Film Recommendation of the Week...

Halloween is right around the corner, so here are two films that should be good for the occasion.

1) REC
Release date November 27, 2007 (Spain).
Spanish w/english subtitles.
Running time 1 hour 15 minutes.




Filmed in a pseudo-documentary style, complete with the annoying hand-held camera jitter, this movie follows a film crew on the night shift with the Barcelona Fire Department.

They answer a call at an apartment building that gets mysteriously sealed off-no one can get in or out by order of the police. The residents and the rescue workers are trapped as they fight for their lives against people who have become infected with some sort of virus and are attacking those who are healthy.

This is one of the creepier and scarier endings you'll see from a horror movie. Very well done.

This film never had an American release date in theatres-it went straight to video in the US. The producers sold the idea to a Hollywood company who made their own version called "Quarantine". This version is better. The American version failed to capture the essence of the original, the chica is cuter and not as annoying, and the American remake was a basically copied word for word. So spare yourself and check out the original. I know some people don't like reading subtitles, but you'll be able to deal with it even if you're special ed.

And if you couldn't get enough of the first one...

2) REC 2
Release Date October 2, 2009 (Spain).
Spanish w/english subtitles.
Running time currently n/a.




In this film, a Barcelona S.W.A.T. team, a medical expert and a camera crew are sent into the quarantined building to see what's going on and to ascertain what could of caused the outbreak of the virus. They are met by the rescue workers originally sent in left trapped inside, who are now infected themselves.

I cannot sit here and write a comparison between the two because I'm not a film critic. But I got to see it and enjoyed it very much. Definitely a sequel worthy of it's status. It debuted at the Toronto Film Festival on this side of the pond, and I'm hoping an American remake will not subjugate it to DVD status if it's released here in the States like the first one. That would suck.