[REC]2

As a big fan of the big Spanish hit [Rec], I was a little bit wary about this sequel as follow-ups generally, though there are notable exceptions, fail to live up to the promise of the first film. Even so, I made the trip to the cinema, flashed my Unlimited card and sat down hoping for about 80 minutes of nerve shredding tension with a good few scares thrown in.

Far from picking up several months down the line when the dust has settled, [Rec]² picks up immediately where the first film left off, this time following a team of four SWAT soldiers, one carrying a video camera and the other three with weapons, a battering ram and with mini cameras on their helmets so that the camera operator can cut them at any time to get their POV.

Once outside the building, now completely sealed in plastic and with the public kept well away, they meet a man who they are told is from the Ministry of Health and is there to supervise their excursion into the apartment block. The man, Owen, is extremely forthright and not afraid to shout at these men and tell them who's boss even though he isn't armed. What he does have is basically the key out as there is a voice recognition system in place voice recognition and, without his say so, no one gets out.

Although they all entered in gas masks, as soon as they are in the building, Owen removes his and informs the men that the virus is not airborne, but something far more deadly which can only be spread through bodily fluids, especially blood which is quite prominent on the floor, walls and staircase. For some reason, Owen is desperate to get to the penthouse as there is something there are of utmost importance but it is there on a need to know basis -- and the SWAT team are basically just there for muscle. Predictably enough, it isn't long before the proverbial s*** hits the fan, one of the men is attacked and this doctor manages to talk him into submission by reciting passages from the Bible and then keeps him in a room by hanging a rosary from a knife which he embeds in the door.


Revealing himself to be a priest who is there on Vatican business because of the study of the demonically possessed Medeiros girl, Owen in forms the men that they need a sample of her blood in order to create an antidote to the virus that swept the building on the off chance that it should escape.

One of the things that this had in its favour as a sequel was the presence of most of the original crew, especially directors Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, who also wrote the screenplay along with Manu Díez. They were such a great team when making the first film that I had high hopes that they would be able to repeat their success when following the story on and my optimism was not unwarranted. You can tell very early on that they are extremely technically proficient, cutting seamlessly on whip pans and when actors move in front of the camera, just as Alfred Hitchcock did when making the 'one shot movie' Rope 60 years earlier.


The fact that, just as in the first film, the whole thing is shot in a vérité style with all footage taken from either the main camera or the ones mounted on the character's helmets, you are thrown right into the action and he can't breathe a sigh of relief when there is an establishing shot or some objective viewpoint.

My only hesitation is that the film diverts from the main characters and switches to another group who they see down the stairs and it switches completely from the SWAT team to 3 teenagers who were spending the evening trying to launch a blow up sex doll into the air using a few fireworks. As they were filming their 'experiment' (which fails dramatically), they have a DV camera and, when they are escorted by soldiers down to the street, they see the man from the first film who was trying to get into the building with medicine to his daughter and decide to follow him, and the firefighter who is aiding the man, into the apartment block.


These two different storylines dovetail quite well as the group so inevitably thrown together in the mayhem with batteries running out and cameras bearing the brunt of some quite vicious attacks. When it comes to the ending, there is not one, but several surprises including a quite ingenious use of integrating night vision into the plot.

Although I don't think that this film is quite as good as the first one, it is still one that does exactly what you expect and does it extremely well with a great deal more religion that was more of a subplot in the first film and there are a couple of scenes where it is a bit like The Exorcist on acid!

The Disc

Extra Features
The first film had a great deal of supplementary material on the DVD which makes it all the more disappointing that this disc only has three minutes of the extended scene involving the three teenagers and four minutes of deleted scenes, neither of which have English subtitles so they are pretty useless unless you speak fluent Spanish.


The Picture
I wasn't provided with the Blu-ray for review but was more than pleased with the SD picture which had incredibly high detail levels in the dark scenes, not as detailed as in cinema or on Blu-ray, but still excellent for a DVD. There are times when the 'shaky-cam' gets a little out of hand and I found myself looking away from the screen at times to prevent migraine.

As with [Rec], the SFX make-up and prosthetics on the infected/possessed people are extremely realistic, gruesome and believable -- just what you want for a film in which the danger comes from within and your protagonists are stuck inside the building with what may be reasonably termed 'zombies'.


The Sound
You have the choice of Dolby Digital 5.1 surround or 2.0 stereo and I'm really torn as to which one I prefer. The 5.1 clearly has the edge when it comes to immersing you in the action, generating tension and providing the jumps but, as events were supposed to have been shot on a camera that would not give you 5.1 sound, but stereo, every fibre of my being was telling me to choose the stereo because it was the right aesthetic choice.

The stereo does not give you the same level of claustrophobia, tension and anxiety but it does fit in perfectly with the whole docu-horror/faux documentary filmmaking style.

The subtitles are clear, easy to read and error free but they occasionally reflect the panic all too well and disappear before you fully read the line.


Final Thoughts
I was very sceptical about whether [Rec]² would live up to the first film, something which I rate very highly, so was surprised and pleased when it did and was not a disappointment as so many recent horror sequels have been. This is a case of 'if you liked the first film, you'll like this one'. It may be slightly different as there are two groups rather than just one and, as such, it isn't as taut or focused but it is still an immensely impressive horror film that will be perfect viewing as the nights close in.