[REC] 4: Apocalipsis

(TIFF'14 Intro) The film premiered as part of the midnight madness lineup. Jaume Balagueró and Manuela Velasco introduced the movie. Velasco announced that this would be her first time watching the movie as well. Balagueró thanked a bunch of people involved and restated that this is the final movie in the series, and effectively ends the story.

(Review) I'm a huge fan of the first two Rec movies. The first one is widely considered a genre buster, invigorating the hand-held found footage genre. The second one managed to build on the original, while delivering some truly intense moments and hitting all the high marks. They were intelligent, smart films, a rarity in horror movies. However, Rec 3 was a truly awful mess and thankfully not really canon (you can pretend it never happened). While directors Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza collaborated on both Rec 1 and 2, they decided to split up directorial duties among the last two films. After sitting through a painful viewing of Plaza's Rec 3, I could only conclude that the talent and potential gleamed in the first two films must lay with Balagueró. With that in mind, I had pretty high expectations for Rec 4.

The movie opens (seemingly) moments after the end of Rec 2. The apartment building returns to set up the script before the film shifts to the interior of a cramped oil tanker, with hardly any transition. It is by doing this that Balagueró masterfully switches out one claustrophobic stage for another, without ever giving the audience a moment of relief, or the characters, any reprieve. After a slow-burn first act, the action kicks into high gear as we are told the hope for saving, or destroying the virus lies on that oil bunker. Balagueró is a true horror movie buff, and Rec 4 is littered with references from all over the genre: movies (Aliens, RE, Deep Impact) and games (RE Revelations). Speaking of the horror movie elements, the zombie/demons look and sound more authentic than ever. And as for the new entry in the enemy roster, well, it might seem a little gimmicky but it works and Balagueró has a lot of fun with it (Everybody cheered as Angela Vidal screamed M******!). I'm not sure if this would be the goriest entry in the franchise, but it certainly delivered in that department, especially once the final act kicks in, which is, more or less, an intense bloodbath in true Rec style: Never letting up until the end, yet sprinkling the final act with small moments of black comedy. The most pleasant surprise were the characters. Fleshing out characters is hardly a priority in most horror scripts, but Rec 4 surprised me by turning the tables on usual stereotypical characters, and by the end, I was rooting for the unlikeliest of them. And I loved that about this movie. The whole thing is propelled forward by an amazing score and excellent sound work.

The bad? Balagueró has to work with narrow halls and almost no corners (sadly he could not construct the hallways around his shots like James Wan did for The Conjuring) and as such, the shots are tight and cramped. I was onboard with the directors' decision to move past hand-held, but that does not seem to have helped with shakycam. And while the movie captures some moments of pure intense action and manages to outdo Rec 3 in every way possible, it does not twist the genre like the first two films did, nor will it blow you out of the water.

In the end, Rec 4 is a satisfying, gory, visceral and intense conclusion to a great and (mostly) unique series. While the first two movies were made with the aim of creating genre-busters, Rec 4 is made for the fans who've followed the series, and Angela Vidal from the start. And you will not be disappointed.

I really lost hope after i saw Rec 3 !!! A wedding !! a Bride who does a karate Moves :P

But thank god Rec is Back to the Story of "Ángela Vidal" and they connected the story to the first two movies ,,, amazing turn of events ..

The plot this time literally elevated to a new level ... Ohh and the ending is just another thing.

The scenes is so thrilling this time,, Jumped out of my seat a couple of times ;)

I still have no idea if there's another movie Rec 5 ;) but if there is ,they better make it connected and around the same story..

The Set is Genius.,. full of surprises and curves which were useful to make more frightening.. it's really amazed me though how you can do so much in such a small Set or location ..

So it must be also said the cinematography and the visual effects are Applaudable.

Although being better than REC 3, REC 4 Apocalypse still is a big letdown. Of course, a major part in this being a letdown is the fact that it's not shot with a hand-held camera which made the first two instalments so great. What's the point in calling it a REC movie when the hand-held camera is missing? Next to that this movie just felt like some kind of action movie. It doesn't have the creepy atmosphere that the first and second movies had. There is a lot of action going on, with a lot of gore, but the creepiness is nowhere to be found. There were a couple of promising scenes that could have been scary, but failed to do so because they weren't executed right. The plot and dialogue in REC 4 is pretty shallow and highly predictable. What made the first movie so great is that it was different, something new. It gave a good mysterious background about what the virus was, but they didn't do anything with it in the third and fourth movie, not even continue it. There are a couple of good things about this movie and one of them is Manuela Velasco. Her acting is good and she gives a convincing performance. The second thing are the zombies. They look amazing, just like in the first two movies which is a big plus. I was really stoked for this movie and after the bad reviews on REC 3 I hoped they would go back to their success formula, but they didn't. It just didn't deliver and it couldn't live up to the high expectations/standards REC 1 & 2 had created. It was good on some ends, but it just had to many flaws.

While the first REC was a very atmospheric, genuinely scary movie with some new genre elements added, especially in the way the action was captured, by now the REC series has slipped into the cliché trap.

