[REC]
If by 2007, you’d seen enough of shaky cam, then you’d be right. Since its prominent introduction in Blair Witch, it has been worn out. Yet the use of shaky cam, especially if done right, is particularly scary. Mainly because you don’t see everything, you see snippets. Those shadows in the corner, figures rushing past and a mysterious figure in the background are made worse by the grainy recording. When Spanish horror flick [REC] came out, there may have been so yawns, already sick of the genre. Soon enough, those yawns turned to screams because [REC] is one of the most terrifying movies to date.
[REC] is about a television crew who are following a midnight fire crew for fictional documentary While You’re Asleep. When they are called about an old woman, trapped in her flat, the crew, Angela and her cameraman Pablo, are in pursuit capturing every moment. However, when the crew get there, the old lady goes a little bit insane and ends up biting one of the policemen. The emergency services soon tape up the building, placing everyone under quarantine. Because something sinister is happening within and Angela, Pablo and the residents must fight for survival because there is against an unknown threat. Because there is no escape.
What [REC] does here is take a whole host of movie tropes and make it different. This movie, with so many stereotypes and “done before” moments, is actually refreshing because the director doesn’t show the “monster” or the “threat” clearly and only gives us frightening stabs in the dark. From the perspective, ultimately, of Pablo and we are given as much as they are. The “it’s behind you” staple of most horror movies is stripped away from us and we are the ones looking over our shoulders. It completely submerges the audience in darkness and a grainy screen. Directing team Juame Balaguero and Paco Plaza utilise many fears to create this atmospheric and heart pounding horror that will make you jump, scream and sleep with the lights on from now on. The fact that we aren’t exactly sure throughout the movie just what we are dealing with, makes the film much more mysterious and terrifying.
[REC] isn’t perfect and at times it falls too much into the clichés. Screaming women who fall over when they are supposed to be running, or the angry person who doesn’t quite believe what is going on and has no faith in our lead survival tactics. These secondary characters are extremely vacant and the problem with being behind the camera is that you don’t really empathise with anyone.
That being said, what it lacks in characterization and development, it certainly makes up in thrills and spills. And yes, you scream, whimper and grab whoever is next to you in a clench that is only known to pregnant women. But [REC] is entertaining and it is bloody scary.
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