REC 3 Loses the Shaky Cam

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 Paco Plaza’s [REC] 3, 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.

[REC]2: The Long Night Continues

When a reality TV crew accompanied a team of firemen on a call to a zombie-infested apartment building, the footage they [REC]orded could have been the scoop of the year. That fateful night did not work out so well for them, but directors Jaime Balagueró and Paco Plaza contrived ways for more video cameras to enter the damned building in [REC]2 (trailer here), the sequel to their breakout cult Spanish horror hit, which opens in New York this Friday.

Picking up right where the first [REC] left off, the Spanish authorities are tired of playing around, establishing an airtight quarantine around the building. An elite SWAT unit is sent into the hot zone under the command of the mysterious Doctor Owen, who does not suffer fools gladly. At first, they assume they are there to reconnoiter and find their fallen colleagues. However, Owen has a more dangerous assignment for them: track down patient zero and extract a blood sample.

It turns out Owen does not work for the Spanish health ministry. He takes his orders straight from the Vatican, and the events transpiring in the building fall within their purview. While the details are sketchy, it becomes evident the outbreak resulted from a top secret scientific research project involving demonic possession. Needless to say, things went wrong, resulting in all Hell breaking loose.

Clearly, Balagueró and Plaza understand it is not what we see, but what we do not see that scares us in horror movies. That is why their use of hand-held shaky cams and night vision are so effective in the [REC] films. When the SWAT team starts poking around pitch dark attics, it is frankly pretty intense stuff. However, their decision to split the narrative of R2 actually breaks the tension that had been so effectively mounting in the first half hour.

Given the constraints of its POV format and the nature of the attacking hordes storyline, it is difficult for a film like R2 to develop character with any particular depth. There is no time to establish much back-story and the cameras do not have enough battery power to waste recording it anyway. Yet, Jonathan Mellor definitely stands out, investing the driven Dr. Owen with an arrogant charisma not unlike that of Peter Cushing’s classic Dr. Frankenstein. The balance of the cast is not a memorable lot though, essentially serving as grist for the Hell-spawned zombie mill.

The building itself is quite a creepy backdrop for the madness exploding therein and the film nicely blends its Exorcist-style religious horror themes with the trappings of science run amok monster movies. As is usually the case with the horror genre, its climax is something of a letdown, breaking Balagueró and Plaza’s carefully crafted spell by showing way to much of the unfathomable evil entity. Still, there are more than enough genuinely scary moments in this film to satisfy anyone who enjoys a really good horror movie. Cleverer and scarier than its predecessor, [REC]2 opens Friday in New York at the Village East.