Postby Darkweasel » Fri Mar 06, 2015 12:10 pm
Rec 4: Apocalypse
Although 2007's Rec was a fantastically effective little Spanish horror film, it somehow managed to spawn two of the worst sequels ever. The second one decided to turn the original's very simple premise into some ridiculous claptrap about The Vatican, demonic possession, priests with machine guns, and a Satan worm. The third one, set during a wedding at the same time as the original, was so utterly awful it couldn't even be viewed as a comedy. Something, for reasons best known to themselves, it looked like the film-makers were actually striving for.
That the fourth instalment takes events and plot points from those dreadful films and turns them into something which comes close to being as good as the original deserves an awful lot of credit. Especially when, on top of that, you have to consider they've added angry zombie monkeys into the mix.
After the reporter from the original is discovered seemingly unharmed by a GEO special operations team clearing the building (a great scene which creates a nice feeling of deja vu as it's clearly the same building they used the first time) she is taken aboard a quarantine ship and tested for signs of the virus along with the GEO members who rescued her. A sinister doctor tells her everything is fine, but because he's a sinister doctor you really don't believe him for a moment. Especially when it turns out the ship has got a restricted area which you just know will hide something as equally sinister as the doctor.
Apart from the fact that lead actress Manuela Velasco has noticeably aged since 2007, everything else looks and feels exactly as it should. It's claustrophobic, occasionally funny, and of course, nice and bloody. And although the hideously inferior sequels are referenced occasionally, there's enough covered in the script that you can happily go from the original to this one without ever having to waste your precious time watching either of them ever again.
7.5/10