When Quarantine dropped last year, everyone finally went out of their way to see one of the most groundbreaking and original zombie flicks ever made… the original [Rec]. Sure it may not seem so groundbreaking now that it has been turned into a crappy American remake, but it was… even despite a shitload of gimmickry and a lack of killer gore. Now, a couple years after the success of [Rec] the sequel is hitting theaters. Is [Rec] 2 a fresh or original take on a stellar original? Or is it simply a quick attempt at cashing in on horror fans who have succumbed to the hype?

The film picks up fifteen minutes after the events of the first film. A group of SWAT members, conveniently equipped with shoulder cameras, is sent inside to discover what’s going on. What’s going on is that they start to get their asses kicked… and then between ass kickings they argue and stuff. Then, halfway through the film, a trio of teenage douches somehow manage to sneak into the completely cordoned off and quarantined apartment building… a la Lamberto Bava’s Demons. It didn’t make any sense then and it doesn’t make any sense now. Now this ragtag group of survivors must stumble around in the dark, get killed, and find their way back to the attic of the apartment complex in order to unleash an unnecessary and altogether unwanted twist to the zombies’ origins. Hint: It turns into another Demons-inspired moment and by the end of the movie, I was waiting for a fucking helicopter to come crashing through the roof, while a mysterious man in a metal mask with a penchant for handing out flyers stared at everyone through the hole that was created.

[Rec] 2, as a sequel, isn’t bad. It’s just a little bit too much of the same stuff. It feels as if Jaume Balaguero, Paco Plaza, and Manu Diez wanted to stay too true to the original film, giving fans more of the same with increased kill counts and gore. Unfortunately, this gives the film a stale and unsurprising feeling. Also, the forced entrance of three random characters hints at the fact that the writers didn’t really have enough of a story to make a sequel, as this chews up large amounts of time and adds virtually nothing to the actual story. More of the same is great for the average horror fan, which is why there have been 11 Friday the 13th flicks, but the truly great directors know how to change the venue of their story and offer something new, while still maintaining the tone, integrity, and freshness of their franchise. This is why Romero’s Dead Trilogy is so amazing, and why most horror sequels stink or are barely entertaining.

The problems from the first film, rather than being patched up and fixed, are enhanced and more prevalent this time around. First off, the shaky cam of the original film, while annoying at times, is back with a vengeance. Scenes of in your face violence become trite after multiple encounters. How many times can a zombie jump in front of a camera and wiggle its face around until you get bored? Not very many as it turns out. There are some upgrades in the gore department, and the make-ups on the zombies are truly an improvement over the original, but the lack of any true mauling action, other than poorly covered camera-gyrating, leaves a little to be desired.

Directors Balaguero and Plaza do little to elevate this film above the original and take this franchise to a different level. [Rec] 2 is anti-innovative and simply offers horror fans more of the same… even down to the lame reproduction of the night vision ending of the first film. Yeah, it introduces some intriguing elements into the mythos of the events in [Rec] and [Rec] 2, but couldn’t they have found a new way to do it? On top of that, the twist at the end of the film comes after another twist… and a twist upon a twist is simply viewer abuse.

Some twats will compare [Rec] and its sequel to the Aliens franchise… in that the original film is one of suspense and terror, while the second film involves guns, first-person cameras on soldiers, and more action… but the comparison misses out on one major fact. [Rec] is better than [Rec] 2 by a longshot, whereas Alien and Aliens are both on the same level. [Rec] 2 may not be as groundbreaking as the original, and it may be nothing new for trash like you, but it is still a watchable flick. Let’s just hope that a third film will be a little more creative and move outside of the realm of the apartment complex… because that shit, like Madonna’s vagina, has now been mined to death.

Final Synopsis: If you liked the first film, you should see this one. Just see it with a grain of salt and realize that not much new or interesting is going to happen. Also, try not to get confused when the random teenagers are introduced.

Points Lost: -1 for one twist too many, -1 for being too similar to the first film, -1 for the lame introduction of the teenagers, -1 for even more annoying shaky cam

Lesson Learned: Don’t break into a place that has been quarantined.

Burning Question: When will the whole first-person perspective, shaky cam bullshit go away?

[Rec] 2
6/10

[Rec] 2 (2009) - DVD Movie Reviews8.21010

Tags: 2009, foreign, foreign horror, foreign movie, horror sequel, jaume balaguero, latest movie reviews, manu diez, paco plaza, sequel, Spanish, spanish horror, spanish movie, zombie, zombie movie, zombies