If it's crap... We'll tell you
Cyrus Slobbers All Over the Best Horror Film in Years, "Rec"
Those of you who weren't around the site last year missed our almost group-wide worship of the Spanish indie horror film "Rec". Korey, Co-Host and I went on and on about its merits and posted reviews for it, something practically unheard of from us for a film we didn't see theatrically. It was just all that and a bag of bloody potato chips. I'm not going to belabor the point too much. I put a good amount of work into the video review I did of it then and I think it tells the tale well...
I only saw "Rec" the once and it shook me deeply. Then, with the quickly rushed American remake "Quarantine" I was surprised that it managed to be as entertaining as it was, and yet it didn't even come close to capturing the claustrophobic fear engendered by the original. Much conversation was made on the topic, and I personally came to the conclusion that it was the original ending, an unexpected horrific reconception of the events, that elevated the film to keep-you-up-at-night-thinking-about-it scary. The remake, for reasons totally beyond my conception, decided to stick to a more mundane and significantly less frightening and surprising denouement. I don't want to get too specific. It's already so intense and when everything is revealed...whoa.
But here we are now, over a year after Spill snuck our glowing reviews out for the thing and FINALLY the DVD is out. And yeah, it's so completely worth it. Watching it on my big TV in the dark was drastically eerier than watching the considerably lesser quality version I originally saw. Even with knowing what to expect, this time I could appreciate technically what the directors Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza were doing, how they were making this...I'm gonna go ahead and say it...masterpiece of horror; The unknown actors weren't filled in on everything that was going to happen so often their fear was genuine, the extended (in some cases up to twenty minute) long continual shots, and more than anything, about the creepiest looking ghoul I've ever seen in anything. "Rec" is without a doubt being inscribed in the Cyrus book as one of the top five scariest films ever made.
Unfortunately, the DVD doesn't come with a lot extra but you do get a well-put together and entertaining 20 minute 'making of' featurette that you might want to watch just to come down from the experience of watching the film itself. I'm glad I know how they did it and that the...thing...at the end isn't something that occurs in the natural world. It's worth owning the DVD just for this short feature if only to calm your nerves.
So I'm humping the leg of this movie. So what. It's that good. It seems like for the last ten years or so, to find really good horror you had to look outside of Hollywood, looking to lands where folks weren't afraid to try something different instead of endless remakes, sequels and copycats. Can somebody in L.A. get a clue please? It's time to give the horror genre back the respect it deserves.
Click Here to Buy [Rec]
Add a Comment
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Comment by bestnameever on July 21, 2009 at 11:25am - you can find it at those red box things by Mcdonalds at least thats where i saw it last night
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Comment by Travis Pickle on July 21, 2009 at 7:37am - have some respect Menthe, no Romero, no REC!
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Comment by La menthe on July 21, 2009 at 7:28am -
Finally a review of this movie! A film that does a much better job then Cloverfield, and makes the scenes actually intense and scary as hell. This is how zombie films should be, not like the bullcrap George A. Romero shits out.
Are you sure this movie is a indie horror Cyrus? I'm not quite sure myself, but i thought the movie was made through the mainstream film industry in Spain?
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Comment by chlo_chlo_chloe on July 21, 2009 at 1:19am -
I totally agree with you about the 'thing' at the end. My idiot friend was laughing at it saying it looked 'funny' while I was huddled into a tight ball wetting myself, while incoherently muttering about how creepy it looked.
Great review, hope you can review the second one when it comes out :)
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Comment by Hitchcock on July 20, 2009 at 9:52am - mario pushin' samara into the well. priceless.
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Comment by CULT STATUS on July 20, 2009 at 4:07am - Rec was sweet as hell. I liked quarantine too actually. No offence to Jennifer Carpenter but the girl from rec is freakin beautiful as hell.
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Comment by Stephanie on July 19, 2009 at 10:00pm - I will buy this, once I can find it to buy. Might have to get online
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Comment by Ms. Nightmare on July 19, 2009 at 7:24pm - Must.see.this.film....
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Comment by BOWENARROW on July 19, 2009 at 5:06pm - Watched REC a few days ago and thought it was awesome. I just wish I watched this one instead of QUARENTINE first since they're so similar. REC is far superior though, mainly with it's ending that's executed a hell of a lot better then QUARENTINE was. Plus it doesn't have the hilarious using the camera as a weapon scene. Also while I like Jennifer Carpenter in Dexter she was painfully annoying in QUARENTINE, but enjoyed every second of Manuela Velasco performance.
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