Shaky Cam Movie Week Movie 3 – REC (2007)– Infectiously Awesome

If you’ve seen the movie Quarantine and wish you had the time you wasted on that back… well I can’t help you there, but I can suggest you watch REC, as this is what Quarantine was supposed to be, as this is the movie that it was based on.

2007’s REC is a Spanish horror film that follows a reporter, Ángela Vidal (Manuela Velasco), and her camera man as they document the goings on of a Spanish Fire Hall for her show, While You’re Sleeping. At first it’s regular stuff, talking to the Firefighters about how they spend their time, what and when they eat and sleep, what they do for fun while waiting for a call and such. But when they tag along on a call of an old woman trapped, and possibly injured in her apartment, everything changes. Arriving at the apartment building, they find a police vehicle there already. The officer explains that the lady is in her apartment in the upper level of the building and that screams were heard from the suite. Breaking in the door and entering, they find the lady, distressed, and bloody, wearing her night clothes (or a slip). Approaching here, calmly and talking, trying to get her to relax, she attacks and bites the hell out of one of the fire fighters in a fit of manic rage.Everyone quickly retreats from the apartment. though one firefighter stays behind on the upper floor, and the bitten firefighter quickly falls gravely ill… Meanwhile, the residents of the building, who have been gathered in the foyer of the building are getting nervous, and tense, demanding answers. When the department of health shows up and seals off the building, preventing anyone from leaving, the tensions grow even higher. You see, there is a disease going through the place and the authorities obviously see t as a severe threat, treating it on par with a chemical, germ or nuclear threat. As time passes, the threat grows, with the already bitten and injured rising up, zombie like and attacking the non-injured. Add to this a cop that has obviously been put into a situation that is above his pay scale, things really start to fall apart, and with no end obviously in site for the trapped.  The fearful remaining unaffected people are starting to throw blame around… eventually, when a health inspector enters (dressed in a hasmat suit that makes the already frightened residents more upset), he is compelled to reveal that one of the residents dog, brought to the vet as ill, was carrying an unknown, extremely viral disease. The dog, showed the same aggressiveness as the people did once fully sickened. As time goes by more and more fall to the disease or the attacks of those already afflicted… all the while Ángela keeps filming, capturing everything, while trying to find a away out of the infected building… Trying to escape the growing hoard, they make their way frantically to the Penthouse suite, reported closed up for years by it’s owner. In the suite the reporter and her cameraman discover what may lay behind the outbreak… and something much more terrifying.

This movie, was so good. I had no idea as to what it was about, but my movie watching buddy thought it would be a good choice for this week’s theme and he was right. If you haven’t seen this gem then you should. It’s pretty short (only an hour and fifteen minutes), but so packed with tense action that it feels longer (in a good way). So, as stated at the beginning of this write up, if you were dissatisfied with the movie, Quarantine, and want to see the way it should have been see this film. Or, if you just want to watch a god movie, also watch this film.

Check out the trailer below:

April 9, 2014 | Categories: blogging, film, horror, humanity, infection, monster, movies, remake, reviews | Tags: cover up, crazy, creepy, death, evil, firemen, foriegn, germ warfare, horror, monster, movies, outbreak, quarantine, reporter, seclusion, series, Spanish, violence, viral, virus, zombies | Leave a comment