[REC] - A Horror Film Classic In The Making!

No horror film has gotten under audiences’ skin recently more then the Spanish film [REC] which has been taking the film festival circuit apart (pun intended) for over the last year. American studios quickly jumped on the ship with the quickie remake QUARANTINE (itself a pretty damn good film), but [REC] has a raw and unforgiving atmosphere with unknown actors (at least to American shores) that bring the scares home unlike the remake which had a cast of young & up coming actors.

If you’ve seen the American remake QUARANTINE then you already know 95% of the story as the remake played it true to the original. {REC] finds reporter Angela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) and her cameraman Pablo (Pablo Rosso) at a Barcelona firehouse covering the events that happen at a firehouse during the graveyard shift when all normal people are sleeping. In fact, the show that they are filming is called “While You Sleep.” Thinking that the night will be a bust since typically nothing really happens at a fire station at night, Angela and Pablo soon find themselves tagging along with the firemen during what should be a routine call in which an apartment complex has reported noises coming from one of the tenants’ homes.

When they arrive, police are already on the scene and are about to go in all the while Angela keeps films hoping to get something exciting for her show. Once they step into the apartment they encounter an old woman who appears to be senile and unresponsive but when she attacks one of the police officers the firemen are forced to defend themselves and all hell breaks loose. They try to get the wounded police officer out of the building but soon realize that they and all the other tenants of the building have been locked up in the building by order of the CDC and the police. It appears that they have been exposed to some type of infectious disease that spreads quickly turning people into, for lack of a better word “zombies” whose only goal is to kill. Now Angela and the uninfected tenants must band together in order to find a way out of the building before it is too late.

Filmed entirely from the POV of Pablo’s camera the film is relentless and fast paced from beginning to end and it puts you right into the action and danger of the film. Similar to THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and more recently CLOVERFIELD and DIARY OF THE DEAD, [REC] is a testament that good horror films only need to put the audience in the same shoes as the characters in the film to be effective. Having seen QUARANTINE before this film you’d think that I would have already been prepared for what was going to happen, but [REC] is more effective and still more terrifying simply because I was unfamiliar with any of actors in the film. One of the highlights of last year (that now only has to get an official release here in the states).

Horror Films 2009: THE UNBORN (2009)

2009 is starting off as a good year for the horror genre as the new psychology horror film THE UNBORN (2009) proves that you don’t have to be a remake (of an old American or recent Asian film) or sequel to be a good film. Written & directed by the prolific David S. Goyer (who contributed to both of the recent Batmen films including all three BLADE films and the classic DARK CITY) THE UNBORN tells the story of Casey Beldon (Odette Yustman of CLOVERFIELD) who believes that she is being haunted by her dead twin brother who was never born.

As her nightmares about the undead brother intensify Casey is forced to look deep into her past where is discovers that the entity that she believes is haunting her is really a Jewish dybbuk, a type of demon trapped between the land of the living and the land of the dead. Thought vanquished by Casey’s ancestor the dybbuk has been watching over Casey slowly regaining its strength so that it can return to the land of the living once and for all. Casey’s only help to rid herself of the dybbuk is Rabbi Sendak (Gary Oldman) who must perform an exorcism in hopes of saving Casey from what may happen next.

THE UNBORN works as a horror film because it presents many difference aspects of something that most audiences are unaware of. It’s an relentless horror film that’s not self-referential and takes the subject matter very seriously. There are many circumstances that are left unexplained which add to the allure and mystery of the film as well as adding another level of horror to what is going on with Casey. Goyer has made a career out of writing complex characters and engaging films and the same can be same of this film.

There will no doubt be references to THE EXORCIST (the grandfather of all religious exorcism films) but this is a good thing as THE UNBORN is easily better then any of that franchise’s inferior sequels. In fact, THE UNBORN presents one of the best exorcisms of any film since the original THE EXORCIST and will have you screaming in your seats before the end credits role. Yes, this is a great start for 2009 whether it be a horror film or any film for that matter.

Horror Films 2008 Style

I'm a little disappointed at the current state of horror films being released as of the new year. I've seen all the majors released theatrically with the exception of SHUTTER and PROM NIGHT and the only minor or limited release films that I happened to miss were TEETH and THE SIGNAL (both of which I really wanted to see on the big screen), but other then that I've managed to see everything else and I'm thus far not really impressed.

