[REC]² (2009)

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

A sequel to a horror movie as good as REC is a tall order. I myself went in with very low expectations. REC is simply one of the greatest zombie and found footage films of all time. But I was pleasantly surprised by this sequel. Like HALLOWEEN 2 or BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, this picks up the instant the original left off. Sometimes this tactic doesn't work, like in QUANTUM OF SOLACE, but here it drops you right into the action in familiar environs and the tension never lets up. In short, if you liked the original, then you'll like REC 2.

In terms of style, this sequel to Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza's 2007 horror hit Rec is more of the same, with shaky POV camera-work, shadowy night vision scenes, and numerous mechanical jump scares, with just a touch of first-person shooter about it. However, I did enjoy this one marginally more than its predecessor thanks to a supernatural plot development that stops it from being just another predictable found-footage zombie/infected movie.In Rec², which continues where the first film left off, a heavily armed SWAT team enters the quarantined apartment building, accompanied by Ministry of Health representative Dr. Owen (Jonathan D. Mellor), in order to assess the situation. Once inside, it soon becomes apparent that Owen knows a lot more than he is letting on, and, when confronted by the soldiers, he spills the beans: he is a priest employed by the Vatican, and the outbreak is, in fact, a case of demonic possession spread through bodily fluids. His mission is to try and locate a blood sample taken from the girl who was first possessed in order to create an antidote.The first half of the film is told via the use of micro cameras mounted on the SWAT team's helmets, but halfway through, the action is replayed from the perspective of a group of teenagers who sneak into the building for a thrill. The introduction of Ángela (Manuela Velasco), the reporter from the original movie, allows for a further twist before the inevitable downbeat ending. Balagueró and Plaza keep the pace suitably frenetic and deliver some solid shocks and a few decent moments of splatter along the way (shotgun blasts to the head making quite the mess). They even throw in a bold sequence in which demonic 'doorways' are only visible through the use of night vision goggles (OK, OK, it didn't make a lot of sense, but I like the fact that they tried).Overall, not a vast improvement over the original, but still a move in the right direction. I'm interested to see where they take the franchise in REC³: Genesis.6.5/10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.

(46%) One of the less awful found footage movies that has a decent pace to it, and more than its fair share of zombie based terror. It opens quite strongly as it follows a swat group en route to the apartment block from the first movie likened to the raid, and even though here the group's tactics leave a lot to be desired (they go strait to the top floor without cheeking the others which is a great way of getting killed). But once the second chapter comes round following three kids getting up to no good then it starts to loose focus and the movie's camera movements gets too shaky for it to be watchable at times. Besides the repeating use of more or less the same scares, its throwaway nature, and the eye ruining camera movements, this is worth a look for most horror fans, and maybe the best found footage flick I've seen.

So it starts as a laughably bad sequel and instantly you think to yourself "They dropped the ball on this one. REC 1 was great, this one has SWAT going into the building, it's going to be really chill." (<-Not spoiler, that's the first thing you see in the film.) Trust the creators. As the film goes on, the main characters, the plan and progression and events are completely changed and suddenly you sit there, curled up in a ball, a baseball bat in your hand, lights on everywhere and Pokemon playing on your laptop.It's terrifying. It keeps the heart of the first film but ups everything a notch. One of the few, rare, excellent sequels.Great atmosphere, great acting (seriously, great acting, it's stupidly easy to believe them) and great execution.9/10 because I had to keep the lights on for 2 days in a row and couldn't sleep. And because it is a bit too supernatural for my linking.For reference, The Ring made me flinch twice. Good film, just not as scary as this one.