Guy Movie Review for Guys: Rec

George Romero’s Living Dead series established a zombie timeline. First, there’s the sudden outbreak and discovery of the undead. Then, there’s a period of trying to preserve normal human existence. Lastly, there’s pure survival in a post-apocalypse. Smart filmmakers pick a point and examine the interesting events and character flaws that arise out of the circumstances. For instance, with 28 Days Later, director Danny Boyle places his characters a month into an outbreak and shows what might happen to the government and the military.

The Spanish film Rec takes place at the exact starting point of a possible outbreak, one that the authorities try to contain. Angela, a reporter, and Pablo, her cameraman, plan to film a night in the life of a crew of firemen. They film the happenings of a fire station, the regular meal and the pickup basketball game. However, when they tagalong on a routine call to an apartment building, they discover an elderly woman stricken with some sort of rabies: she is mindless with a penchant for biting. As more and more residents contract the disease, the entire building is quarantined and all the exits are sealed. Angela and Pablo must try to survive while documenting, because of their journalistic integrity, the worsening situation.

Writer-director Jaime Balaquero has crafted a real formal achievement. Rec is a simulated news-piece filmed with only one handheld camera, which is situated within the narrative. As Pablo runs to capture important moments, his camera shakes. This is mock-doc stuff, the latest in the Blair Witch Project tradition. And Rec does better than most of its kind, much better than the aforementioned Blair Witch and the recent Diary of the Dead and Cloverfield, in establishing a believable world.

Partly, credit is due to the amazing camera work. There are a number of complex sequences with no cuts, sequences that seem more made for TV Cops than big budget Hollywood Heat. For instance, in an early scene where all the characters discover that they are being quarantined, there are perhaps a dozen actors in the frame at the same time, each speaking and acting simultaneously, give or take. The scene seems to go on for a good ten minutes and spans two floors, with no cut. Credit also, then, is due to the actors. In this mock-doc form, one clichéd line or one stylized gesture can blow the entire cover and reveal the filmic artificiality. However, each character, from the strung-out cop to the stunned Chinese immigrant, is believable and none is overdone. With broad brushstrokes, we know what each character is about.

Ultimately, Rec is gritty, enveloping horror. The hand-held gets us face to face with the undead. There are no wide shots, cranes, or steadicams to keep us, the audience, safe. We are only a couple feet, at most, from each zombie attack. I could almost smell the gore off the first of the infected our protagonists encounter: an old, overweight woman in a blood-covered slip. The film spirals towards a frantic first climax where the outbreak becomes full-blown. Angela and Pablo race up the apartment’s twisting staircase while fighting off several zombies, including the Chinese woman who hisses and claws right into Pablo’s camera.

This very scary film slows down before peaking again. Two words: zombie; night-vision. The American remake Quarantine, pretty good in its own right, feels like everything before the night-vision was all setup. Rec, though, is a fuller, more balanced work, which makes the incredible last sequence even more brutal and beautiful.