Happy All-Hallow’s Month! In anticipation of Halloween — which, let’s face it, we’ve been anticipating since last Halloween — Daily Grindhouse will again be offering daily celebrations of horror movies here on our site. This October’s theme is horror sequels — the good, the bad, the really bad, and the unfairly unappreciated. We’re calling it SCREAMQUELS!
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Let’s get this out of the way up front. I’m not a huge fan of Found Footage films. I’m just not. Things like PARANORMAL ACTIVITY and THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT? Just not my thing. Now, that doesn’t mean there aren’t exceptions. I liked WILLOW CREEK and the V/H/S series have some good shorts in them. My favorite among the Found Footage genre is [•REC], the 2007 Spanish film from directors Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza. Not only is it my favorite but it’s probably one of, if not, the best film of the genre. As we’re here looking at horror sequels, I’m here to espouse my enjoyment of [•REC]².
If you haven’t seen the original, [•REC] is about some weird shit happening in a Barcelona apartment building. A TV reporter and her team are hanging out at a fire station and follow the crew on a call to said building. After being locked inside by the government, the group encounter some pretty scary shit in the form of some sort of contagion that’s affecting the residents. It’s making people both angry and bitey. [•REC]², again from Balagueró and Plaza, picks up right where the original ends.
A four-man SWAT team and a Ministry of Health official are sent into the building to find out exactly what is going on inside. One of the cops has a camera and is told to recover everything he sees. What he sees is some crazy shit. They run into the same kind of “monsters” as in the first film and the cops are in the dark, both literally and figuratively, as to what is happening, Ah, but not that MOH dude, nah. He knows and puts everyone’s life in jeopardy because he tells them no one is getting out until he gets the answers he’s there to find. At the same time, a group of bored young folks decide to break into the building with their camera to see if they can find some cool shit to film. Kinda like the Tik-Tok youth of today. Anyway, imagine their surprise and horror when they fucked around and found out.
Prior to my rewatch of the movie last night, I was going to write that [•REC]² wasn’t nearly as good as the original, but now I’m not so sure. I mean, it’s not as good, but it’s pretty great on it’s own merit. It’s still creepy as fuck. There are plenty of good jump scares if that’s your barometer for what makes a Found Footage film worthy. It’s well shot, the run time is a brisk 85 minutes (I know that’s important for many, especially during this packed horror viewing month), and the editing is good.
If you’re looking for a good two-fer Horror recommendation, you’d be well off watching these first two [•REC] movies. Hell, I’d even throw [•REC]³ into the mix. While it ventures off in another direction in terms of location, it’s still a fun romp with bitey rage monsters.
We, uh, we won’t mention [•REC]?.
Tags: Ariel Casas, Barcelona, Found-Footage, Horror, International, Jaume Balaguero, Javier Botet, Jonathan Mellor, Manuela Velasco, Óscar Sanchez Zafra, Pablo Rosso, Paco Plaza, Sequels, Spain, Suspense, Xavi Gimenez
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