This time around it's zombies on a boat. The director tries to emanate the claustrophobic feeling of a setting like the isolated camp in The Thing, but falls short.

The production is quite good for a horror movie, especially the acting stands out, but one can not help but feeling this is a cash machine franchise that has been milked too far by now. It's still a far better production than most straight to video horror flicks, but by now REC is not the captivating (low budget) horror sensation of the first movie, it's slightly better than run of the mill zombie movies.

Not essential and only if you are a big fan of the series.

This follow-up packs a sinister and horrifying atmosphere by means of shaky camera as well as the former Spanish films titled Rec 1 , 2 and 3 . Horror story plenty of suspense , restless terror and in thrilling style . The story starts with an elite squad of soldiers attempting to rescue to the young reporter Angela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) at a Barcelona apartment complex teeming with the victims of a demonic possession virus that has transformed them into vicious killers . After army doctor Guzman (Paco Manzanedo) and soldier Lucas rescue TV reporter Angela Vidal from the apartment building where occurred the viral outbreak and its immediate follow-up occurred , they all find themselves at sea on a ship that's been commandeered as a temporary quarantine . Then the action now takes place miles away from the original location and giving the film an entirely fresh yet disturbing new reality . As Angela Vidal manages to make it out alive , but what the soldiers don't know is that she carries the seed of the strange infection . She is to be taken to a provisional quarantine facility , a high-security installation where she will have to stay in isolation for several days . An old oil tanker, miles off shore and surrounded by water on all sides , has been especially equipped for the quarantine . As our starring Television reporter Ángela is rescued from the building and taken to an oil tanker commanded by Capitán Ortega (Mariano Venancio) to be examined by a medical team run by Dr Ricarte (Héctor Colomé) . However, it is unknown whether it is her who is carrying the seed of the mysterious demonic virus whose origin results to be the possessed girl (Tristana Medeiros is the only character to appear in all four films) who started the outbreak . But the infection has contaminated the tanker and events go wrong . Later on , the ship turns into a nightmare when horrific events take place as some of the crew start showing signs of a strange illness . Also aboard is a little-old-lady wedding guest (Maria Alfonso Rosso) who slept through the third film's massacre, and thus was the only person to survive it . As our protagonists find seamen have been possessed by strange demoniac forces . They are brutally attacked by psycho people ; they soon learn that people on the boat have been infected by something unknown .

This fast paced and entertaining fourth entry contains familiar faces behind and in front of the camera and with the ordinary living dead virus . Highly engrossing horror , this exciting movie contains noisy action , thrills , chills and loads of blood and gore . The film was well produced by Julio Fernandez and Castelao Pictures, and co-written by Balaguero and Manu Diez . This is the only installment of the franchise that is not filmed as found footage at all and it took 8 months to film and only 3 to edit . Picking up where the first sequel ended — with a desultory nod to "Rec 3's" underwhelming wedding-party digression — this supposedly final though none-too-conclusive chapter . This sequel to one of the highest earning horror movies of the last years titled ¨Rec¨ is realized in similar premise to original and displays a good cast such as Manuela Velasco , Paco Manzanedo , Mariano Venancio and special mention for recently deceased Héctor Colomé as Dr. Ricarte . And Maria Alfonso Rosso as the elderly woman on the ship is a survivor of the Rec ³: Genesis (2012) wedding massacre , although she believes she is still attending the party . This stirring terror picture displays horrific scenes , drama , action, suspense, and results to be quite entertaining . The frightening as well as scary story begins well and grows more and more until a surprising finale . The horror moments are compactly made and fast moving . The origins of the demonic outbreak are explained in the graphic novel ¨Rec : Untold Stories¨ , released alongside "Génesis" in Europe . In a clever twist that draws together the plots of the first three movies, this fourth part of the saga also works as a decoder to uncover information hidden in the first two films . The movie is a great sequel as well as a parallel story to the events of ¨Rec¨ , as the writers provide a well-knit plot with mystery and horror, giving full rein to Jaume Balaguero natural talent for the terror genre .

Most of the film was shot on an actual oil rig ship , some of the sets had to be recreated from the ship at the studio in order to allow space to film and do stunts . Appropriate cinematography by Pablo Grosso , series's usual , and atmospheric musical score by Arnau Bataller fitted perfectly to action . The flick was nicely produced by the chairman of Filmax and Castelao Productions , Julio Fernandez who along with his brother Carlos Fernandez are two successful producers and experts on Horror genre , producers of hits as ¨The machinist¨ ,¨ Fragiles¨, ¨Darkness¨, and many others . The picture was professionally directed by Jaume Balaguero . Balaguero along with Paco Plaza are the main Spanish filmmakers expert on terror cinema , both of whom have realized the box-office big successes such as these ¨Rec 1¨ , ¨Rec 2¨, stumbling with third entry ¨Rec¨ 3 , but the original is far superior , it did good biz in territories already infected by the earlier fright flicks . It's an entertaining terror and sometimes graphically gory and turns out to be an acceptable attempt to cash in the Zombie sub-genre .