Review: REC 3 – Genesis

Weddings. For the happy couple they are something to cherish and look back on with happiness and love forever.

For guests they can be the best chance to meet a future life partner, get wasted on free booze and eat good food. For parents they are expensive and stressful but hopefully something that in the end they will enjoy. What they should not be, however, is a chance for the blood hungry infected to thrash the event and try and devour the bride and groom.

In 2007 co-directors Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza gave us REC, their horror film shot in first person. REC 2 was released in 2009, and now, in 2012, we have REC 3. The film is due to be released in the UK in October, but we can reveal all the gory details right now…

Director Paco Plaza returns with this parallel sequel which is set during and between the events of the first two films, while co-director Balaguero has shot REC 4: Apocalypse which will be released next year. REC 3 is set during the wedding and reception party of Koldo (Diego Martin) and Clara (Leticia Dolera) where all their friends and family are in attendance. The whole event is being shot by professional cameraman Atun (Borja Santaolalla) with Koldo’s cousin Adrian (Alex Monner) helping out as well. Adrian sees his uncle early on with a bandage on his hand and asks what’s up and is told that he was bitten by a dog and not to worry.

The wedding goes without a hitch, but later on we see the uncle sitting on the edge of a balcony above the dance floor swaying as if drunk, but when he falls you know that things will never be the same again.

Any fan of this franchise already will not be disappointed with the latest instalment, and the idea to set it at a wedding to again make use of the found footage idea is genius; action cuts between Atun’s HD film quality camera, Adrian’s decent camcorder and even using the hotel’s CCTV. Even guests’ phone cameras footage is used helps crank up the suspense and horror.

While the plot is paper thin it works perfectly, following Koldo and Clara throughout, but spending enough time at the start to get to know a few supporting characters so that the audience feels involved with them and what occurs to them. Without spoiling anything for REC fans this film advances the series’ mythology and even manages to clarify a few questions that you may have asked yourselves in the past.

The camerawork here ranges from excellent to barf-inducing and the fact that we are not dealing with shambling zombies but infected humans who can run, reason, climb and then tear your limb from limb means this creates true horror for our characters and the audience.

The two leads are brilliant and you root for them throughout the film especially Dolera as Clara who goes through a massive transformation that has to be seen to be believed.

See this if you’re a fan of the first two films or even if you’re not, as this story can stand alone but will also whet your appetite for the final chapter due here next year.

Now if only Danny Boyle would stop pissing around with the Olympics and get around to shepherding 28 Months later onto the screen.