Why I looove the [REC] films....

Right about now, it is all about [REC] and more importantly, [REC]:Genesis. I watched this last week and absolutely LOVED it!!! So, I thought I had to share my thoughts and tell you lovely people just what thought....

" [REC] 3: Genesis is the third and penultimate entry in the [REC] franchise and begins prior to events in the first film before then running parallel alongside the original movie. Fans will recall that [REC] 1 and 2 were entirely focused around an apartment building in Spain where an "infection" had occurred that turned everyone inside into zombies. [REC] 3 looks at what happened elsewhere around the same time as the "infection" attempts to spread in another part of the country.

[REC]: Genesis is set entirely around the wedding of Koldo and Clara; two childhood sweethearts who have finally decided to tie the knot. The film begins like a traditional Wedding video with shots of the happy couple as they were growing up and video footage of all the preamble that leads up to the ceremony. Much like with Cloverfield, all this takes about 20 minutes as we are slowly introduced to the principle characters and learn a bit about them and their lives. Things all start to go a bit sour however, when it comes to the evening Reception...

A distant relative of the groom, Koldo's Uncle in fact, is a Vet who has been bitten by a dog. The same dog that bit the little girl in the apartment building from the first film. At first he seems alright, a little distant perhaps but fine, but by the evening, he has started to lose colour and is swaying as though drunk. In the middle of the Reception, the Uncle falls from a balcony to land on the dance floor. Standing up, he begins spraying the guests with blood. Suddenly the whole ballroom erupts as guests turn upon each other and begin attacking each other. Panic ensues and Koldo and Clara become separated.....
And that is the main focus of the film. Can the happy couple, split up in what looks to be the worst day of their lives, manage to reunite? Will either of them survive until the final reel? Can eternal love really triumph when faced with insurmountable odds?

[REC] 3 is an awesome, awesome film and probably one of the best entries in the series so far but has not been received without a bit of criticism. This is for two reasons: firstly that it is a more humorous affair than either of the first two offerings with much dark humour in an Evil Dead 2 kind of style. And secondly, because, about a third of the way through, the film abandons the Camcorder style of the first two films when the Groom smashes the video camera being used to film events. From this moment on, the rest of the film pretty much watches like a traditional horror flick and for some diehard fans, they see this as breaking the established rules of the [REC] series!

I think this is a little unfair and, as one reviewer has said, if this was an independant film outside of the [REC] series then it would probably have gotten a better response! I think the different camera technique and the humour both lend a different feel to this film, making it stand out as not just another [REC] movie but allowing it to stand on its own merits! I also think a bit of humour is very welcome seeing as how the final chapter [REC]:Apocalypse looks like returning to the dark, gritty nature of the first two films as the "infection" begins to spread outside the original apartment building and escapes the quarantined zone!

I loved this, watched it a week ago, and am already planning to watch it again! It is gruesome, horrible and very nasty in places but there a couple of great twists and, along the way, is very, very funny! There are some real comedy moments here ("Sponge Bob!" "Actually, for legal reasons I cannot be called 'Sponge Bob', I must be referred to as John Sponge...it's complicated") that break up the darkness and provide some much needed humour but there is also a lot of nastiness as you might come to expect from this series. It's not giving anything away, as you can see from the cover, that I can tell you that, at one stage, the Bride even ends up wielding a chainsaw! Don't mess with a Bride on her special day......

Can I recommend this? Hell, if you don't have this in your life you are seriously missing out! The DVD comes with two hours of extra features and this includes a making of the film, deleted scenes (that don't really amount to much) and a few extra bits and bobs and can be picked up at Asda for £10 right now which is a bargain!

This film just proves once again that the [REC] series is, without doubt, the best horror franchise of all time and simply is amazing, awesome and absolutely brilliant. Can I gush about this any more....probably not, but this is one of those films that just makes you want to shout about it. Foreign language horror cinema has NEVER EVER  been better than now...


As an aside, I think I have been suffering from too much Zombie exposure right now.....I keep having Zombie dreams. In one, my house was being attacked and I was trying to fend them off by blocking their way up the stairs while me, Vicky and Emilie tried to escape into the loft. After watching [REC] Genesis, I dreamt that one was trying to bite me so I forced my leather-clad arm into its mouth whilst I thrust my thumb deep into its eye trying to reach its brain! Both times, I have woken up in the early hours thinking I need a better strategy for when or if this ever happened! It's a good job I know better in the daylight hours that the Zombie Apocalypse is unlikely ever to happen...

Adding to the list.....

  The next films to find a place on my 1001 Movies To See Before You Die list are, as follows: (5) HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN, (6) THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX and (7) THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE having just watched them all in the space of 1 week in time for the release of THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2 (the final ever Harry Potter) which is coming out in just a few months!

Why include these particular films in the series and not those I have missed out? Well, the reason is because, quite simply, I feel these are the better of the later films and the ones I have enjoyed the most. And this list is, first and foremost, a personal choice and I am not going to include movies that don't, for whatever reason, quite make the grade!

For me personally, DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 just feels like an overlong prelude to the inevitable final battle and though I enjoyed it, I preferred the other films that made the list better; GOBLET OF FIRE just feels like it is reverting back a little to the earlier films with its emphasis on the Tri-Wizards Competition and it is only the last act that really redeems the film for me; and CHAMBER OF SECRETS just feels a little to similar in style to the first film and so slightly loses its own identity! Again, these are just personal observations and I would welcome quite gladly anybody else's thoughts or opinions!

Meanwhile, a new addition at (25) to my 1001 Books And Authors list is THE ROSARY GIRLS BY RICHARD MONTANARI. This is an awesome start to an ongoing Detective/ Police Procedural series that shows plenty of echoes of the better of Michael Slade's Special X books mixed with shades of Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels! This first book deals with a killer of Catholic schoolgirls and is a very strong first novel in the series which is why it goes on the list!

