31 Days of Fright, Day 3: [REC]

Welcome to day 3 of 31 Days of Fright here at Road To The Movies! In today's episode, Gabe examines the philosophy of fake cinema while reviewing the Spanish horror mockumentary...

[REC]
2007
Rated R

I know you guys are probably getting tired of hearing us here at RTM whine about sequels and remakes and adaptations of previously published material. It’s anything but fresh. We’ve complained about it almost since our inception, but the sad fact is that if it hadn’t been for Hollywood’s mad scramble to capitalize on the originality and success of others, most of us would never have heard of some genuinely brilliant movies.

For those of you who don’t know (and, on the internet at least, I’m guessing you’re in the minority), [REC] is the Spanish horror mockumentary that 2008’s Quarantine was based on. For the record, I’ve never heard Quarantine cited as the superior film, but I’m not here to criticize it, as I still haven’t seen it. After seeing [REC] I sort of want to, if only to see whether or not it was worth the effort of remaking. Actually, I guess I could just look at its box office numbers for the answer to that one. Studios aren’t exactly notorious for an overabundance of creative integrity. But I digress.

I first heard about [REC] from my brother. He read about it on a list of the greatest horror movies with the worst remakes. Again, I’m not here to criticize Quarantine, as I try to refrain – whenever possible – from criticizing films I haven’t actually seen. Maybe that’s why I can’t support politicians, but again, I digress. What I’m really trying to say – in a very backhanded way – is thank you, Hollywood. Thank you for remaking [REC], because if you hadn’t, I might never have heard of this genuinely great piece of horror cinema.

I’m simultaneously very easy and very difficult to surprise. I’m easy, in that I go into every movie wanting to be surprised. I’m difficult, in that I go in having seen literally thousands of movies already, so the odds that this is going to be something different are incredibly low. [REC] really surprised me.

Sure, there are twists in this movie you see coming from a mile away, but those aren’t where the surprises lay. The real surprises were small, hiding in plain sight then leaping out so fast you don’t even have a chance to utter a surprised yelp before they’ve got you between their teeth. As jaded as I am at this point, that’s no mean feat. And I’m not talking about "John Carpenter’s cat" type of surprises here. I’m talking about meaningful jolts that actually matter within the context of the story, things that genuinely affect these characters’ lives and drive the story forward. Yes, they’re small moments, but it’s when filmmakers ignore the small moments of the story in favor of the Big Scene that we begin to sink into the Emmerichian realms of Hollywood hackery at its worst. Explosions and body counts are easy. Real, personal horror is hard.

Now, a word about mockumentaries.

For some reason there is a tendency these days to sneer when a movie gets compared to The Blair Witch Project. I don’t understand this at all. I loved The Blair Witch Project when I first saw it in theaters, and I love it to this day. More than that, though, I love the mockumentary (or “found footage”, if you’re pretentious) style of filmmaking. I know it’s considered tired and overused by film snobs, but I just can't not love it. Name a mockumentary out there and see if I don’t love it.

What can kill a mockumentary, though, is over-editing. This is more prevalent on TV mockumentaries like The Office and Parks & Recreation, but isn’t exclusive to them (I’m lookin’ at you, Chris Guest & Co.). Mockumentary filmmakers will often do several different takes of a scene, then splice them together in ways that leave you asking, “Just how many cameras are they supposed to have had in that room?” The worst is reverse angles, where they shoot a scene from one side, then shoot it from the other, and you can see where the cameras would need to have been to get the shots, but – surprise, surprise – the cameras aren't there. It’s a mistake unique to the format, it’s easy to make, and it accomplishes what is arguably the antithesis of good filmmaking – to turn on the lights and remind the audience that they’re watching a movie.

[REC] is as close to flawless on this point as mockumentaries usually get. I noticed maybe 2 shots (and believe me, I was watching for them) that felt unnatural and broke the feel of it all having played out as presented. Even Spinal Tap – the Holy Grail of mockumentaries – has a higher count than that. [REC]’s execution is truly masterful, and the filmmakers do a great job of creating an immersive experience and then not breaking it.

It isn’t perfect, but I cannot think of a better horror film I’ve seen this year. There have been a few that I’d say are equal, but nothing to surpass it. It sort of depresses me to start out a solid month of horror with a movie this good, because – knowing horror like I do – the odds are that it’s all downhill from here.

9/10

-GABE


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