[REC]⁴ Apocalypse (2014)

Sorry, this movie sucks

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

After watching the third installment, it felt like the franchise is dead and they have completely ruined it. but surprisingly enough the creators understood their massive mistake and got back on course with the final chapter.Again, just like in part 3 everything looks more professional, more of a ''Hollywood'' style, if i may. They chose to move away from their ''homemade'' horror niche into the mainstream, which was not such a massive fail in comparison to part 3, which was utterly atrocious. The original main character, who started the series off is reintroduced, which is already a massive plus, since people have already grown to like her awesome performances in part 1. This time action takes place on a ship and takes more of an action movie kind of a route instead of its original shaky, thrilling and scary setting. They opt for more fights and bloody scenes, instead of jump scares and suspense, which was not horrible in this case, but it took a way the original feeling the first two parts gave us.Altogether, the final installment explained quite a lot, everything we have seen before came together, was a little out in the open and blatant, but still a massive improvement from part 3. It has been announced it is the final chapter, but the creators left it very easy for them to continue this series, if they wanted to, with a very open ending with a lot of future possibilities. So, perhaps we are going to see REC 5 after all?

Rec 1 and 2 are two of the greatest horror films ever made.Using found footage, they were able to add incredible immediacy, tension and rawness to a tired genre and established an identity all of their own.The second film also managed to raise the stakes by adding a really creepy Satanic dimension to proceedings. I was utterly gripped by the story and was looking forwards to 3 and 4 to see where the story would lead.It went only one place...straight down the toilet. Rec 3 and 4 are almost tragically bad. Selling out everything that made the first films such bona fide classics in favour of tired cliché. This particular film is just a poor man's Resident Evil. I don't suppose we'll ever really know what happened and why the creative team made such poor choices, but it's a real pity. They had the formula, they'd set the story up perfectly...but then they fixed everything that wasn't broken, and completely broke it.No series I've ever heard of has betrayed itself in this way before, and we can only hope it never happens again.

After finding my nerves to get torn apart by the first 2 films in the Rec series,I was disappointed to find the third to be a painfully unfunny Comedy.Getting set to do my 1000th IMDb review,I decided that it was time to see the ending of the Rec series.The plot:Waking up after being taken out of an apartment block filled with zombies, Ángela Vidal finds herself with the handful of other survivors on a ship.Trying to make sense of the new location, Ángela discovers that the ship has been taken over by the military,who are keeping it safe in order for the scientist to find a cure for the zombie outbreak at a secure location. Feeling safe due to being miles from land, Ángela and everyone else on the ship soon discover that the zombie outbreak can cross the pond.View on the film:Wrapping up the series,the screenplay by co-writer/(along with Manu Díez) director Jaume Balagueró keeps the action locked on the ship,which along with allowing the threads from the series to be joined up,also gives the title an uneasy atmosphere,as the rough waves are joined by ravenous zombies. Sketching out a clear outline to the cause of the zombie outbreak in the first 3 films,the writers horribly destroy everything that was at the very centre of the terror in the films,by changing the threat into something much less complex and easier to defeat,and also packing the film with extremely ill-judge,childish comedy (stir fried monkey!)Completely getting rid of the franchises trademark "Found Footage" appearance for the final,director Balagueró & cinematographer Pablo Rosso give the title a slick,glossy shine,which fully shows all the tight corridors in the (partly) shot on location ship,and the look of terror sinking deep into Ángela's (played by a very good, returning to the series Manuela Velasco) eyes.Despite having a real location, Balagueró completely drains the film of any claustrophobia or horror by opening up the long corridors of the ship in a wide, crisp presentation,that leads to the unfolding zombie nightmare feeling oddly "safe",which along with some of the ships timber being used for some shockingly poor CGI animal zombies (!) leads to this being a (Rec)ording that should have been stopped a long time ago.

This "REC" film was pretty much what I expected after only seeing "REC 3". I haven't seen the first two "RECs" yet but I know they were more of the lost footage type and this one and the previous one steered away from that format. This film did have it's little twists that kept it kind of interesting but not enough to make it a film that I would say is an excellent one. This film takes place on an oil tanker in the middle of the ocean. Now it takes movie writing skills to make a film like this one take place in a confined area. I'm not saying that this film was bad I'm just saying that there could have been more. If you're some what of a fan of the "REC" franchise it's safe to watch this one. It might not be as good as the ones before it but for a finale you won't be disappointed.