REC- Movie Review

REC (2007)

Genre: Horror
Director: Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza










Plot
Follow TV camera crew from the programme 'While You're Asleep' as they research the lives of firemen. There has been a call from a block of apartments about a women screaming as though she is trapped. However it turns out that there is a disease circulating the building via saliva that causes people to act aggressively wanting to feed off human flesh. Everyone is being kept in the building and forced to stay put as outsiders don't want the infection to spread, however they are unaware of the contagious disease and are putting the camera crew through great danger. A health inspector is taken into the closed off building and inspects the situation after breaking the news to a little girl 'Jennifer' that her dog had to be put down due to the virus. The film results in Pablo (cameraman) and Presenter trapped in the dark after the lights blow, stranded in a room with a possessed women who then attacks Pablo and drags the presenter into the darkness, with an open ending.

Which two scenes impressed you most and why?
I found the end scene the most interesting due to its deep amount of mystery and the change the handheld camera uses from a normal video camera with a bright light, so the audience can see a lot more to the use of night-vision as the lights blow. This then increased the low key lighting effect and emphasized the creepy location. The use of the quick editing made the scene more exciting but also confusing to the audience as it was filmed using a hand held camera. The use of the hand held view from the audience made the audience feel as though they were the cameraman giving us a continuous point of view shot.
The second scene that impressed me was when they re-winded the filming of the old women getting shot, the repeating noises and gore made it a lot more realistic and hard hitting to the audience. This also gave the effect of collision cutting as it was cutting from fast action back to the slower scenes beforehand, which creates a shocking jolt to its audience.

How has watching the film helped you understand this genre of filmmaking? Which features on the genre checklist did you spot in the film? when and how?
Watching this film has made me realize that in order for a horror film to be successful and interesting to its audience it has to be hard hitting and produce a shock factor to its audience. REC included a lot of main features on my genre checklist including the Female Survivor (Angela) who is represented as a strong and fiery character which shows that all strong independent women can survive and take care of themselves. I also noticed the quick smart monster characters as the people with the disease became a lot quicker and more aggressive. Their was a male hero (Manu) who lead everyone to safety and knew what to do in a tough situation when everyone was in danger, He was a resident in the building of apartments and didn't seem like a very outgoing person until others were at risk of danger. The use of low key lighting was shown through the change from natural light to darkness in the beginning scenes when the firemen entered the building, which created a dark and eerie effect. There was a lot of gore used in this film which looked very realistic and shocked the audience as it included features of a horror film we don't usually see such as people falling from great heights and seeing the impact. The dark apartment that was shut off from the outside world was a good example of a creepy location which makes the audience feel uncomfortable and uneasy, horrors do this well to build tension along with the use of parallel music to build on that tense moment the audience wait for until something shocking happens.