My favorite films this year have been CLOVERFIELD, DIARY OF THE DEAD, and to some extent THE RUINS. This isn't because the films this year have been so bad, but rather there have been so few genre films released this year. The other ones include ONE MISSED CALL, THE EYE, DOOMSDAY, FUNNY GAMES, and PATHOLOGY, with inclusion of 2007 hold overs I AM LEGEND and P2 (I'm still confused on why they released this film during the crowded Christmas season).

Let's take a look at all the horror films of 2008 by first taking a look at the REMAKES. This group can be separated into two smaller groups - America (PROM NIGHT, APRIL FOOL'S DAY, SISTERS, and DAY OF THE DEAD) and Foreign (ONE MISSED CALL, THE EYE, FUNNY GAMES, and SHUTTER). All three of the American remakes are from films in the '80s when horror films were at their most popular. Both PROM NIGHT and APRIL FOOL'S DAY (which went straight to DVD but should've been theatrical) were brainless slasher films that when viewed today really don't hold up to much so there is no surprise that they were up for the remake machine. Both are for the 13-18 teenage crowd in that there are lots of "boo" scares but no blood and the comedy is always on hand. The DAY OF THE DEAD remake (which also went straight to DVD) was the opposite as it retained the blood-drenched atmosphere of the original but appealed to modern day audiences that like their zombies fast and furious. The action is high and the kills are even higher. SISTERS is a grown up remake of the classic Brian DePalma film that was completely ignored by just about everyone but could have faired the best at the box office had it been given the chance. The America remakes are to hopefully bring old school horror to new school audiences who have never seen the originals nor ever plan on doing so.

In terms of Foreign remakes Asian cultures at at the forefront this year with the remakes of ONE MISSED CALL, THE EYE, and SHUTTER opening approximately a month inbetween each other. All are very similar ghost stories that when put in front of audiences delivered nothing of the originality of dread and mood of their counterparts. None of them ignited the box office. The controversial FUNNY GAMES didn't fare any better only being released on limited screens in a hand full of cities. Not even the star power of Naomi Watts and Tim Roth could overcome the pitfalls of marketing this controversial subject matter to mainstream audiences.

Remakes may have been the craze two years ago but this year no one seems interested anymore.

The big genre films of 2008 (or in terms of budget verses marketing) have been CLOVERFIELD, THE RUINS, and DOOMSDAY. The studio behind CLOVERFIELD got it right by producing a film with a small budget, no stars, and a novel creature in a film with a simple premise. The film was hyped over a year before its release and has one of the most interting marketing campaigns since THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT took the world by storm. With the exception of 2007 hold-over I AM LEGEND this is 2008's highest grossing genre film. The opposite can be said of the dismal performance of the post-apocalyptic DOOMSDAY, which in my opinion was way too much like 28 WEEKS LATER, ESCAPE FROM L.A., and George A. Romero's KNIGHTRIDERS to ever find an identity of its own. It also had an anti-climatic ending that just didn't work for me. These are just some of the reasons why this film never found its audience although I'm sure it will do so when it hits DVD. THE RUINS should've been the scariest film of the year. Based upon one of the best selling genre titles in recent years this film could have easily become as popular as THE EXORCIST; instead it's a film that starts off with a bang but ends on a whimper and never recovers.

The true gems of the year can be seen on the small screen/limited release of George A. Romero's DIARY OF THE DEAD, TEETH, THE SIGNAL, and PATHOLOGY. If there is one thing that all of these films have it is a strong script with both new and old directors at the helm. DIARY OF THE DEAD is Romero's fifth film in his ever expanding Dead films yet this film goes back to where the zombie plague started and updates it for modern audiences who are more savy with technology. This can also be said of the electronic nightmare of THE SIGNAL, another film with a strong direction by a group of relative unknowns. The comedy horror film of the year goes to TEETH which is just disturbing to all us men and bites us where it really hurts. PATHOLOGY works as a pychological horror film which a lot of grown ups tend to venture out for like last year's THE MIST. All in all some of the most interesting films of 2008 have been in limited release.

Now as anyone can tell you, for every one genre film released theatrically there are fifty (50) more being dumped on the DVD shelf (such as the before mentioned SISTERS, DAY OF THE DEAD, and APRIL FOOL'S DAY, so, finding one to watch can sometimes be a little difficult.

There are still many not mentioned here such as THE ORPHANAGE, INSIDE, THEM (ILS) - finally on our shores, NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE. Genre films have there ups and downs and many times the best ones are not of the big screen but on the small one and sometimes you just have to jump into the blood and see what's really inside.