[REC]4 Apocalipse

(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.

It's a good go-ahead but a bad one. The film is about Angela's story after she escaped the building. The surprises inside the film obviously liked it. Especially the images shown from the 1st and 2nd movies were beautiful. It's really ridiculous in some parts of his fiction. The end result is the same as many virus-related films. Apart from the first one, I would say that three other films were definitely shot for money. The reason is that I think the concept of other films is more action oriented. If you do not watch movies other than the first REC.

⭐ 100/50

It is our belief that about ten years removed from the end of the franchise that the REC films will be considered horror classics that delivered from first entry until last. The first REC was released in 2007 and followed a television reporter and a cameraman as they accompanied emergency workers who were called to an apartment complex where a terrifying outbreak had been reported. Produced and shot in Spain, the film was interesting enough for Hollywood studios to remake the film with Jennifer Carpenter in 2008.

REC2 followed in 2009 and put a whole different slant on things. What we thought was an outbreak of a disease was brought into question. A possibility of demonic possession was introduced as a potential cause for the horror and this twist added multiple layers to an already engrossing story.

REC3 was an all-out blood fest. The setting was moved from the interior of a dark building to what was supposed to be a joyous wedding. As the wedding party fights for their survival, the red messy stuff covers the screen in an absolute gem of a whimsical horror film.

And as all good things come to an end, we have REC4 to close the books on the franchise. The setting is again changed for the third sequel. Our survivors are now fighting within the confines of an ocean liner where the zombie/rage-induced hordes. Manuela Velasco again plays Angela – the lone survivor of the REC2. It is her awakening on a high-security facility floating on the ocean that catapults the story.

Angela is able to team up with a small group of survivors and together they use just about every tool or weapon not nailed down on the ship to fight off the apocalypse and ensure their survival. Jaume Balagueró, who co-directed REC and REC 2 with Paco Plaza (Plaza directed REC 3 solo), returns to helm the fourth instalment of the saga and finish the series off with a spectacular and bloody bang.

There is a tremendous amount of fun to be had in REC4. The floating vessel is the perfect setting to induce a claustrophobic and seemingly hopeless feel. The kills in the REC series have gotten more and more flamboyantly violent in cartoonish escalation and REC4 has some kills that had our packed house audience clap and cheer in unison with its execution.

There are some interesting turns in the overall story arch some which are fun and others are almost groan inducing. The characters in REC4 are not as interesting as the other installments and once every character was trotted out, I was dead on in my assumption as to who would make it to the closing credits. Still, this is horror. Fans of the genre and the series are sure to find enough in REC 4 to make the experience enjoyable. The series never really lost steam from its opening in 2007 as it reinvented itself a few times along the journey. This journey is just bloody fun.

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The television reporter Ángela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) awakes in a ship and finds that she is locked in her cabin in quarantine. She escapes and stumbles with Guzmán (Paco Manzanedo), who rescued her from the apartment building in Spain. They discover that Dr. Ginard (Paco Obregón) and Dr. Ricarte (Héctor Colomé) are researching a cure for the lethal infection in the ship. Guzmán goes to the wheelhouse and he is introduced to Captain Ortega (Mariano Venancio) that is in his last voyage and radio operator and hacker Nic (Ismael Fritschi) that is trying to retrieve the footages in Ángela's camera. There is a blackout in the vessel and Dr. Ricarte discovers that someone released their guinea pig, an infected monkey where they would test an antidote. The monkey attacks the cook and most of the crew is infected by their lunch. Meanwhile Nic retrieves the footage from the camera and Dr. Ricarte sees the girl Tristana Medeiros transferring the worm-like virus to Angela that claims that is not infected. However Dr. Ricarte believes that Ángela is the hostage and patient zero and wants to extract the parasite from her belly to test the antidote. In the middle of the chaos on board, will the attempt work?

"(REC)4: Apocalipsis" is a decent conclusion of this franchise. The story returns to the genre of the first movie with Angela and the survivor from the wedding in the deceptive third movie and fortunately forgets the religious approach from the second movie. The problem now is a virus transmitted by a worm-like parasite that seeks the strongest hostage. The plot does not have surprise, is gore and entertains. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

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 .