[REC] 3: GENESIS (/Slashing Europe 2012) + [REC] 1 & 2

[REC]³: GÉNESIS

Spain, 2012
Director: Paco Plaza

8/10

Holy fuck, that was awesome! Paco Plaza's "[REC]³" is not only an unexpectedly brilliant pre-sequel to the first 2 parts, it's also a pretty goofy and absolutely hilarious blast of a movie. I'm not sure if all [REC]-fans will love it as it is sooo different from its predecessors - at least I loved it :-)

The first half was made in typical REC-ian found-footage-style, taking place at a huge wedding in broad daylight. The second half surprisingly switches to a normal camera style, taking place at the wedding party at night.
Both halves work perfect, especially the second one, which clearly shows that the [REC]-franchise isn't limited to shaky-cam (I assume there will be no shaky-cam in the upcoming 4th part).

As mentioned above, the movie is hilarious, incredibly hilarious! It's packed with super-funny characters (the Sponge-Bob-guy, the guy from Filmax productions, the vomiting uncle, the Royalties-guy), hysterically funny scenes (the 2 guys in knight's amour, the humping couple, all the over-the-top Love-stuff) and loads of insane gore (heads split in half, death by hand blender, cut off extremeities, a chainsaw massacre...).

The acting is amazing (especially uber-gorgeous Leticia Dolera as badass chainsaw bride), camera work and cinematography are outstanding, the settings look beautiful, the soundtrack is fun (schmaltzy love songs, a Spanish dance version of "Eloise") and it's full of wonderful nods to genre classics from Peter Jackson, Sam Raimi & George Romero.

"[REC]³" is a highly entertaining and kick-ass zombie-gorefest.

If you like your zombie flicks campy and gory, this is definitely your movie!

Wiki ~ Imdb

---

---

[REC]

Spain, 2008
Directors: Jaume Balagueró & Paco Plaza

10/10

 

Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza's "[REC]" is without a single doubt one of the greatest and most impressive Spanish horror movies of all time, and also one of the scariest found-footage flicks ever made.
The 2 directors took a unique view on the classic virus-outbreak story and created a superb modern shock-masterpiece, filled with an enormous amount of breathtaking suspense, fast-paced action, super-creepy scenes and terrifying jump scares.

The first 10 minutes at the fire station are pretty calm but when we arrive at the apartment building, the movie takes a massive turn as all hell breaks loose and we undergo the wildest, loudest, goriest and most frightening 50 minutes in horror history, right before we hit the grand finale: the last 20 minutes in the attic incl. spooky night vision and the horrific-looking Medeiros.

Apart from the flawless direction and the incredibly well written, well paced screenplay, there's also a high amount of interesting and believable characters, and an absolutely wonderful cast (stand-outs: the gorgeous Manuela Velasco as TV reporter Ángela Vidal and the stunning Maria Lanau as hysterical mother). The settings look great, the gore looks ace and the infected zombies are simply kick-ass.

To put it in a nutshell: [REC] is a masterpiece!

Wiki ~ Imdb

---

[REC]²

Alternate Title:
[REC] 2

Spain, 2009
Directors: Jaume Balagueró & Paco Plaza

4/10

 


A rushed and quite unnecessary sequel you may like or not like - and I totally didn't like it. IMO, "[REC]²" lacks basically everything that made the first part
so great.

There's hardly any tension or suspense, character development is non-existent, the scares are all predictable, most of the attack-scenes are completely lame, and it's full of scenes badly ripped off from the 1st part (people falling into the ground, camera falling on the floor, night vision, etc.).

Worst of all: the indescribably stupid exorcism-plot (the infected are actually possessed by Pazuzu-like demons... um... yeah, whatever...), the incredibly annoying priest (terrible actor, terrible character) and the pretty lame climax.

There's some ace action in the 2nd half (Fireworks!), loads of great gore, the camera work is brilliant, the opening sequence is awesome and I loved Manuela Velasco's terrific guest appearance - nevertheless, "[REC]²" is a huge disappointment. I prefer "Quarantine 2: Terminal" which is IMO the true sequel to "[REC]".

Wiki ~ Imdb