Rec Turned Me Into a Wreck.

You know that bit in the Blair Witch Project? No, not the bit when the chick is crying and her nose is running like a squid sliding down a spiral staircase. The scene close to the end when the same snotty nose girl is hysterically running through the abandoned house and suddenly, for a split second, we see one of the other main characters silently standing facing into the corner of the room. As overhyped as the film was it's still one of my favourite "what the fuck was that!?" movie moments ever.

Well I've just finished watching one of my most anticipated films of the year "REC." This Spanish film is one of the recent dose of Shaky-Cam films that have been saturating cinemas of late. Though unlike its celluloid sister "Diary of the Dead" here we have a film that stays with you long after the last Spaniard has gurgled their final pint of the crimson stuff.

Being that entire film is utilised through the already tired POV technique, I kinda feel like I have to preface this entire comment with the statement that I hate this pseudo-artistic handy cam style that everyone seems to think brings realism to a story, when in reality is nothing more than a method of saving production costs. That being said, REC is an exceptional addition to this style. The tension of the story is built around people acting like people in an incomprehensible (to the characters) situation. A group of tenants and a few civil servants are trapped in a building by the Spanish Health Department without an explanation. Cue the zombies.

I love zombie films, there's something beautifully simplistic about the necessity to destroy your friends brain before he or she eats your head. As much as I adore them the problem I find with Zombie films is the lack of scares, most rely on the overpowering sense of dread that comes from a population sized army of corpses bearing down on you at the speed of a cow on Benalin. This is a problem that REC lacks and brings me nicely back to the last scene I described in Blair Witch. Thankfully our Spanish friends understand the menace a cinematic quick-cut suggestion can have on a subconscious mind racing to catch up with a horrific set piece. Toward the end of this mercifully short monstrous barrage there's a beautiful silhouetted scare just before the big "night vision" reveal, that had me reaching for the rewind button. It's so simply implied that it barely registers, but makes enough of a impression on your mind that you know something is terribly wrong, and this is so much more stirring than many of the in-your-face gore scares prevalent in today’s "torture porn".

Against my better judgement I've managed to find the scene in question, do your senses a favour and grab a copy of the movie, especially before the horribly turgid American remake is released.