[Rec] (2007)

October Challenge Day 12:

Received news today that a massive (record breaking) storm is headed right my way, scheduled to arrive tomorrow afternoon and last until next Tuesday.

This is bad, mmmmkay.

Decided to get started with my hunkering down by hunkering down to a horror film that has long been on my recommended list and I've seen topping many a horror fan's list: the 2007 Spanish found footage film, [Rec].

I've been avoiding this film for a while because I think I have a problem with brackets .... No, seriously, I've not been super excited for this film because I've seen some trailers and the shaking cam is serious SHAKY CAM.

But, the movie is due back to the video store soon and since I'd rather not walk to the store through the middle of a storm, I decided it was now or never.

We did not get along well at first, [Rec] and I. First the subtitles in my video copy were, how should I say this, f**king terrible. Subtitles would appear once, every other minute or so and would only included a few words. This is a dialog heavy film. I tried fiddling with the settings - nothing changed, that is until I reset my television to include subtitles and quit them from the DVD itself. By that time I was more angry that I never learned a second language in school than I was at the DVD, but we'll talk about our school systems another time ...

As I was trying to suss out if the terrible subtitles were a part of the movie experience or not, I finally read the movie synopsis on the DVD case which started with: "A beautiful TV reporter ..."

What in the holy hell do her looks have to do with a movie about being trapped in an apartment complex with monsters?!?! To who ever wrote this synopsis: get out.

I was about to toss this movie out the window - until I saw how many awards it's received and I figured out how to program my TV for DVD subtitles...

We got off to a bad start, this film and I. This bad start continued to unimpressed me until the last half hour of the film. Turns out that being nearly 10 years behind on this particular monster feature did not age it well for me. I was nonplussed by most of it - until the last half hour.

The last half hour was impressive, little classic horror cheeky, but very well done.

I would recommend this film to horror fans who are just now getting into the genre. Well seasoned horror fans who are just now plucking this one off the video store shelf may not find it as innovative (any more). That said, the ending .... the ending was very well done no matter what your horror 'expertise'.

Pairs with saltine crackers, drip bags, and maybe a crinkled bottle of water or two. You might want to see this with a couple friends.

I rented this movie from my local video store (Rain City Video). Use the links under Find It. Watch It. on Horror Habit's sidebar to see where else you can find this dark, and very uncomfortable feature.