[REC] 2 – DVD Review

The Film:

I thought the horror community went overboard in claiming just how damn scary and awesome the original [REC] was. There were some genuine chills and thrills along the way, but to throw out hyperbolic claims it was the new face of terror was misguided. It’s becoming redundant to read the butt kissing quotes that trickle out of the online horror circles. I find it comical to watch one genre website after another struggle to belt out a catchy phrase so they can get their name on a poster or a DVD sleeve.

The story picks up fifteen minutes after reporter Ángela Vidal [Manuela Velasco] is pulled away by an unseen pair of infected hands in the nightmarish green glow of a night vision camera. A SWAT team arrives with a ’government official’ to go forth into the quarantined building where the virus has obliterated everyone in its path. These macho men have come to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and they are all out of bubblegum. There are no politics to be had because this fella doesn’t work under President Obama. He is a man of the cloth and the power of Christ has compelled him to kick ass for the Lord. To cleanse the drooling tenants of their unholy ways he will need the blood sample of the ‘Medeiros girl’.

[REC] 2 is the best sequel since Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. The voracious citizens are not ‘zombies’ but puppets of a demon. If you over-explain any mythology you can end up with egg all over your face, but here, in giving the virus supernatural origins, it was a clever change of pace as opposed to regurgitating the some plot ploy of the original. I figured that Ángela had been torn to shreds and used as cannon fodder, but the ‘worm’ has turned and she is a pawn in diabolical wave of evil that looks to spread further than the confines of an ordinary apartment building.

This is the movie Paranormal Activity 2 wishes it could have been. Screw character development. Throw caution to the wind with suspense. Director(s) Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza have used James Cameron’s Aliens as their template. Imagine The Exorcist as a balls-to-the-wall action flick and that is what [REC] 2 is in a nutshell. The SWAT team has helmet-mounted video cameras that you give the point of view of the action in a first shooter kind of way and it reminded me a lot of the gameplay in the film adaption of Doom. There are two goose bump-inducing scenes that are incredible: one involves an encounter in an air duct and the other is a run-in with a creepy crawly kid who does his best impersonation of an itsy-bitsy spider while going up a wall.

Thanks to [REC] 2 I get to eat my words from my opening paragraph rant and say the hype for this one is for real.

The DVD:

Audio/Video: This release is a decent standard def DVD presentation of the film. Remember, some of the video is pulled from different sources, but everything looks really good, perhaps better than expected. The audio mix is strong and aggressive like any good horror sound design.

Behind the Scenes: This making-of runs about 54-minutes, and acts like your a “fly-on-the-wall”, and in turn gives us a rare, interesting, and candid look at the filming. Interviews, set footage, and the like create a good documentary here.

Deleted Scenes: A couple interesting extended scenes here with those younger kids, offering  some pranks and a gory kill.

A Walk through of the Set: Art director Gemma Fauria holds our hands through the apartment set; On Tour and Stiges Film Festival Press Conference offer up looks at the cast and crew at the various festivals; and Trailers round out the extras.

The Film: Rating:

The DVD: Rating: