It's a good movie, you'll like it. And it's not overly scary or violent if you're squeamish about such things. Last warning, though, this will be a spoiler-heavy review
• Because I think the ending is so good, and for me, it absolutely works. Sure, you could pick away at the logic of it if you were so inclined. Sure, it strains credulity that the game company (CRS) could predict everything so accurately. But if you allow yourself to buy into it, I think it's a wonderful twist ending. Personally, I can suspend my disbelief because the tests that Nicholas (Michael Douglas) goes through in preparation for the game are depicted in such a scientifically mystical way, and they're shown to be so thorough and intensive, that my imagination doesn't have to stretch very far to believe what they were able to predict, including, yes, even the exact spot from which Nicholas would jump. What can I say, I'm an easy mark for movies like this
• I first saw this movie in high school, I believe, if not a little younger. I don't really remember how I responded to it when I first saw it. What's interesting about rewatching it, knowing how it ends, is how it changes the way we view the action on screen. Aside from watching how Nicholas responds to the situations he finds himself in, we also watch with an eye for how CRS is actually pulling all of this off. I also kept thinking about what the twist ending means for the movie's thrills. Is the movie still thrilling if, ultimately, Nicholas was never in any real danger, as it's explained at the end? I think it is. A locked cab barreling into the water is scary even if we eventually learn that there were divers standing by to rescue Nicholas. More importantly, it was still real for him, and since we're experiencing the movie along with the character, I think that's what counts
• Another fun little activity is watching carefully to see who you can recognize at Nicholas's party. For example, the man who's in charge of the invoice at the end was the same man in the airport who indicated to Nicholas that his pen was leaking
• Some other favourite scenes: the beginning of the game, when the newscaster speaks directly to Nicholas from the TV; the extremely creepy clown in the driveway (what is this, Poltergeist?!); the blacklight vandalism scene; and really, many others
• I think it's very effective how we're told that Nicholas's father committed suicide. The old-timey, grainy film has a very creepy quality to it, and I like that it's never actually spoken out loud by any of the characters in the movie. Speaking of Nicholas's father, watching it this time I was thinking gee, that man looks a lot like Michael Douglas, is that Kirk Douglas? Only to then look it up and realize, get ready to have your minds blown, Nicholas's father was played by Charles Martinet! Better known as THE VOICE OF MARIO since 1992! Let's all just be thankful he didn't get any dialogue in this movie as that would be incredibly unsettling
• Oh yeah, one more thing. I just lost

Up next: Slight change of plans. In the original poll we had Quarantine, the American movie from 2008, but I've seen it before so I'm actually going to go with REC, the Spanish 2007 original

MARK REVIEWS THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: ETERNALS

• On Rotten Tomatoes, this is the lowest-ranked Marvel movie by a wide margin. Currently sitting at 47%, and the next lowest is Thor: The Dark World at 66%. I have no explanation for this, especially since it's not like the MCU movies are critical darlings, anyway
• This certainly wasn't the best Marvel movie, but it was also far from the worst. It was decidedly unique, which is something I've come to appreciate from individual entries into the MCU. It also took a lot of big swings. Some of the creative choices worked, some didn't, but they'll stand out in my memory and that's more than I can say for a lot of these movies
• For a while before it came out I thought this would be the next Avengers, a slam-bang team-up with a variety of dynamic personalities and superpowers. This isn't really that. The Avengers worked so well because we got to know (most of) the characters independently before seeing them work together. However, the Eternals all have the same origin story, and they're not really distinct enough from each other to make individual stories worth telling. Although this is by far the most culturally diverse Marvel cast, which I really appreciated (doesn't really explain why the fictional characters all have different accents, but I can suspend my disbelief)
• And so, with a grand total of ten title characters, some of them don't make much of an impact. Angelina Jolie, in particular, didn't have much to do, which is interesting considering her star power
• Side note, it was nice seeing Richard Madden and Kit Harrington outside of Game of Thrones (Robb Stark and Jon Snow, respectively). It was also funny that the two of them spent a lot of their screen time talking to a character named Sersi (pronounced exactly the same as Cersei)
• I've always like Kumail Nanjiani, and he was a lot of fun in this movie
• As villains, the Deviants weren't much; just some CGI monsters to rough up. And the main Deviant, who kept absorbing the Eternals' powers, really didn't go anywhere
• Villains aside, though, and despite the overstuffed cast, I liked watching the Eternals interact with each other. I enjoyed their team dynamic. The movie has also been lauded for its artistic cinematography, and I echo that. And the climax had some issues, it was a little incoherent, but I thought the Emergence aspect of the climax was extremely effective and suitably bonkers
• Finally, little bit of trivia, I'm fairly certain that this is the first Marvel movie to refer to any DC characters. Both Batman and Superman are mentioned, and it's not made explicit if they are fictional or real-life characters in the MCU. I thought that was a neat little nod, though, maybe even with some crossover potential

Up next: Somewhat undecided! Depending on when I see Spider-Man: No Way Home, it might be that, otherwise it'll be back to the thrills with the first reader-voted thrilling movie