Tags
Alejandro Casaseca, Ariel Casas, Drama, Horror, Jonathan Mellor, Manuela Velasco, Movie, Oscar Zafra, Rec 2
pleasant...
R
Jonathan Mellor, Oscar Zafra, Ariel Casas, Alejandro Casaseca, Manuela Velasco
(While in a sewer)
Ori: I can’t see s***.
Mire: Funny, since this place is full of s***.
A SWAT team accompanies a doctor into an apartment complex where a dangerous viral outbreak has occurred.
Do you enjoy crazed, bloody, violent people running full speed at you, screaming and trying to bite you? Sure, we all do, but does it make for an effective horror movie? Well, actually it kinda does.
I have not seen the first [Rec], but I have seen the American remake, Quarantine, which apparently wasn’t quite as good as the Spanish original, even though it stuck closely to the original’s story. This sequel picks up right where we left off in the first one, even overlapping it a little bit.
The opening seemed to be a bit of an ode to Aliens, as we see an overconfident team of heavily armed SWAT members getting ready to enter the building. They all have helmet mounted cameras, while one is also carrying a larger camera. The doctor they’re escorting is very adamant about having everything filmed at all times.
It doesn’t take long for us to discover that the doctor is misrepresenting himself a bit, and that there’s more to this virus than was revealed in the first movie (assuming the American remake was true to the Spanish version). I won’t spoil any of those twists because they’re what make this movie more interesting than the first one’s story.
The action is seen, Blair Witch style, entirely through the cameras that the characters have with them. First it’s the SWAT teams various cameras, but when their main one is broken, we switch to a camera being wielded by some teens that sneaked into the building not realizing what they were getting into. Once that camera dies, it’s on to a camera that miraculously survived the first movie. I guess somebody found all of these tapes and edited this footage together later…
There are a few good, but typical, scares here, some disturbing imagery, and the overall atmosphere is creepier because of the direction they’ve taken the story in. There’s still a few moments where I was left thinking, “oh come on…put the camera down and help!” But for the most part, I thought they did a decent job of making it fairly believable, as far as what was filmed and what wasn’t.
I’m guessing it won’t be long before an American remake of this movie is released, so if you don’t like subtitles, you can probably just wait for that one. If you don’t mind subtitles, and you don’t mind freaky, bloody, violent movies, then check this one out. Just make sure you have your night vision camera ready first…
Don’t sneak into quarantined buildings surrounded by tons of police and SWAT teams. Just don’t…
10 – 1.6 because I’ve kinda seen all of this before – .3 for a couple moments where I didn’t believe the person would still be filming – .8 for a few bad acting moments = 7.3
The Robot Who Likes Pretty Things 
This sounds a lot like “The Crazies”…. it’ll be out on DVD on June 29…. I’d like to see that one… I heard good things… I might have to rent that and review it when it comes out….
I enjoyed the first one. Thought it was much more effective than Cloverfield. I did feel Cloverfield suffered from that overly choreographed camerawork you mention sneaks into Rec 2. Hopefully, it won’t be too distracting.
the choreographed camerawork was definitely more noticeable in Cloverfield than in Rec 2, but it’s still there a little bit. there was only one scene where it *really* bothered me, and a couple others that were a little iffy…