[REC] follows on from the hand-held ‘documentary’ style made famous by THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and recently brought back to our attention by Romero and Matt Reeves with CLOVERFIELD. Having seen both of these offerings [REC] defiantly offers some horror charisma the others lack. Beginning as a seemingly tedious “I can’t sleep and the horlicks ain’t doing its job” late night programme entitled ‘While you sleep’ this story quickly twists into every claustrophobics’ worst nightmare.

   Our standard attractive protagonist is the presenter of said programme and along with her faceless and, crucial to our cause camera-man, is following a fire fighting crew on a supposedly routine call out. Of course true to any hair-raising story when they get there things aren’t so simple. The crew are faced with a contagious virus spreading through the inhabitants of the building and guess what, they’re all trapped there. At every exit they are faced with everyone’s childhood fear since ET came on the scene, the faceless, unresponsive authorities desensitised to their pleas for help and yes they’ve even got those ominous radiation suits on.

   This film truly exploits the post 9/11, 07/07 fear among the western audiences that are supposedly safe world is merely an illusion.  The brilliance with which the documentary style is displayed to us puts to shame Romero’s inexpressive/over acted panic driven offering. The viewers are drawn into a completely voyeuristic experience and the usual alienation we feel from our participation in the make-believe screen world seem to dissolve as we feel ourselves part of the unfolding nightmare, a kind of intimacy other hand-held offerings don’t seem to have succeeded in. Spanning shots of empty corridors, breathless running, confused Spanish ramblings too quick for subtitles to pick up and flashed glimpses of the horrific flesh-eaters give the film a video game quality drawing us into our own panic, only there are no weapons to protect us. The confusion is heightened by the fact that none of participants know what is happening to them, this control ridden societies worst nightmare. Add to this the scream of terror echoing throughout the building, falling bodies at supposed moments of calm, terrifying children who ghoulish squeals take on a whole new level of squeamishness and the masterful use of the spiralling stairs to give us a dizzying feeling of terrified suspense. (I refer here to one scene in particular, an acrophobic shot down the winding apartment staircase where we see the utter hopelessness of our survivors escape efforts as the infected emerge from every stairwell eventually culminating in one heart lurching face just below the camera.)

   The last sequence in the film really seals the deal with a terrifying 15/20 minutes where knowledge of the nightmare our victims are trapped in is finally unravelled  with the help of our trusted friend the reel-to-reel tape recorder, adding an additional sense of terror from our previous experiences with its use in horror (EVIL DEAD ring any bells?) we are then plunged further into nightmare, with the failing camera only adding to our fear and night-vision displaying to us the grotesquely horrific figure that the protagonist cannot see, as her faithful camera man is snatched from her in the darkened scuffle all our worst fears turn into her terrifying reality. I found this final sequence so petrifying I couldn’t watch and only had the reading of my usually inexpressive partners face for confirmation, scary stuff. 

   [REC] is the best offering I have seen in a long time and redefines the zombie genre into something much more terrifying than the usual comical displays, progressing from where the 28… LATER series left off. It brings something to the hand-held genre that the American market has clearly been missing out on and reiterates the deepest fears of the current western culture. Well worth a watch before the re-make QUARANTINE ruins this films outstanding contribution to the zombie field and its reputation forever.