Summerfest 3 Day One: [Rec] Double Feature

Kicking off Summerfest is a quick pair of reviews for [REC] and [REC] 2, two Spanish imports worth your time.

The cover for [Rec] proclaims "The Movie That Inspired Quarantine," which is perhaps a little too kind to Quarantine, which is anything but inspired once you've seen [REC]. I was kind to the American language remake when I reviewed it last year, but now that I've seen the original (which wasn't available at the time), I'm going to take a lot of that praise back.

Just a head's up, but if you've seen Quarantine, you've seen [REC]. The downside is you've seen a padded, less intense version of the film with actors you recognize. Watching [REC], I was surprised at how liberally Quarantine lifts from the original, which is why it's hard to use the word "inspired"; the truth is more along the lines of "the movie that Quarantine is a copy of."

But let's move away from comparing the movie to its remake and focus on the film itself. So Angela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) and Pablo (Pablo Rosso) are the host and cameraman (respectively) for a late night show called "While You Were Asleep," and they're filming in a Fire Station doing a kind of "Insomniac with Dave Attel" minus the booze. They ride along for a call and end up in an apartment building where something very strange is going on, only to have the night get much, much worse as it goes along.

There's not much more to the plot, to be honest with you. [REC] falls into the "Found Footage" sub-genre, although without the conceit that this film (or more likely, digital video) was located after the fact. We're watching the film as it's happening to Angela, Pablo, the Firemen, and the tenants of the building (plus two policemen and, eventually, a biohazard specialist). What looks like a zombie movie eventually turns in another direction (and beyond that in [REC] 2, which we'll get to in a moment), and the film moves at almost a breathless pace in the second half of its 78 minute running time.

I can't really argue with any of Vern's criticisms of the film because, well, they're spot on. Everything that happens in a "found footage" horror film happens here, and if you know the formula then each "cut" is going to be telegraphed ahead of time and easy to figure out where the next stage of the film is going. What I will say is that the reason [REC] worked for me is that once Angela and Pablo get into the Apartment building, the film becomes a Haunted House ride tethered to a subjective camera, and when it hits a full head of steam, the thrills and spills cancel out the predictability - and this is coming from someone who already knew how the movie played out from watching its remake.

The other reason I'm going to be kinder to [REC] is that [REC] 2 takes full advantage of the "ambiguous" ending of the first film and does what a good sequel should - it expands the story, stays true to what works, and makes the original better. You can't watch [REC] 2 without having seen the first film. I wouldn't even recommend seeing it if all you've watched is Quarantine (although I hear that Quarantine 2 is on its way, and I guarantee you it won't be as good), because this sequel is entirely dependent on your familiarity with the location, the characters, and the ending of the first film.

I can't really talk about [REC] 2 without spoiling the first film or discussing how Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza, and Manu Diez twist what the audience assumed it knew about the "virus" and what it really does. I'll tread cautiously for those of you hoping to catch the film when it opens later this summer, because while it's not a spoiler to tell you that most - if not all - of the cast from the first film is in the second, how they fit into the story would be.

[REC] 2 begins shortly after [REC] ends, and follows a SWAT unit into the quarantined apartment building. They're escorting Doctor Owen (Jonathan Mellor), who needs to recover a blood sample from Patient Zero, Niña Medeiros. (SPOILER ALERT) If you've seen the end of [REC], then you know that Medeiros was brought to the penthouse at the top of the building by a Priest (possibly an Exorcist) for research, and that her blood is the cause of the contagion that turns the tenants into rabid psychotics. [REC] 2 ups the ante by suggesting that not only is demonic possession biological and contagious, but also that it's not random in its dispersal around the building. The demon wants out of the building, and has the ability to use the infected as its eyes and ears.

The other interesting move is that they open up the "subjective" camera a little bit in the film: each member of the SWAT team has a helmet camera that Rosso (Pablo Rosso) can tap into through his digital camera. The argument for filming this time (rather than to "expose the truth") is that the team is ordered by Doctor Owen and their superiors to "document everything," so there aren't as many scenes of characters arguing about whether the camera should be on or not.

At 80 minutes, [REC] 2 works pretty much all the way through, save for two choices - one stylistic and the other plot oriented. Halfway through the film, the perspective switches from the SWAT team to some teenagers that break into the building from the basement, and while it does create a nice bridge in events that would merit a second viewing, I can't help but feel that the teenager subplot is a little superfluous, considering where the film ends up. Since the ending clearly sets up a third [REC] film, there's a good chance that a pretty big plot hole will be addressed, but on its own I question if the gimmick really works.

The other issue was with the insistence of Doctor Owen that the team stay in the building after their mission fails (it's really not a spoiler to say that it fails; the spoiler would be telling you why it fails) all the way up to the end of the movie. It's actually less interesting than the "why are you still filming this" through line of [REC], and at a certain point simply implausible. That being said, there's something else that happens - which I won't spoil, but I advise you stay away from IMDB or any terribly specific reviews - that more than makes up for this, and sends the film in a slightly predictable but well executed twist. (It's not that you can't figure out the twist well before it happens, but the flashback that explains a seeming plot hole from the end of [REC] to the beginning of [REC] 2 actually makes rewatching both films more enticing.)

Overall, I'm going to say that as a pair of films, [REC] and [REC] 2 are well worth your time, even if you've already seen the remake (Quarantine). The second film really makes the first worth watching, and while it has a few minor flaws, it does manage to up the ante and take the story in new and unexpected directions. Not a bad way to kick off the 'Fest.