[REC]

Though it admittedly takes a while to get going, [REC] ultimately establishes itself as the most effective first-person horror effort since The Blair Witch Project – as the film boasts a number of brutal and unexpectedly creepy interludes that instantly set it apart from its stylistically-similar yet thoroughly inferior brethren (ie Diary of the Dead, Cloverfield, etc). Manuela Velasco stars as Angela, a perky television reporter who finds herself embroiled in an increasingly horrific situation after accompanying several firefighters to a seemingly routine call within an urban apartment building. As anticipated, [REC]‘s rough-and-tumble visuals take an awfully long time to get used to – with many of the film’s early scenes rendered almost unintelligible thanks to the relentlessly unsteady modus operandi. Yet there’s little doubt that such concerns become moot after a certain point, as filmmakers Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza infuse the movie’s second half with an exhilaratingly fast-paced sensibility that’s as compelling and flat-out immersive as one might’ve hoped. The progressively ominous vibe is heightened by the propulsive nature of Balagueró, Plaza, and Luis Berdejo’s screenplay, which packs in one impressively brutal set-piece after another – leading up to, of course, an incredibly effective finale that persists within the viewer’s psyche long after the end credits have rolled (ie that creature that pops up towards the conclusion is the stuff nightmares are made of). The intriguing mystery surrounding the cause of the chaos only cements the film’s place as a distinctly engaging creeper, and one can only hope that the upcoming English-language remake will be able to retain even a fraction of [REC]‘s more overtly positive attributes.

***1/2 out of ****