[REC]

Hi,

This is my latest dispatch from the Ross's Fright Fest, which is running throughout the month of October. I'm reviewing as many of the films as I can! You can read more about this series here:

Beetlejuice

It’s great except when Michael Keaton is on screen.

This Week In LincolnTynan Stewart

By the way, I will be talking about spoilers. I usually try to avoid spoiling new films, but most of the Fright Fest selections have been out for at least a few years, and some have been around for decades. So if you haven't already seen the movie I'm discussing, well, read at your own risk!

• [REC] follows an earnest but inept TV reporter (Angela) and her very committed cameraman (Pablo) as they embed with the Barcelona fire department's night shift. The ride-along is supposed to be a fun, behind-the-scenes story about how firefighters spend their time. But it quickly becomes a horrible nightmare when the department is called to an apartment building that turns out to be ground-zero for a horrible, rabies-like infection. (In other words, it's a zombie outbreak.)
• Funny story: The Ross's projectionist accidentally started playing 28 Days Later, which screened earlier in the day. So we also got 30 seconds of a different film in which a European city becomes ground-zero for a horrible, rabies-like infection that transforms people into zombies. Fitting.
• The setup is partly a way of justifying the movie's formal style: It's a found footage film shot entirely from the perspective of Pablo's camera. If your main characters are TV reporters, that's an elegant way of justifying the constant presence of a camera.
• Naturally, it's also a film about journalism — or at least it's about the urge to document and record things. There's a running dynamic between Angela, Pablo, and the cops who attempt to shut down their filming. The reporters mostly refuse to turn off the camera, and Angela repeatedly talks (and yells) about the need to capture proof of what's going on. In context, it feels less like a resounding statement about the importance of journalism and more of an instinctive response to a horrifying situation. Her increasingly desperate attempts to do professional news standups within the zombie-filled apartment building feel like a coping mechanism, a way to hold onto something normal in a situation where she feels helpless. (Likewise Pablo's near-suicidal willingness to run toward zombies with his camera makes more sense when you consider that he doesn't have many other options.)
• [REC] also tells a story about institutional dysfunction and mistrust. A few minutes after Angela and the firefighters arrive at the apartment building, the government traps them inside without explanation. It quickly becomes clear that the authorities have decided to sacrifice everyone in the building to contain the outbreak — and the police threaten to shoot anyone who tries to leave — but they also tell the occupants that the quarantine is for their safety. This is of course bullshit; no one in the apartment is safe. But just like Angela and Pablo cling to the illusion that they're still doing journalism, the cops and health authorities maintain the fiction that they're in control and know what they're doing.
• At the film's midpoint, we get a little room to breathe and Angela goes around interviewing the building's residents, including a guy who blames a family of Japanese immigrants for the infection. This is partly just the paranoia induced by the situation; everyone is looking for someone to blame. But it's also a moment of virulent xenophobia. Humanity has a long history of blaming outsiders for introducing plagues, and it's interesting to see a zombie flick explore that.
• The film loses itself a little in the final act, mostly because it tries to explain the origin of the zombie virus. This just doesn't feel necessary to me. But it's also hampered by the film's commitment to found footage; the style is jagged and disorienting, which is effective when you're trying to create a tense, claustrophobic atmosphere. It's less helpful when you're trying to lore-dump about the Vatican's attempt to cover up its decision to imprison and torture a child (who, it seems, was the source of the virus). The attempt to solve the mystery doesn't quite land, and parts of the final sequence in the penthouse apartment (where the child was imprisoned) left me more confused than before.
• But maybe the confusion and lack of clarity was the point? Or maybe it was to set up the inevitable run of sequels.
• The most interesting implications of the finale are thematic. Given the storyline about anti-Japanese racism, it's rather telling that the ultimate source of the virus turns out to be, not outsiders or foreigners, but one of the oldest and most enduring institutions in Western society: The Catholic Church.
• Fright level: 7/10
• Enjoyment level: 6/10

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