REC

My sincere apologies to those who actually take the time to read my posts (only a couple as of now). It's been a long busy time for me, and though I have had countless movie outings since then, I did not really have the time to sit down and type an entry about it. This time, the movie would be one that people rarely would want to watch.

Genre: Horror
Rating: NC16 (Violence & Gore) *note: a little of some stuff children are not supposed to see too)
Language: Spanish with English subtitles

Basically this movie is taped entirely from a cameraman's point of view. He's called Pablo, and is the camera man of the TV show "When you're asleep" (so who watches the show? -- inside joke). In this episode, the host (I can't recall her name at this moment.. will fill this in when i remember) of the show is filming the life of firemen when they receive a call from an old lady apparently trapped in her apartment. Happy for some excitement after she has waited the whole night for some action, the host joins the firemen in the routine drive down to the apartment to check on the call. As you would have probably guessed, the call turned out to be from neighbours who called the police too because there were screams coming out from the apartment that a weird old lady lived in. They (policemen & firemen) then all troop to the apartment to take a look. Breaking down the door with a crowbar, they enter the dingy and dark apartment, searching for the old lady. They see her standing in the middle of the living room, muttering to herself and seemingly dazed, with blood all over her. As one of the policemen steps closer to help her, she bites him on the neck, literally tearing off his neck flesh using her teeth. Shocked by the sudden turn in events, the fireman quickly restrains her while asking the rest of the people to take the wounded policeman downstairs. Another surprise awaits. They learn from the people downstairs (neighbours) that the entire building has been sealed up, and they are trapped inside, quarantined for an unknown reason. No one is allowed out of the building, even the severely wounded policeman, losing a lot of blood. Midway, the fireman drops down from above. Literally. With several bites gouged out of his face, he (i think) was thrown down the stairs. Following the panic that erupted, the remaining policeman tried to get everyone to calm down without much avail. Luck is so that there is an intern there qualified to administer shots and treat the wounded as best as he can. The policeman and another one sets off together with the tv show host and cameraman tagging along back to the old lady's apartment. For whatever reason, I don't know. Probably to stop the old lady from biting more people. A Columbian zombified young lady jumps out at them from nowhere, and in the panic, the policeman fire shots, both into the young and old ladies. All of them then go back down to resume discussion on how to escape the building..

Hee for the rest of the movie, you'll have to watch yourself to find out. One shouldnt give out too much, if not I'll probably spoil the fun for you people reading this. Do note though, that the front portion of the show might be rather boring (or at least it was a little to me) and it is only towards the middle does it turn for the better (or should i say, for the scarier ^^) All in all though, it is not a movie dealing with the supernatural, although the faint-hearted should probably not watch. The ending has a few shocking moments. I would give it a rating of a 7.5/10, points for it being a semi-successful horror movie which enthralls (at least, towards the end) as it scares. Furthermore, though the camera might not be steady all the time, it is not as nausea-inducing as films like The Bourne Ultimatum and/or especially Cloverfield. I would recommend you watch this movie only if you have the time for it and/or the guts.

That's the end of my review for now, next up would probably be shows that i am waiting for, like twilight (cheers!), wild child, sky crawlers, beast stalker..

PS: A Hollywood version of REC is coming out on the 27th of Nov 2008 to our cinemas. Its called Quarantine. If nothing catches my eye at that point int time, I might just catch this purely to compare ^^