Disc Reviews
Rec Apocalypse Review
And so the Rec movies end here so it seems and on the high seas to boot!
We find a few survivors of the last couple of movies isolated and being tested on by a group of military scientists. And what better way to isolate another outbreak than by conducting these efforts on a tanker. They know something is still up (See Rec 2) and are looking for an antidote to the symptoms – but the unorthodox methods soon lead to the expected mistrust and fallout and eventual outbreak on the ship leading to a run for survival.
Rec 4 as this is, is very competent, tense, bloody and also mercifully short (like the previous films in the franchise). Unlike previous films in the franchise it has all but dropped the camera point of view that the first two films restrained themselves to, and the third film opted out of 20 minutes in. In all honesty it only would really have needed to have been kept for the sake of the title of the film, beyond that it’s nice to let the film-makers stretch their capable limbs.
But to return to the start of the review and the alleged promise that this is the last film – the film-makers cannot resist that one last final shot that literally (even for the sake of just having a bit of cheek) keeps the franchise well and truly open for a future should it want it.
Rec, then, has gone from a well talked about opening chapter that has been filmed in a certain style to slowly give way to bigger budgets, computer generated enhancements and a more cinematic shooting style. It would be too far to say that it has lost its way – But from Rec 2 onwards the ambitions of the “Virus” aspect becoming demonic possession instead has pushed the real and immediate epidemic aspect of the films into sci-fi horror hokum.
Steven Hurst