[REC]2 (2009)
[REC]2 starts just seconds after the end of the first so I’ll
be doing the same. The main characters
this time are a four man SWAT team and a doctor that we’ve yet to meet. The SWAT are gearing up and this time along
with one member holding a camera we can also see each of their personal helmet
cameras if the movie so chooses. They
arrive at the Apartment and get orders from the Doctor, Owen. They walk into the building which lights are
still off and see bloodstains but no bodies.
Let’s hold up a second.
How many times have you seen a horror sequel pick up exactly where the
other one dropped off. The first was
great and just seeing them walk into the lobby where so much crazy stuff just
happened in which they have no idea has gotten me really excited. Owen instructs them that they have to reach
the penthouse because that’s where everything started. We still don’t know what went on at all but
you get the feeling that Owen might.
They continue climbing up and passing more and more blood pools. There should be about a dozen zombies running
around there but the place is silent.
Suspense!
The team makes it into the penthouse and is taking pictures
of all the weird stuff in there. A few
pictures of Jesus and Mary might be nice to look out but a whole room of them
plastered on the walls is creepy. The
first thing I looked for was a sign of Angela but see’s not in the room. They go around the corner and hear something
in the attic. If you don’t remember from
the first one, that’s where the possessed girl came from. Uh oh.
A member of the SWAT teams goes up and checks it out. No pop out scare this time but they hear a
shriek coming from the next room.
For the second time now we switch to the helmet camera of
Martos (one of the SWAT officers) who is checking an apartment for the source
of the shrieks. Once inside he hears
music coming from a record player.
Someone had to turn it on. He
gets attacked by a zombie and by the time the rest of the team gets there to
help him, he has already turned into one and jumps at the chief. Owen shows up and says a prayer which stuns
the zombie while they push him in a room and seal the door with a rosary
hanging off of it. What just happened? The chief freaks out and wants to cheese it
out of there but Owen says no one can leave before he gives the order over his
radio which has voice recognition. He
does however agree to tell them what is going on if they go back upstairs to
the penthouse.
Owen tells a grand story.
The Vatican saw that this girl was really possessed and set her up with
the guy who owned the penthouse so he could examine her and see what the
physical effects of possession were. He
tried to find out if there was a chemical gene or something in her that he
could isolate and find an antidote for the possession. Owen then reveals that he isn’t with the
Ministry of Health but is really a priest himself. Then the big line hits. One of the incensed SWAT officers says than
what is the building infested with and Owen answers “Possessed people”. That’s right.
Not just zombies, DEMONIC ZOMBIES!
Maybe it’s not too much of a twist with all the possessed stuff on the
walls but I was pretty shocked. And
completely stoked! The SWAT people don’t
really believe him but still want to get out of there. Owen tells them that all they have to do is
find a blood sample from the original possessed girl which should be somewhere in
there and they can leave.
Deeper into the penthouse they travel. There are no windows in there and they
eventually travel through what might be the creepiest hallway I’ve ever
seen. What’s weird is that the hallway
is a dead end but there are files on the wall of like 8 different children that
were experimented on. One of them pops
down from the ceiling which is the first good pop out scare of the movie. You might be wondering how a possessed child
popped down from a ceiling, it’s because he walked up there. The attic is once again providing excitement
with demon children running around and the long dead body of the priest who was
doing the experiments. They also find
the blood up there and while checking if it’s the real deal, it ignites on fire
once touched by a cross causing the SWAT chief to drop it. Owen won’t let anyone leave until he gets his
blood so they continue elsewhere in the building.
The team leaves the penthouse only to see four people a few
floors below, one of whom is instantly killed because they thought he was a
zombie. The SWAT team gets swarmed on
the stairs by all of the zombies from the first movie but manage to barricade themselves
in a room although one of them is split up from the group. We get to watch from his helmet cam as he
gets surrounded and trapped inside a bathroom.
Before becoming possessed he puts his gun in his head and eats a
bullet. Down to two SWAT officers and
Owen.
There is a side story in the movie that I think brings it
down. We leave the team inside to three
teenagers with a camera who decide to break into the building with a firefighter
(who wants to see the firemen from the first movie) and a dad of the little
girl from the first movie(he is the guy who gets killed). I don’t like any of them, especially the guy
who starts crying when he wants to go home.
They let out Martos and kill him but the girl accidently shoots the
firefighter in the head first.
