[Rec] 2 (2009)

Sex :
Violence :
Directors Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza
Writer Jaume Balagueró, Manu Díez, Paco Plaza
Starring Jonathan Mellor, Óscar Zafra, Ariel Casas, Alejandro Casaseca, Pablo Rosso
Genre Zombie
Tagline Fear Revisited
15 second cap Vatican lead SWAT team run into diabolical zombies in found footage mayhem
Country

Review

The mysterious Dr. Owen is in charge of a three-man SWAT team that enter the building that was sealed off in the original movie. Their mission is to retrieve a blood sample from patient zero, the girl Medeiros, in order to develop an antidote to the zombie infection. One of Owen's colleagues was working on the antidote prior to the lock-down. Naturally the team come under attack by zombies and Dr. Owen locks a zombie inside a room baring the door with a crucifix. The good Doctor informs the SWAT commander that patient zero was possessed by an evil and the Vatican has sent him in to retrieve the blood sample, and if that's not enough Dr Owen is also a Priest. Complicating matters for the SWAT team, they can only leave the building after Dr Owen issues a voice command.

Proving even the most stringent quarantine measures aren't 100% effective, three teenagers follow a fireman and a guy who wants to rescue his daughter through the sewer system and into the building. Naturally they unleashed the zombie that was formerly trapped by Dr. Owen. In a surprise twist the SWAT team run into feisty journo Ângela Vidal, who has somehow survived the zombie outbreak, or has she? Let's get jiggy with it!

The original movie [Rec] certainly had people standing up and taking notice, and quite naturally lead to Boredwood doing an English language remake as apparently Yanks are too stupid to read subtitles. While I thought the remake was excellent in it's own right, you go Ms Carpenter, it didn't quite have the impact and sheer thrills that the Spanish language original delivered. So I've been real excited to get my hands on the sequel [Rec] 2 after reading some good reviews, not surprisingly it has taken a while to track down a copy in order to get my groove on again. Was the wait worth it? Yes and No to be honest, I had mixed emotions on the sequel and don't believe it matches the ferocity and inventiveness of the original.

In case you are unaware the movie is in Spanish with English subtitles, and quite possibly even worse for some viewers we're talking the standard found footage approach that has gained traction over the last few years. Okay I've got no way of knowing how you find subtitled flicks, personally I'm cool with it if the movie holds my attention, but if you are reading challenged, or apparently a Yank, then you may have entered the wrong building. For sure the great unwashed in my own Country have an issue with anything that requires their input into a movie, so make a call there yourself. If you have a problem following dialogue then give the movie a miss. On the bright side of the test tube the “found footage” aspect works a treat. As opposed to film students in Maryland, Spanish teens and SWAT members are issued with cameras that have stabilisers, hence none of that headache inducing shaky cam that quite frankly pisses everyone off. While the majority of the movie is lensed via a shoulder cam one of the SWAT members is carrying, the Directors do switch angles and cameras to break up the movie. It was all good in my worthless opinion, the added bonus being you are right in the building with the SWAT team as chaos reins during the zombie attacks.

As opposed to the first movie, [Rec] 2 sets about adding a lot of background information to explain the apparent zombie virus outbreak. Whether or not this works for you is pretty much going to determine your thoughts on the movie. Initially I was rolling my eyes and wondering how more ludicrous things could become, we're far removed from the rabies cover story here, but on a repeat viewing I suddenly got my groove on and ended up giving the script writers two thumbs up with taking the whole zombie thing in a new direction. While the night vision aspects were sort of dumb, though the well as a gateway to hell? - was a cool concept, the rest of the Vatican antidote plot line sort of worked for me. Rather than simply being about a zombie outbreak involving the undead trying to eat the living, a different agenda reared it's head, I was actually left wondering if the film makers hadn't been slightly over exposed to Bava's Demons 2 (1986), and hey I'm not saying that's a bad thing.

Clearly the Directors take it for granted that Audience members have seen the original movie, [Rec] 2 will make no sense otherwise to be honest, I was more than pleased with this approach. Don't you hate it when a sequel spends about a third of it's running time explaining how we got to where we are, sorry seen the original want something new people. So don't expect any explanations about why the building is quarantined or who a couple of the characters lurking about the building's darkened corridors are. Make sure you watch the original, and toss in the Yank remake, prior to attempting a viewing of this movie.

Dang out of room already! What works on the chill factor for [Rec] 2 is the claustrophobic nature of what the camera revels. There's very little light beyond what the SWAT team bring with them, the sides of the frames are barely discernible, and there's little depth to each frame. You are left wondering just what might be beyond the limited visual area the camera allows, and this works to make a spine freezing experience as all hell, literally, breaks out. Added bonus here is the Directors spend just enough time to get you grooving with their SWAT team members, you are hoping they make it out alive.

After an initial disbelief at what Messrs Balagueró and Plaza were trying to pull off with [Rec] 2 I got caught up in the tension and chilling atmosphere they delivered and ended up having a good time. One of these nights I'm going to watch both [Rec] movies back to back to really get my [Rec] groove on, probably right before [Rec] 3 hits my queue. Innovative horror, film makers prepared to take a risk, hell yeah, this is what it's all about baby, full recommendation.

ScaryMinds Rates this movie as ...

  Spanish zombie sequel converts to it's cause