With that in mind, for me number (26) then has to be THE CHEMISTRY OF DEATH BY SIMON BECKETT; another cracking debut Crime thriller all about a Forensic Scientist who chooses to go back to being a General Practitioner in a small Norfolk village after a personal tragedy that leaves him bereft of his wife and child. Unfortunately, he finds his past catching up with him when he discovers a dead body in the woods and realises a killer is living amongst the locals and only his expertise can help catch them! This is the first of three novels but of them, it is also the best! The Scientific Forensic knowledge is thoroughly detailed and often quite grisly but it makes for a very compelling read!

More 1001 movies.....

Film number (3) in my 1001 movies to watch before you die is HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHERS STONE which I watched again last night for the first time in ages, in preparation for the final movie out later this year! 

Harry Potter discovers that he is a wizard when he is invited to attend Hogwarts School Of Magic but soon realises his fate is tied in with a much bigger destiny when he learns that his parents were killed by an evil necromancer named Voldemort. PHILOSOPHERS STONE sets the scene for the rest of the series and follows Harry in his first year at Hogwarts and is, quite simply, a beautifully shot children's movie. Some of the set pieces, including a life-size chess board that comes to life and a three-headed dog, are simply sublime and the film is full of action and adventure the whole way through! Big stars such as Robbie Coltrane, Richard Harris and Alan Rickman all have cameo appearancesand everything about the film is just wonderful. I enjoyed watching this again last night much more than I thought I would and can't wait to re-watch the next film in the series, CHAMBER OF SECRETS, so that I can carry on with the story!

Number (4) on my list just has to be ICE AGE, another cracking children's movie ~ this one animated and based around an unlikely group of friends who join together to try and beat the oncoming ice age and help return a small human child to his neanderthal family. The film introduces to us a truly wonderful set of characters from Sid the Sloth through to Manny the Mammoth and Diego the Sabre Tooth Tiger. But of course the star of the film just has to be Scrat!! A kind of prehistoric squirrel-type-creature, Scrat is obsessed with burying his acorn and keeping it safe but when his first attempts end in disaster, he ends up spending the rest of the movie chasing it around trying to get it back! These comedic scenes wonderfully interact amongst the main storyline to create a seamlessly brilliant movie that is just hilarious to watch no matter how many times you have seen it!

This has just got to be one of the best animated features ever made and always cracks me up every time I see it! Two sequels so far have followed and, I am reliably informed, a fourth film is coming out next year!

Personally, I cannot wait.......

1001 movies to see before you die.....

Okay, so watched CLOVERFIELD again tonight for like the third or fourth time and decided it was high time I started something I have had in the back of my head for a while now.....okay, okay I know I am a bit behind with my 1001 Books And Authors To Read Before You Die list but this should be much simpler as many of the movies on my list I won't need to re-watch to know if they should really be there and we should get through this list a hell of a lot quicker!

Number (1) has to be of course CLOVERFIELD; a modern monster movie for today's generation!

Shot in a Blair Witch shaky camera style, the movie follows a group of friends attending a party for their pal, Rob, who is going to work in Japan. The first twenty minutes or so (of this 75 min movie) are fairly slow, setting up the characters as one of the friends, Hug, films testimonials from some of the guests and attempts to document the party. Then there is a massive tremor and all the lights go out!

Heading to the roof, the guests witness several kinds of explosions going on in the Manhattan area where they are situated. When shrapnel and debris starts hitting the roof, the guests panic and all descend to street level...where all manner of Hell is busting loose!! Suddenly something huge comes bouncing through the streets causing widespread devastation everywhere it hits.....and it is not until several seconds later, as the camera pans round, that you realise that this is the head of the Statue Of Liberty! What follows is a tense and action-packed sequence of events as Rob and his friends attempt to get across the city to Midtown where his girlfriend, Beth, is trapped! It is a nightmare journey and, with Hug filming, we get to go with the friends every step of the way.....

I love everything about this film; the authentic camera work, the action, the way you never really get to see the monster in proper close-up! It is a proper modern-day classic piece of cinema and though there are those who absolutely hate it, I think it is one of my two favourite horror movies of all-time!!

So, what is number (2) ? Well it simply has to be {REC}; a Spanish film about a television journalist and her camera man who are following a Fire Engine around for a late-night documentary. Called out to an Apartment building where an old lady has been trapped, the pair first get an inkling something is wrong when the old lady attacks the Firemen and a local Police Officer when they go to her aid. Pretty soon, the whole building has been sealed off and no one is allowed in or out. Quickly it becomes apparent that there has been an outbreak of some kind of deadly infection.....and it is starting to spread!! The reporter and her camera man are trapped....and so are the rest of the inhabitants! Their only chance of survival ~ trying to find somewhere to hide!!!

Rec is another short movie filmed in the shaky camera style of Blair Witch. though it is slightly less than Cloverfield because, here, the camera man is supposed to be a professional. Much of it is shot in the dark and it has subtitles but don't let that put you off as this is a nasty, nasty, NASTY film that left my heart racing the first time I watched it! It wasn't so much that I was scared as it was the Adrenaline rushing through me when I watched this but one thing is certain, it is a long time since a film did that to me!!! Like Cloverfield again, it is a relentless roller-coaster ride and definitely one of the greatest horrors of all time! I cannot praise {REC} enough!

There is a sequel, that goes into more detail about the infection and, although still good, does not quite match up to the terror of the original because you have more of an idea what is going on second time around. There is also two other films due ({REC} GENESIS and {REC} APOCALIPSIS) due to be released that will tie off the story. I look forward to them with baited breath because {REC} remains one of the scariest movies I have ever seen!