Before watching it, I had read quite some things about 'Rec'. How it was supposed to stand above many POV hand-held found footage movies. How scary it was supposed to be. Many people call it the scariest horror movie they have recently seen. Was I watching something else last night, or have I simply seen too many good horror movies to be impressed by a movie like 'Rec'?
The story is not a complex one. A local TV team is making a documentary about the fire brigade. There is a call from a building, not for a fire but because screams were heard. When they get there, they enter the building together with a police officer, and find an old woman who is covered in blood. She attacks the officer and from there on everything goes down hill. As soon as they want to leave the building, an unpleasant surprise awaits them. Outside, the building is getting sealed by the government and nobody is allowed to leave.
* Spoilers coming*
There are many things you can see coming from miles ahead. The illness of the little girl, the contagiousness of the 'virus', it's all no surprise. I found it also pretty annoying that the camera was shaking so much almost the whole time. I mean, if you are a cameraman, you must have at least a bit of a steady hand.. sometimes even when nothing was really happening, the camera swayed too much from one side to the other. Having made some typical amateurish holiday movies like everyone does, one of the first things you learn when watching your own footage back is to hold that thing steady, and not to use it as an extension of your eye.
Thankfully, there was some black humor used in 'Rec', and it might have been more than I noticed, as I have the feeling that the subtitles I had were of a bad quality. I can't make a fuzz about that, as this comes to the translators and not to the makers of the movie. So maybe I did miss some important dialog quality.
The ending.. well... it wasn't bad, but not that original either. The girl was spooky, more then the old woman was or other people in the movie were. So that was a good thing. And again, what happened to the film crew was no surprise.
* End of Spoilers*
I have still given this movie a 6, because I think that my not-too-positive opinion is also to blame to the fact that I do watch a lot of movies, and many of them are scary. If you are not used to watching so many horror movies, then it really is an entertaining film, which probably gives many people a good enjoyable scare. But if you are like me, a bit more thick skinned and with a lot of movies in the back of your head, then don't be surprised if you find 'Rec' disappointing. I'm sorry, I just can not make that much more of it. That's not just because I simply would have liked to see more scares, but mainly to the fact that I would have liked to have seen a better worked-out and more intriguing plot.
The story is not a complex one. A local TV team is making a documentary about the fire brigade. There is a call from a building, not for a fire but because screams were heard. When they get there, they enter the building together with a police officer, and find an old woman who is covered in blood. She attacks the officer and from there on everything goes down hill. As soon as they want to leave the building, an unpleasant surprise awaits them. Outside, the building is getting sealed by the government and nobody is allowed to leave.
* Spoilers coming*
There are many things you can see coming from miles ahead. The illness of the little girl, the contagiousness of the 'virus', it's all no surprise. I found it also pretty annoying that the camera was shaking so much almost the whole time. I mean, if you are a cameraman, you must have at least a bit of a steady hand.. sometimes even when nothing was really happening, the camera swayed too much from one side to the other. Having made some typical amateurish holiday movies like everyone does, one of the first things you learn when watching your own footage back is to hold that thing steady, and not to use it as an extension of your eye.
Thankfully, there was some black humor used in 'Rec', and it might have been more than I noticed, as I have the feeling that the subtitles I had were of a bad quality. I can't make a fuzz about that, as this comes to the translators and not to the makers of the movie. So maybe I did miss some important dialog quality.
The ending.. well... it wasn't bad, but not that original either. The girl was spooky, more then the old woman was or other people in the movie were. So that was a good thing. And again, what happened to the film crew was no surprise.
* End of Spoilers*
I have still given this movie a 6, because I think that my not-too-positive opinion is also to blame to the fact that I do watch a lot of movies, and many of them are scary. If you are not used to watching so many horror movies, then it really is an entertaining film, which probably gives many people a good enjoyable scare. But if you are like me, a bit more thick skinned and with a lot of movies in the back of your head, then don't be surprised if you find 'Rec' disappointing. I'm sorry, I just can not make that much more of it. That's not just because I simply would have liked to see more scares, but mainly to the fact that I would have liked to have seen a better worked-out and more intriguing plot.