It
sounds awful to have the undead terrorizing your wedding, but at least that
means there is a priest on hand. Indeed,
it turns out a good Father is useful to have around when it comes to holding
off the zombie hordes in Placo Plaza’s [REC]
3 (trailer
here),
the third and penultimate installment of the Spanish walking dead franchise, which
opens tomorrow in New York.
Clara
and Koldo are meant for each other. She
has something important to tell him, but they are unable to get five minutes of
peace together, even before the zombies attack.
Cousin Adria and Atun, a professional videographer, are recording the
wedding and reception, in established [REC]
style. Uncle Victor does not look so
good though. He was bitten by a dog or
something. Then he starts biting people
and they start biting people, and so on and so on.
Poor
Clara and Koldo get separated in carnage, but they are determined to get back
together. The bride in particular is
willing to do what it takes to find her groom.
Why yes, that is a chainsaw she’s carrying. The Padre is also helpful, keeping the unholy
multitude at bay with prayer. As in the
previous film, there is a religious element to [REC] 3 that distinguishes the series from the zombie pack.
Shockingly,
Plaza breaks format early in the second act, abandoning the found footage motif
in favor of a traditional omniscient viewpoint.
While shaky cam can be annoying, Plaza and Jaime Balagueró, co-director
of the first two RECs, have a good
handle on how to use it. More than a
gimmick, in the previous films, they shrewdly used the video-camera POV to
control the audience’s perspective, literally keeping them in the dark at times,
which rather works in context. After
all, things seen fleetingly out of the corner of the eye are always more
unnerving than well lit but ridiculously over the top soundstage shots.
At
times, [REC] 3 also goes for laughs,
relatively successfully. The wedding
setting is an inspired set-up device. Hasn’t
everyone been to a reception that was totally dead but refused to die? [REC] 3
is like that except more so. Plaza and
his leads also sell the newlyweds’ earnest devotion fairly convincingly. Diego Martin’s Koldo is a bit of a bland screen
presence, but he develops some presentable chemistry with Leticia Doleria, as
the power tool wielding Clara. As horror
heroines go, she certainly has her moments.
There
are some clever bits in [REC] 3 that
should satisfy zombie fans, but it is the weakest link of the series, so far
(whereas [REC 2] was the high water
mark). It will be interesting to see
what happens when Balagueró assumes the solo helm of the forthcoming and final [REC] 4.
The comedic elements are fine, but he should probably stick to the
franchise format. Still, for those who
enjoy gore and black humor with a touch of Catholicism, [REC] 3 delivers just enough.
Recommended for the core fanbase, the stand-alone [REC] 3: Genesis opens tomorrow (9/7) in New York at the Cinema
Village.