Terrorvision
Ruthless, terrifying and 18 rated, REC is an adult horror movie with scenes so nightmarish the faint-hearted should leave their sanity at the door. It's also a fine example of camcorder horror, a growing trend of mockumentary fright flicks where those behind the camera get swept up in an unexpected wave of terror.
Typical isn't it? You wait years for a worthy follow-up to the "caught-on-camera" menace of The Blair Witch Project and then three come along at once.
Cloverfield, George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead, and [REC] capture the panic of Blair Witch and prove camcorder horror has more mileage than the 'gore-nography' wave, which pretty much came and went with Hostel.
In fact, camcorder horror is just the latest mutation of the 'Point of View' shot; horror cinema's bread and butter for decades. The POV shot was frequently used to disguise the killer's identity, or when movies didn't have the budget to show the monster.
But, smarter filmmakers realised there was more meat to feast on with the POV shot and audiences' pleasure in watching violent movies. For example, Michael Powell's Peeping Tom presented the camera as murder weapon by way of a spiked tripod leg the killer used to slay victims while recording their final moments.
Critics at the time weren't prepared to adopt a killer's gaze and destroyed Powell's career.
Peeping Tom was about snuff movies, and for decades mockumentaries (or "shockumentaries, i.e. movies presented as raw footage) followed its template, two classic examples being the notorious Cannibal Holocaust (over 5 minutes of BBFC cuts) or Belgium's Man Bites Dog, in which a film crew following a hitman become killers themselves.
As videocameras grew in popularity throughout the 1980s, video snuff movies began cropping up in horror movies, including Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Michael Haneke's Benny's Video, and late example My Little Eye.
These movies took sly shots at the supposed bad influence of videos, but camcorder horror takes aim at the current celebrity-chasing-instant-moviestar-You-Tube-age.
The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, Diary of the Dead and [REC] are apocalyptic horror movies, but characters at times seem more concerned with getting the money shot (sea monster, living dead, rabid granny) than their own well-being.
The revolution may well be televised, but the end of the world will certainly be uploaded - much to the chagrin of some corporation somewhere for whom the camcorder has become the deadliest bogeyman.
Current camcorder horror takes its cue from Blair Witch, with everything shot from the victim's POV rather than the predator's, a sign the times are a changing.
In slasher movies such as Black Christmas, Halloween, or Friday the 13th, the POV shot was always the killer's, conveying the victim's fear by seeing (invariably) her at all times, but now the POV shot has become synonymous with camcorders, camera phones, CCTV, i.e. every day life.
Camcorder horror is also an effective (and cheap) way to breathe new life into familiar ideas - Cloverfield is Godzilla, Diary of the Dead is the zombie schtick Romero has been doing for forty years and [REC] is 28 Days Later in Spanish and a single apartment block.
But, Cloverfield's big budget special effects caught on grainy HandyCam and Diary of the Dead's inventive use of uploaded internet footage to expand the story beyond its budget demonstrate how movies are mutating to embrace new technology.
[REC] - Hollywood remake due out late 2008 - is one of few examples where the filmmakers use the restrictions of low budget cameras to terrifying effect.
A TV reporter and cameraman follow a fire crew into an apartment building where a disturbance has been reported. It transpires a rabies-like infection is spreading amongst tenants, the government quarantines the building and the reporter and cameraman must fight for survival.
Whereas Cloverfield and particularly Diary of the Dead sometimes look too slick for a caught-on-camera mockumentary, [REC] makes full use of shots slipping out of focus or losing light at the worst moments for maximum sweaty palm effect.
The final forty minutes may be the most trouser-fillingly petrifying you see all year, teasing audiences with glimpses of the ferocious tenants, but often keeping them literally in the dark with shaky camerawork and a failing lightbulb.
Check out the trailer for a taste of the terror to come, and when the beasties/zombies/infected come knocking on your door remember to have a shotgun in one hand - and a rolling DV Cam in the other.
Rob Daniel
