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REC
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment - 2009

Directed by Jaume Balaguero & Paco Plaza
Story by Jaume Balaguero, Luis A. Berdejo & Paco Plaza

Starring
Manuela Velasco
Ferran Terraza
Jorge-Yamam Serrano
Pablo Rosso
David Vert
Vincente Gil
Martha Carbonell
Carlos Vicente


This is a very good film that was copied almost shot for shot by the US remake QUARANTINE.  The idea for the film is a real grabber and REC will send a chill up your spine a time or two.

A female host and her cameraman go to film the daily activities of a fire department in Barcelona.  Shortly after establishing the firehouse and the pair making the documentary, the house gets an emergency call. What seems to be a fairly ordinary call at an apartment building turns into a nightmare.

REC is a "Camcorder" movie, where the entire story unfolds through the lens of the cameraman's camera.  Like THE BLAIRWITCH PROJECT and CLOVERFIELD, it gives the film the feel of reality.  This works for most of the movie and you have the sensation of being with the characters seeing and experiencing what's happening.  But I always have a problem with these type of films at some point because in the most intense moments, there is no way a person would keep filming, when their life or friend's life is on the line.

I felt the female host character Angela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) was written wrong after the first 20 minutes.  She starts out as a sweet, curious doc host and quickly turns into an overly aggressive, loud overbearing character trying to control the group who get locked down in the infected building.  I just didn't buy that and think it hurts the movie some.

All technical contributions in the film work well and the Special Make-up Effects by David Ambit stand out.

This DVD comes with "REC: Making Of" which is a great way of learning how this film was made and who all the folks behind it.

I didn't enjoy watching this film as most of you did or might because unfortunately I saw QUARANTINE in the theater first and that took away the impact  That's not to say this was bad in anyway, I just felt like I was watching the same movie over again.

www.SonyPictures.com