[rec] -A Movie Review- NO SPOILERS!

Horror fans, get ready to stop being jaded! If you like the direction the genre is headed, and, like me, you wonder who can take everything the filmmakers have learned and improve upon it, then I have great news!

   [rec] (like the 'record' icon in a video camera's viewer) isn't wholly original and it doesn't break any new ground, but it utilizes a lot of new tricks as effectively, if not moreso than any recent horror films to precede it. Example; the camerawork and perspective is all handheld a la The Blair Witch Project or the recent and awesome Cloverfield. The subject matter is... well, that one I won't give away. I can say that in this respect [rec] has nothing in common with the previous mentioned films. 

But like I said, it isn't newer than anything you've already seen, just better.

Here's the poop:

TV presenter Angela (Manuela Velasco) and her cameraman, Pablo visit a Barcelona firehouse to shoot footage for a fictional show called While You Sleep. As they interview the firemen a call is received and the force is dispatched to a local building where an old woman is trapped in her apartment. Residents of the building are scared and confused as the firemen and police attempt to rescue the woman only to be attacked by... I said NO SPOILERS!

Soon the government seals off the building with no explanation and noone; residents, fire crew, reporter or cop, knows anything. 

However, what was assumed to be an isolated incident quickly escalates despite everyones best efforts and the situation spirals horribly out of control. 

Now, as you know I love good horror. This movie had me literally leaning forward the entire time! There were a few awesome shocks and some really frightening scenes, and the tension is maintained throughout to take up the slack in between. The reporter Angela (Velasco) is a great screamer and believable in her role as the one person trying to keep perspective despite the harrowing events surrounding her. The cameraman (I assume is the guy credited on imdb.com only as 'voice', Pep Sais) is also good at giving you someone to root for. There are no stupid asshole teenagers running for their lives in this horror, just regular folks in an increasingly nightmarish scenario trying to figure out what the hells going on and how to survive!

I first heard about this movie on The Howard Stern Show when Robin and Richard talked about how it's one of the scariest movies they'd ever seen. Robin even said that she saw it in the original Spanish without the subtitles and still was freaked out! Richard, who if you know the Show is a huge horror fan, said it was one of the scariest movies ever. Well, calm down. I went into this remembering those comments and was slightly buffered at first. Could it really be that scary?

Go into it with no expectations. 

In my humble opinion (I think the kids are typing that IMHO these days) I'd have to say Yes, it scared the shit out of me, but you're different. It may be a walk in the park for you. I can see how someone could call it cliched and overdone. I could agree that it's a rehash of several movies that've come before it. What I can also say it that it is an effective use of the many bits and pieces of many of it's predecessors put together in a whole new film in such a good way that it's just plain... well, GOOD!

GOOD, GOOD, GOOD.

This will surely rate a repeat viewing. Maybe when I've learned how to sleep again. 

My best advice if you watch this is PAY ATTENTION! Actually don't worry, you'll have no choice once it hooks you. 

My spidey senses tell me it's being remade by those dirty americans for release in the Fall of this year. They did a good job with Funny Games but that might've been a fluke. (Funny Games was a remake of the Austrian film of the same name by the same director, Michael Haneke, a suspense genius! Look him up!).

[rec], or rather it's american counterpart Quarantine, is being helmed by John Erick Dowdle. [rec] was co-directed by Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza. 

Rottentomatoes.com aggregated [rec] at 93% based on 14 reviews. The lone dissenter was surprisingly from Variety, calling the film "lazily scripted" and "without [...] character development".

Finally, if it actually works, I leave you with a trailer! Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQUkX_XowqI