[REC]

If it weren’t for the ending in the secret room, my satisfaction would be almost boundless. Not because the finale in the attic is bad, but I didn’t think it fitted with what came before it at all. Simply the first hour seems out of place with the final fifteen minutes, and vice versa. But otherwise, everything is as it should be. Atmosphere cuttable by knife, ideas and ideal pace and it’s punchy and effective like an attack by Barça FC. I will definitely have to think hard about where to stay in Barcelona this time round. One thing I know for sure, I won’t stay in an old tenement block under any circumstances. (13.07.2008)

The handheld camera is seasonally in style, zombies and satanic worshipers with rabies have been doing well for a few decades, so why not combine it all together... In addition, the film as a whole works well and escalates very solidly in the end. What undermines this film, like the American film Monster, is the ostentatious playing for effect and the violent emphasis on everything being filmed NOW, AUTHENTICALLY, IMMEDIATELY. The result is compulsion, predictability, and annoying hysteria, but these smudges fail to cloud my otherwise positive impression. [Rec] can be watched with gusto and a slightly indulgent smile, but it radiates somewhat of sympathetic aura. I like it... (27.06.2008)

Even though this film’s creators don’t bring anything new to the table, instead just combining the technique from The Blair Witch Project with the final exposition of The Silence of the Lambs (the green night-vision mode, similar setting), their low-budget result still managed to raise my adrenalin level and in places I was scared so much that I wanted to avert my eyes from the screen (which hasn’t happened to me in some fifteen years). The climax is truly BADASS, because it doesn’t stay in the realm of pure film entertainment, but throws in an unsettling this-could-actually-happen feeling. Brrr! (09.01.2009)

This movie is awesome! It’s been long since a horror film pulled me into the story in such way that I felt scared. REC is probably the best and most original zombie flick I’ve even seen and far above all the other films shot with a “handheld camera”. Unlike Blair Witch, it never gets boring (really, things move at full steam from beginning to end, there isn’t a single quiet moment), the characters are very believable in their fear, terror and ignorance, and their behaviour is logical (unlike Cloverfield). The old house and the fact that danger can lurk behind every door generate an amazing atmosphere that is best enjoyed watching the film alone and in the dark. I now must correct my ranking of favourite horror movies. Wholeheartedly recommended. (13.02.2008)

An intense horror inferno in which the directors hit the viewer with such vigor that you won't care about the questionable handheld camera - even though it has a strong defense for being there given that it’s part of a TV show where journalists want to film everything. Knowing that there’s not much new you can do with zombies, the film brings an excellent group of characters to the scene, who crystalize in the calm opening so that you can cheer them on, tooth and nail, in the final inferno. The main character is a decent character and I realized that I haven't worried about anyone in a movie as much as I did about her in a long time. The few shocking moments (the fall down the stairs, the little girl with her mother) and the entire ending, starting with the entrance to the attic, is a chapter of its own, for which I would gild the filmmakers' hands. I’d have to look far back in time to find SUCH a quality horror film. (01.01.2009)