Whoops. Owen gets pissed at them
because he thinks killing Martos was his last chance to getting a demon to talk
and reveal where the original girl is so he can get her blood because they are
fresh out of useable zombies. That is
until he sees that the crying, drooling baby is bit. He turns zombie and they are struggling with
him and a dying camera battery until whom else but Angela comes walking in
totally fine and carrying her camera.
Yes! Maybe not totally fine, she
is a little dirty and worked up.
SPOILERS
Here comes the second cool little twist of the movie. They get the zombie boy tied up and Owen
starts grilling him about where the girl is.
He says “High above” and then “The light blinds you” and finally “The
light doesn’t let you see the path”.
Owen says that the angels who lost their dignity and abandoned their
homes were kept in the dark by God until their judgment day. Basically she is in a “prison of darkness” in
the penthouse. There has to be no light
to see her and that’s why they didn’t find anything while they were up there in
the beginning of the movie. If you
remember from the first movie, the only time you saw the girl was through night
vision in total darkness.
The remaining four people (two SWAT officers, Angela and
Owen) head back up to the penthouse for the final scene. They go back to the dead in hallway, turn off
the lights and see that a door is there now in the night vision. Pretty awesome. They grow through the door, turn the lights
back on and find themselves in a super creepy laboratory but still no
girl. Owen says turn off the light and
look for something that’s different. The
SWAT guy does and finds a big well in the middle of the room that they can’t
see if there’s light. The chief reaches
in and an arm grabs and pulls him in.
The camera guy turns on the light to look for him but he and the well
are gone. By the time he can get them
back into darkness, the well water has settled and the chief is gone. Down to three.
The camera guy gets turned around and there is the creepy
girl again, beating him down with her hammer.
The camera is dropped but then picked up. They try out the Jurassic Park T-Rex don’t
move or make any noise and she won’t find you technique and it works pretty
well until Owen’s radio goes off and he attacks. Angela manages to get her off him and shoots
her head off. She then orders him to say
that they’re done on the radio because only he can and they’ll leave. He refuses to leave before the mission is
done so she attacks him. She shoots and
kills the cameraman, gets on top of a severely bleeding Owen, gives a kind of
cheesy evil laugh, crushes his skull into the ground and finally tells the
people on the radio in Owen’s voice that the mission is complete. He won’t be leaving because he’s infected but
there was one female survivor. The voice
asks how she survived and we see an extended version of the first movies
ending. She is dragged into the darkness
and the possessed girl holds open her mouth and transmits like an 18 inch
looking slug into her mouth, possessing her.
Totally disgusting. Seconds after
that we hear the SWAT team break into the penthouse at the beginning of the
movie. So that’s how it happened. The End.
WELL THAT WAS SOMETHING
FAVORITE SCENE: The ending in the darkness because I thought
that whole concept was really cool.
FAVORITE LINES: Movie’s in Spanish and quotes are hard to
find
LAME PRETENTIOUS REVIEW: New feature. I like hearing why people disliked a movie
that I thought was perfectly fine. “A
mediocre third-generation copy of an idea that wasn’t very new to begin with,
and the addition of a supposedly rational explanation to the mix provides more
of a hindrance than help” Frank Swietek.
Oh great call Frank.
I forgot that every zombie movie needs to have a rational explanation
because zombies themselves are such a rational and prototypical subject. You know what else? Your face is convoluted!
RATING: 8 3 Musketeers.
This movie was way more out there than the first and I for one am a fan
of movies with a new twist on things.
The style was also a little different and I can see a lot of
similarities with the Alien series.
[REC] and Alien were both claustrophobic movies in which the main
characters were just trying to escape from their pursuers. [REC]2 and Aliens were both more action orientated
in which there was a mission to carry out and in the end they just wanted to
get the hell out of there. There was 15
minutes wasted in the middle of the film with the kids and that does end up
being almost a quarter of the movie so that’s why the rating has dropped a
little. I still thoroughly enjoyed it.
ALTERNATE ENDING: Doesn’t involve a gross bug.
WHAT WOULD I DO IF I WAS THE MAIN CHARACTER: Owen did
everything right but his prayers weren’t directed to the right person. I would have asked dear baby Jesus for what I
needed and everything would’ve been fine.
WHAT HAPPENS IN THE SEQUEL: [REC]3 is the next movie that I’m
doing but I heard that it’s more of a prequel.
I don’t know what happens in the next movie. Could we actually get an end of days?
Owen and the SWAT team hanging out
Zombie fight!
A look through helmet cam
Another stairs shot
Cry baby being possessed
Need more Angela
Seeing things in the dark!
Boo
