Candy and a Movie: Movie # 75 [REC]

[REC] (2007)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1038988/

Remember when I said Cabin in the Woods was the best made horror movie since [REC]. This is the same [REC] I was talking about. It’s just like my opinion man, but I’m a big fan. [REC] gets its name because we see the whole thing a camcorder as a cameraman walks around holding it. That sounds stupid and how every movie is made but it’s in the same found footage style as say The Blair Witch Project or Cloverfield. Unlike the other two that are just home movies, this one is a little more professionally shot as the plot is a woman and the guy filming her are making a documentary or something so it isn’t as shaky as most of the other movies in its genre.

The main character is a babe named Angela who was in my top 5 for a long time. She is at a firehouse making a TV show report on the day to day life of firefighters there. That night the alarm gets off and everyone, including Angela, heads out on the truck. Apparently something happened to an elderly woman and they were called in. They with two cops who were already there busts in to the woman’s room and she’s covered in blood. The woman freaks out and then bites the crap out of one of the cops. They rush to take him downstairs but police have locked them inside and won’t let anyone out. They are now being quarantined by the health department. That’s not good.

This causes the people to become flustered and a pretty worked out but they have a whole let’s calm down and get a hold of ourselves. Right after they do that, one of the firefighters slams to the ground from a couple floors up. Amazing. I just looked at some facts about the movie and the guy falling wasn't in any of the actors scripts so all of their shock is real. That makes acting easy. Also the script was never fully revealed to the actors so they all wouldn't know what was happening until the day of the shoot a lot of the time. That's pretty clever to keep them looking nervous. Back to the movie, the old woman bites another woman so the cop shoots her a few times. Police outside say again they can’t leave because it’s a BNC situation. That means biological, nuclear or chemical threat.

I’M GOING TO MAKE THESE ALL SPOILERS. YOU SHOULD REALLY WATCH THIS FIRST.

There’s more unrest among the apartment building dwellers and we get to meet all of them through separate interviews which is a smart and easy way to have everyone introduced to us. Eventually a doctor in a hazmat suit walks in to get blood samples from everyone. He goes with the cop into a room where the bodies are. The camera peaks in and sees the doctor handcuffing one of the bit people to the table which can’t be good. Before the second guy can get cuffed he goes zombie and bites the building manager. The doc gets out and says the infection is transferred through saliva and your blood type is what determines the time in which it takes for you to be infected. They pressure him to tell them what’s going on and he gives them a whole story. The day before there was a report from a vet about a dog with an unknown disease being brought in and going into a coma(acoma). When the dog came to he was super aggressive and started attacking all of the other pets. They were able to put the dog to sleep but they were able to track it to the apartment building through some chip in its ear.

The dog belongs to the woman and her little girl who is sick. When they all find out about whom the dog owner they look at the two of them and the little girl spits blood all over the moms face. Again, never a good thing. The girl goes crazy and runs upstairs. The cop and firefighter go after the girl, stopping by the first elderly ladies room and she isn’t lying dead on the floor anymore meaning we’re about to see her do some biting. I know that you are already fully aware of this but in horror movies, little girls are creepy. They find her and she makes some awful noises and bites the last cop. As Manu (the firefighter) and the cameraman make their escape the elderly woman pops out and Manu pops her with a sledgehammer. Downstairs the bitten building manager is going wild and breaking into the safe lobby where everyone is. The movie is fully on!

They handcuffed the mom to the stairs but can’t get her out because the now bitten cop has the key meaning became an easy meal for the building manager and the other escapees. Somewhere in the middle of all of that the doctor got bit too. Not many people left now. The doctor bites another guy and I’m going to say that the only people left are Angela, Manu and the camera guy. Everyone else has turned and is after them. The lights are cut off and when the camera dude uses his there is of course a zombie waiting in the corner. The three amigos (because their Spanish) continue to make their way upstairs because the building manager has the key to get out the secret underground passageway. They find the key and there is a sweet shot where they look down four flights of stairs and see zombies on every level.

Because of that last sentence, going down isn’t an option anymore. They head to the top floor and go into the penthouse. Manu is bitten so we’re now down to just the camera team which is locked into the pitch black room. Pablo gets the camera light working and Angela is shown fully in her dirty white tank top just like the lady in the tunnel. The penthouse looks like a laboratory full of medical equipment and newspaper articles about possessed girl from Portugal. The war has been over for 200 years Spain, get over yourselves. You couldn’t invade and take over or country now and a new smear campaign in the 21^st century will not be tolerated. Of course they would make the possessed girl from Portugal.

They keep hearing noises from somewhere and stumble across a tape recorder saying he was doing experiments but things went badly and he has to exterminate her. Instead, according to the tape, he just sealed her in the room. Suddenly the attic door swings open which caused me to jump even though I knew it was coming. The camera guy takes a peak up there and doesn’t see anything at first until a little zombie boys hits the camera and broke the light. Back to pitch black and the two of the screaming/cursing. Night vision is popped on and we see some tall and extremely skinny figure trolling around carrying a hammer. They hide in a corner and we get a better look at the zombie which has to be the possessed girl. They make noises and it swings the hammer around wildly. The camera guy takes a major beating and drops the camera, dead. Angela stumbles around and picks up the camera. The girl chases her which causes Angela to drop the camera right in front of her prone body. The lens is right in front of her face, we hear a child screaming and Angela is dragged into the darkness by her feet. YES!

THAT WAS TENSE

FAVORITE SCENE: The last 20 minutes were ridiculously suspenseful (the way found footage movies should be) but my favorite will always be the look down the stairs and see everyone is a zombie shot. Hopefully I’ll find a picture.

MEMORABLE LINES: “What at ruckus”. I hope a day will come where there will be a little mayhem and I’ll have the wherewithal to say that line.

RATING: I’m giving it a 10 Baby Ruth’s. This might be my first 10. I’ve seen so many horror movies that I can’t really get scared any more. Sure there are pop out scares in other films but those don’t last. This is a legitimate horror movie. There’s zombies, something else fishy going on, trapped in a tight setting, strong enough lead character, attractive cinematography and good pacing. All done on a budget of 1 million Euros. In contrast, it cost studios 37.5 million to get Adam Sandler in Anger Management. Movie’s don’t have to be about big budgets Hollywood.

ALTERNATE ENDING: Angela makes it to the roof and gets shot for escaping. Pretty bleak

WHAT WOULD I DO IF I WAS THE MAIN CHARACTER: As soon as you realize people are coming back from the dead, they need to be re-killed. If I saw that elderly woman get shot that many times and still attack people in the beginning, I’m going to have to put my foot down. If you get bit, you get put down. Let’s limit the damage people.

WHAT HAPPENS IN THE SEQUEL: You’ll find out what happens in both when I wake up and post them later today.