I've decided that Spanish is the best language for horror, at least based on the evidence of this film.

Ok maybe Ukrainian is slightly more psychotic sounding but on balance the demented ravings of people trying to escape neck hungry infected zombie people sounds quite excellent when expressed through go old Espanola. And once you have that aspect taken care off then why not throw in the whole recorded on an ordinary video camera deal that everyone and their dog is going to liberally raped now that Cloverfield has shown it works.

Simple sound bite of this film? Cloverfield the crazy Spanish Zombie version I suppose, and it really does a great job of avoiding the typical genre pitfalls with the following.

All the characters feel very genuine and avoid cardboard whenever they can which is pretty impressive considering you only have a short time to get to know them before the killing begins! The sole exception is maybe the main female character who screams a little too often for my liking.

The most authentic and sickening body splat on floor scene I've ever experienced, I honestly recoiled when it happened.

The films brave decision not to give us a neat packaged ending. Granted it's slightly cliché in horror terms but at least one doesn't have to endure sloppily inserted exposition bits.

All the death/zombification scenes didn't have me hopping up and down screaming at the brainless cretins being turned into flesh eaters, instead all of them were "bad fucking luck for you, but at least stupidity didn't cause it".....ok maybe one was very very stupid lets say it involves a person standing beside a glass door in a position that screams please kill me I'm a twat.

If one has to nitpick I'd have to say the films mid section decision to hit the brakes for 15 minutes and conduct odd interviews with everyone killed some well worked early momentum but once the blood begins to fly again it regains its footing quickly.

So yea, Ummm watch it.

Hmm, I smell Gulli's writing all over that one. No offense Squee, it's just... that's Gulli, through and through.

yeah, looks like the ol' "change your password to something unrecognizable" has got him in a stitch.

Hmm, I dunno. I talked to Gulli and as of one week ago, he hasn't seen the movie.

How dare you.

How. Dare. You.

(Marks Trixster down 5 points to start the next screenshot game with)

Winner.

I dont get it. Sounds like Gulli as in was written by Gulli, or as in influenced by Gulli. If 'written by', why would he post it? If 'influenced by', is that really worth a 'no offense' disclaimer?

Ps - We should stop calling him Gulli. It reminds me of Harriet the Spy and thats not how I wanna think of him.

A-


Yeah, Gulli (or Squee or whoever) is right. [Rec] is one of the most tense and well-made horror movies I have seen in a while and proves once again that contrary to what many people say, the horror genre is not that bad nowadays. It's just that the good stuff is rarely to be found among US mainstream releases. A lot of good horror comes from overseas now or from the smaller US releases.

[Rec] (which has already been given a remake treatment with Quarantine, set to come out this October - and looking like a pointless shot-for-shot remake) is really a thrill ride. Filmed in the same way as Cloverfield, this starts out as a tame and rather uneventful report in a firefighters station, but after about 15-20 minutes, our characters sit in an eclosed and quarantined building because some kind of a virus spreads through the house, turning the infected into aggressive, zombie-like monsters. Rings a bell? Yeah, the premise sounds rather directly lifted from 28 Days Later (with the only difference being that the transformation doesn't always occur right away and that the infected when shot and apparently killed, usually can still survive and stand up). The final "twist" is rather unsurprising either.

But it's not the story that makes it great, it's the fact that once hell breaks loose, the movie starts getting more and more intense, reaching the suspension climax during its final 15 minutes when the tension gets almost unbearable. Natural acting by most members of the cast help the matters too. The infected attack fast and furious with no remorse. Blood is flowing in rivers here and the final 5-10 minutes take place in complete darkness ony with some camera nightvision on. That's some scary shit! The short running time only benefits the movie here as I simply can't imagine it being able to keep the tension level this high for a longer period of time.

The words tense and gripping fit well here, yeah. Blair Witch meets 28 Days Later/[insert zombie movie here]. I was on the edge of my seat with my hands on my jacket serving as a blanket, seriously. The gimnick of the camera works well here, even if there are a few things I would dismiss - details here and there that could annoy me more, but fortunately are too small and forgivable given the end result. And yes, the ending is the s*it.

Curious how The Blair With Project's impact has ony recently produced the most blatant "imitators", with this and Cloverfield.

It's funny that I enjoyed pretty much all of these imitators far more than The Blair Witch Project.

Yeah, definitely one of the scariest films I've seen in recent memory, at least since The Descent. The Blair Witch/Cloverfield style works perfectly for the zombie movie stylings, and it's executed nearly flawlessly. The tension constantly amps up throughout the film, and never really lets up, bar that interview sequence Gulli (it is Gulli, folks) mentioned. In fact Gulli really nailed everything I thought about the film, from the slight overscreeching of the lead to the brilliant, disturbing scenes (not only the floor splat, but also that terrifying shot looking down the zombie-infested stairwell) and the insanely awesome ending (complete with emaciated zombie - probably the most disturbing part of the whole film). Truly one of the better horror flicks of this decade. Funny how they all seem to be non-American.

And I still can't believe that the final scene from this movie is the one used in the trailers for Quarantine. Talk about spoiling your audience.

Saw it like 3 weeks ago. Its so awesome. I love the final moments of the movie, It was insanely creepy.

A-

I never knew Quarantine was the remake of this movie. My anticipation for it kinda died a little.

Might have appreciated it more if I saw this before Quarantine, I think, but it's still pretty great. And yeah, Quarantine is basically a shot-for-shot remake. Both are great.

REC was an incredible movie.
Absolutely terrifying.

7/10 -> B-

I thought I graded it here. It was good, but the ending is very weak. Great atmosphere though. But it lacks a bit of a substance. It's a gimmick movie after all. Hopefully [REC]2 proves me wrong.

[REC]

Well, I've already seen the US remake, Quarantine, so seeing this was a bit of a drag watching this one. The ending was about as scary as the US one, the middle and start were as intriguing, but with this one I had to read subtitles instead of just watch so I prefer the US one. It's a scene-for-scene remake (the US one, that is). It's not overly scary apart from when the possessed girl at the end comes out, but only for a few seconds too. Overall, I'm disappointed because I saw the US one first (never a good thing to do). Perhaps the sequels can improve.

The thing is, it's a contagious disease. That sort of thing can never be "scary", in my opinion. That's why Paranormal Activity works so well, because in that world, there are no rules, and that's scary, but with infections it is already known what you must an mustn't do in order to survive. But as far as horror frachises go, this seems a good one. I mean, most are shit. So this at least has some mileage.

C+