If you’ve seen REC, you know this movie is truly scary. After Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez pioneered the Found Footage genre with ‘The Blair Witch Project,’ the 2007 Spanish film did not get overshadowed and delivered one of the most terrifying and claustrophobic films in the history of horror cinema.
REC tells the story of Ángela Vidal and her cameraman Pablo, a duo of journalists who produce a morning show in Barcelona, titled “While You Sleep.”
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What initially started as a simple report on the firefighters turns into a catastrophe: soon, the entire building is sealed off by the local police and the army, as one of the tenants has been infected by a terrible disease that turns humans into soulless cannibals.
Directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, this film not only knows how to generate fear; it also creates anxiety for the protagonists, who, besides being scared, seem to have no escape.
Is the REC movie a Real Story?
Although REC seems very real due to it’s raw footage, the footage was very well-planned by Paco Plaza and Jaume Balagueró.
“[REC] turned the found footage film into a commentary on Spanish tabloid television, its vapid journalistic presentation and the public’s appetite for scandal.” Shelagh M. Rowan-Legg.
According to Intellect Discover, although found footage as aesthetic expression was common in documentary and avant-garde cinema, it was not until the end of the 1990s that it was adapted for use in the horror film.
This means that, of course, our brains process the reception of images differently, and the closeness and format, especially at the time the movie was released, made it a perfect formula that barely touches the limits of what is real and what is false.
However, despite being planned, it was still a difficult task of spontaneity, even for the actors. According to Jaume Balagueró in an interview with GARA magazine, the actors had to “react at all times,” so that “even if the camera was filming on the upper floor, those below kept acting because the camera could come back at any moment.”
This required the actors not only to deliver a constant performance but also to create what they themselves described as a “living movie” accompanied by a theatrical sensation.
One of the actors, Ferrán Terraza, mentioned that all the actors had to be completely focused to react to what was happening despite not having the complete script.
Take a look at the essay of one of the scariest scenes in the film:
“Verónica”, on the other hand, is inspired by a real story and was directed by one of the directors, Paco Plaza. This Spanish horror film is inspired by the unsolved mystery of Estefanía Gutiérrez Lázaro, a girl who died after performing a seance at a school in Madrid. According to three officers and the Chief Inspector of the National Police, the men witnessed an armoire door opening on its own and, in the scene, “a crucified Jesus separated from his cross and a large, brown stain, attributed to drool.”
So now you know! Even though the footage might not be real images, the movie is so well made that it will make you forget for a moment that you are in your home and transport you to the REC building.
Synopsis
Every night, Ángela (Manuela Velasco), a young reporter for a local television station, follows a different professional group with her camera. Tonight, she is set to interview firefighters and secretly hopes to witness a dramatic fire live. But the night goes by quietly. When they finally receive a call from an elderly woman who has locked herself in her home, she has no choice but to follow them during the rescue mission. In the building where the elderly woman lives, the neighbors are very frightened. The woman, locked in her apartment, screams out in a harrowing manner. This is only the beginning of a long nightmare and a dramatic report unique in the world.
