150 Word Review: '[REC]' (2007)
Be kind, rewind
Directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, Rec is a bloody Spanish-language indie that gets two horror genres right: zombies and found footage. The undead are fast and pissed-off, like Danny Boyle’s influential 28 Days Later, but there are a few original twists.
Found footage movies rarely transcend their premise: a herky-jerky camera is always pointed directly at the action. But this contrivance is solved with a simple concept: Manuela Velasco is a TV reporter bored by an assignment covering a night-in-the-life of a local firehouse. When the firefighters are called to an emergency, Velasco’s ambitious journalist and her camera ride along. “Record it all,” she commands. What’s waiting for them at an apartment building is slowly revealed, and it’s not good (and, also, hungry). Then the scares are non-stop. Rec feels immediate, as if it’s happening in the moment, which makes it one of the best of its kind.