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
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