[Rec]

Spain, 2008

Director:

Jaume Balaguero, Paco Plaza

Starring:

Matt: A+

Adam: A

How did I miss this one? Released on DVD just this monday I had never heard hide nor hair about this intelligent-looking Spanish horror movie that has suddenly exploded onto the scene. Not one to miss horror films, this has left me feeling truly perplexed that I hadn't even heard of it. My colleague might wish to reply that this might have something to do with the fact that I never make it to the cinema. Anyway, here's a nice up-to-date DVD review for our many readers.

REC tells the story of Spanish reporter Angela (Manuela Velasco), who works for a Barcelona based television station, reporting on 'the things people do when you're asleep' with her camerman Paulo (unseen throughout, apart from his nice looking trainers). Things seem pretty dull at first. Angela is spending the night at a firestation with some incredibly dull firemen just hoping a call will come in and she can see, and report on, some action. Of course, that old addage be careful what you wish for holds true and Angela, camerman, firemen and locals are caught up in some of the most brilliant and horrifying moments ever depicted on screen as they go to the rescue of an old lady heard screaming violently in a quiet apartment block...

This is one of those films I cannot write about in full without spoiling, so I'll try to say what I feel without touching on the subject matter of the film.

Live-action films almost seem dated now, following Cannibal Holocaust, The Last Broadcast (underrated and creepy), The Blair Witch and 2008's astonishing Cloverfield, with which the directors of REC (Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza) shun comparisons. This, however, manages to break new ground without actually breaking new ground. If that makes any sense. What I mean is, the live-action, hand-held, format is becoming dated and tired but REC manages to take it to an unbelieveable new level the way, say, Jaws did (on a different level and in a different context) with summer blockbusters. Also, this is the first hand-held, live actioner, where you actually believe that they would carry on filming (and that is down to a hugely effective, genre-defying, turn by Velasco) whilst people are actually making a genuine attempt to stop them filming (this never really happens in the Blair Witch or Cloverfield). In the last reel, I never once sat thinking 'why are these idiots still filming', though perhaps that's somewhat down to the effectiveness of the terror as much as the delivery. And REC does, in fact, cause you to cast your mind back to Burkitsville and wonder 'why the hell did those idiots keep filming and not stick together?' Anyway, that's by the by and I generally won't have a bad word said about the Blair Witch.

It does two other things with stark and mesmerising effectiveness and simplicity. The first is that it keeps you guessing what the heck is going on, meaning the content of the horror is never made clear and your mind races in many many different directions, including 'am I actually watching a horror film here'. What was it Kaiser Sause said..."the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist". Even as the credits role you are still left wondering (as you check outside the doors and windows for any passing apparitions and serial killers) what kind of force was actually at play here and I cannot tell you, until you have seen the actual passage of this film and know what happens, what an incredibly unsettling feeling that is. I am 29 years old and well hard (one of those statements is true) but I could not leave the TV room until I'd worked up the courage to turn the light on and creep out, my eyes as wide as dinner plates, into the hallway. That's the problem (well, the great thing actually) - you just don't know and nothing, nothing, is creepier than that.

No film will ever be made like this again, it cannot be. It is the absolute epitome of the horror genre, a level of fear and stomach churning absolute terror achieved through a heady coctail of shock, uncertainty and superstition, that all horror directors aim at but none, even the greats, have achieved. You get the feeling that this could, potentially, be a fluke, but it is no less effective, no less terrifying, no less a remarkable achievement, for that. I ridiculed that suggestion from the reviewers of Loaded that this could even possibly be the greatest horror film ever made but it is. Loaded, take a bow. I have never ever been more creeped out in all of my life. I was actually awake half the night just thinking about it and looking around the room for something I wasn't sure I knew what it was I was actually looking for. Just writing this is making my hairs stand on end. I'd watch it again tonight if I was at home. It's that good.

Yes, there is the odd negative. Some of the impact shocks you can see coming. That's about it. I cannot think of any other criticism. Even the performances, particularly Veloso's, are well over and above that you'd normally expect from the genre (for one thing, amazingly none of the characters are even remotely annoying) and all of the cast do a spectacular job of conveying the abject terror their characters are feeling. Credit must go to Plaza and Balaguero for this - on one (hugely effective) shock, they did not tell the cast what was coming, the response is fantastic. This had everything I had ever wanted from a horror film and one perfect thing I'd never even thought about a horror film producing.

Horror films are probably the most dumped on genre out there and those most clearly in the critical firing line. Can you ever imagine a horror film winning one of the 'big' oscars? No. I could make a case for this, I would certainly have nominated it. A film has to be effective at what it does to be good. For example, as my colleague's compelling review of Elegy shows, Drama's have to be dramatic and full of engaging, deep, characters (and are probably the most undefined in terms of the ending they can bring about, whether that's shock, brutality, redemption, beauty, sadness or whatever); Thrillers have to thrill, as The Bourne Identity did; Romantic films have to make you cry; children's films have to do a whole lot of things as do those films brave enough to try and cross some or all of these divides. Horror films have to scare. This is notoriously difficult to do, especially in this cynical world full of hard, 29 year old, men and many other human beings who find the real world much scarier than goblins, warewolves, zombies, ghosts and ghoulies. Believe me, the real world will give you much solace and consolation after the short 80 minutes you will spend in REC's truly petrifying and amazingly unsettling claustrophobic world.

A work of genius in a genre which lacks it.

ME