Rec 2 (2009)

Director: Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza

Starring: Jonathan D. Mellor, Manuela Velasco, Óscar Zafra

In order to ascertain the current situation inside, a supposed medical officer and a GEO team step into the quarantined and ill-fated apartment building.

The same directors are back for another round of screaming terror. I almost liked this film better than the original. The first 40 minutes were incredible, with better effects, better jump-scares, and a better story, actually. Also, now knowing what lurks in the darkness, the film was scarier.

The film unfortunately looses momentum around the halfway mark, when the film suddenly jumps back a few hours. This is confusing until the film catches up again with the timeline. This part was more annoying than interesting, though, and the teenagers felt out of place in the film. It also felt like a completely different film and I’m not sure why they chose this route for the film.

In ‘Rec’ we assume the ‘victims’ to be zombies, but in ‘Rec 2’ they are clearly possessed, and this is confirmed by the presence of a priest, as well. The story does at times feel like its going in circles and I got the idea they were simply trying to make up time, as if they didn’t have enough material for a full-length feature film.

The film then recovers a bit with the return of reporter Angela (Manuela Velasco) from the first film. Ultimately, though, I enjoyed the first half far more than the second. Interestingly, Rosso – who does most of the filming during the first half – is played by Pablo Rosso. Pablo played Pablo in the original film, who did the filming. We never get to see him in either film anyway.

‘Rec 2’ won awards for Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Special/Visual Effects and Best Make-Up and Hairstyles.

In Italian.

Would I watch it again? No.