Rec 2 (Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, 2009)
A frightening thrill ride that's even better than the original.
The first Rec film was good. The second one is great.
A recap for the uninitiated: Rec (Balagueró and Plaza, 2007) is a found footage horror film that follows a reporter and her cameraman shadowing firefighters for a TV show. They tag along on a seemingly routine call to an apartment building where someone is in distress. But almost immediately after their arrival, armed forces appear on the scene and impose a quarantine on the building with the TV crew and firemen still inside, along with a dozen or so residents. It soon becomes clear that they’re all trapped inside with a zombie-like contagion and escape is impossible.
It is a very good movie that continually builds tension and momentum, never letting up, and crescendos in one heck of a climax. At a tight 78 minutes, the thing moves.
Its sequel picks up immediately where the first film left off — but from a whole new perspective. This time, we’re following a SWAT team sent to the building to help contain the death and destruction going on inside.
Rec 2 escalates everything that was good about the first film. There’s no need for setup either; we already know what these guys are walking into, so the film can jettison the mystery and foreboding of the first film and jump straight into the action.
Crucially, this go around, the movie isn’t confined to a single video camera capturing everything that’s going on — because the SWAT team each have helmet cams, the film can switch between different characters’ POVs, which provides a larger canvas and sense of a much bigger world outside whatever is on screen at any given moment.
Like most sequels, the film is best enjoyed if you’ve seen the original, as prior knowledge allows you to appreciate the references and surprises (even if these new protagonists are completely unaware). Rec 2 is even better when watched back-to-back with its predecessor.
The thrust of the story of Rec 2 specifically involves the truth about the contagion which was only hinted at in Rec. It’s not simply a zombie virus, but rather a demonic possession virus. It’s a strange marriage of two horror subgenres but it absolutely works here, and you have to wonder how much of this story the filmmakers already had in their heads from the beginning, as it not only works brilliantly, but elevates what has already gone before.
Rec 2 is plenty scary. For all the zombies sprinting directly at the camera, it is the quietest moments that are most unnerving. Because we know the building is crawling with monsters. So where the heck are they hiding? The film puts you on edge and keeps you there.
The religious dimension to the film also works really well in this movie, if at times it feels a little too literal. Case in point: a biblical reference to prisons of darkness leads the characters to discover a hidden world when the lights are turned off — but the result is so terrifyingly cool, it’s hard not to love.
I’m not a video game guy at all (I’m crap at them), but Rec 2 plays like a first-person horror game that is both ghastly and great. It’s a fantastic and frightening thrill ride that puts you squarely in the midst of all the horrific action.