| this week's Tribune review : '[REC]' ...... [7/10] |
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Spain 2007 Starring : Manuela Velasco, Ferran Terraza Directors : Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ JUST as we've caught our breath after not one but two shaky-cam, "found-footage" horror-thrillers - Matt Reeves' Cloverfield and George A Romero's Diary of the Dead - along comes the Spanish equivalent. Much smaller in scale than its Hollywood counterparts - the vast majority of the action being set inside a single city-centre apartment-building - [REC] (as in the video-camera abbreviation for "record") is necessarily a more intimate, claustrophobic, and, therefore, nightmarish affair. Nightmares can often be extremely amusing, of course, and that's certainly the case here, the two directors - who co-wrote the ingenious script with Luis Berdejo - displaying a wry fondness for horror-genre conventions while also shamelessly opting for BOO!-type shocks at every opportunity. What we see has been supposedly recorded by a TV crew - and perky presenter Angela (Velasco) - filming a programme about night-workers, this particular instalment being dedicated to the Barcelona fire-brigade. The firefighters' very first call-out is triggered by an elderly woman who's acting disturbingly "strangely" in her top-floor flat: the first, innocuous sign of what rapidly escalates into a full-blown siege situation. As the block is sealed off by the authorities - trapping the crew and residents inside - panic levels soon rise, allowing Balaguero and company to score some niftily satirical points about how individuals' rights can be very quickly overridden by "security" concerns. But while such topical subtexts are welcome, [REC]'s primarily goal is provide a refreshingly straightforward thrill-ride. And it largely succeeds in its aims, running into trouble only with some garbled final-reel "explanations" - these take some following (and swallowing). Overall, however, this is an undemanding, old-fashioned crowdpleaser - albeit tricked up with very knowing 21st-century technological bells and whistles - which knows and works within its limitations, delivering plenty of bloody good fun along the way. Neil Young 1st April, 2008 written for the next issue of Tribune magazine  [REC] : [7/10] : aka Rec : Jaume BALAGUERó & Paco PLAZA : Spain 2007 : 85m seen at Pathe cinema, Rotterdam : 2nd February 2008 : public show (complimentary ticket) : International Film Festival Rotterdam more reviews from IFFR 2008 |
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