REC 2 Review

Written by: MistressOf Horror   

I am a huge fan of [REC]. It was one of the best suspensful horror films I had seen in a very long time. With the way the first film ended it was really no surprise that there was going to be a [REC] 2. What pleased me about a sequel was the idea that the original filmmakers Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza were going to give us more scares.

Did they succeed ? Yes. The scares were there. the only thing lacking was the original shocks and surprises ( in story lines , but nothing else )
[REC] 2 picks up literally 15 minutes after the end of the previous film, with a SWAT team being sent in to the apartment building to find out what happened when the virus first broke out (which we saw in the first movie). This gives the story a real sense of continuality a lot of sequels will jump forward in time or find a way to revisit the past in a terrible way.ot so with this film.
One of the nifty new additions to [REC] 2 is the way we are allowed to see the events from several different perspectives. At first we follow the SWAT team who conveniently enough have cameras on their helmets to record the evidence , then we change to the perspective of a group of kids who were causing trouble and managed to find themselves trapped in the building (they also have a camera). I could go on but I wont spoil the rest for you

The movie had the same clausterphobic trapped feel of the first film. the building of atmosphere and the expertly judged jump-scares. By the way the director of this movie has fine tuned the art of jump scares ! bravo.

I can say the only flaw of [REC] 2 was that it had too many scenes that attempt to explain just what the mysterious virus is. Although a sequel is ripe territory to give us more information about what is going on, there were a few too many scenes of characters standing around shouting at the expert who has been sent in with the SWAT team, demanding to know what the virus is. I just felt like more could have been left up to the viewer to figure out, as the first one did.

 Also this film is gorier, with more up-close-and-personal views of  the blood-spewing infected and splattered heads. Gore hounds rejoice. you will lovew this film.

Not to give anything away, but the film definitely sets things up for another sequel.