Product Details

• Actors: Carlos Lasarte, Claudia Font, Javier Botet, Manuel Bronchud, Manuela Velasco
• Directors: Jaume Balaguero, Paco Plaza
• Format: Import, PAL, Widescreen
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 1
• Studio: Filmax
• Run Time: 75 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001EC9V58
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #115,463 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Spain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), Spanish ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), Spanish ( Dolby DTS 5.1 ), English ( Subtitles ), Spanish ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Commentary, Interactive Menu, Making Of, Scene Access, Teaser(s), Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: REC revolves around a television reporter, Ángela Vidal, and her cameraman, Pablo, who cover the night shift in one of Barcelona's local fire stations for the fictional documentary television series Mientras usted duerme ('As you sleep'). The firehouse receives a call from an apartment building about an old woman who is trapped in her house. When they arrive, two firemen and two members of the Barcelona municipal police break down the door, with Ángela and Pablo following behind recording. Events take a sudden twist for both the audience and the protagonists, as the old lady reveals herself to be extraordinarily aggressive... SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain, Fantasporto Awards, Goya Awards,

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Region One... Please!, September 18, 2008

By	silke (Gonzales, Louisiana) - See all my reviews

Forever hunting for a good horror flick, I was very pleased with this one.

To show my appreciation for having been able to watch a streaming copy online, I would be more than happy to order the DVD this instant, if only there was a region one release available.

I found the movie visually appealing, and the story kept me interested throughout. Really good movie; I gave it five stars.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid, but derivative, November 15, 2008

By	trashcanman (Hanford, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

"REC" is a Spanish horror film that follows the trend of films like Cloverfield and The Blair Witch Project by having the entire story told through the lens of a constantly-filming camera and throws in some of 28 Days Later's mad intensity to create a film that is annoyingly familiar in execution, but still a must-see. In less than a year, Hollywood has managed to bang out a remake titled Quarantine. What a disgrace. A copy of a copy of a copy. As usual, the reasons the film had to be remade for American audiences are twofold: most Americans are believed to be functionally illiterate and will therefore flee from the sight or even thought of subtitles, or they are bigots who will not pay to see a movie that isn't packed with pasty skin, blonde hair, and familiar overpaid faces. Do me a favor, America: PROVE THEM WRONG! Do not pay your hard-earned cash to see these useless, unimaginative, and inferior remakes; buy the real deal even if it means getting a region-free DVD player. Support true original horror regardless of nationality and quarantine crummy remakes.

Oh, right; I had a movie review going on here. Sorry about that. In "REC", a young, beautiful reporter hosting a late night show is doing a story about firefighters working the graveyard shift entitled "While You're Asleep". After a meet-and-greet and a few fluff segments our heroine Angela and her cameraman, Pablo, follow the firefighters on a routine call. They end up inside of an apartment building where a call was placed about a disturbance. They head upstairs to check it out and see an old woman standing motionless in the dark, her clothes bloodied. This sort of thing seldom ends well. After some doings transpire, the residents, firefighters, policemen, and reporter duo find that the building has been sealed off and is surrounded by police threatening deadly force. BNC (Biological, Nuclear, and Chemical) protocol is in effect on the entire building and nobody is getting out. Nobody seems to know what's going on. Then the killing starts.

"REC" is unoriginal on several levels; essentially a hodgepodge of concepts and techniques that have come before, but it is damned effective because it only steals the best. If you didn't like the style of "Cloverfield" or Diary of the Dead then you are unlikely to enjoy this either. In fact, the camera might be even shakier on this one. You'd think with a pro handling the camera, the picture would be more stable. While there is nothing approaching the deep, dark, cutting social statements of Romero's work, there is a little bit to chew on. While interviewing residents, Angela finds one man matter-of-factly rambling about his "Chinese" neighbors (they're Japanese) and their disgusting eating habits while essentially implying that they must be the root cause of the rumored infection. This is so very true to life it almost hurts. Blaming the foreigners never gets old no matter what country you live in. A very nice touch. As the story unfolds and the characters start to unravel, the pace of the film picks up substantially. The result is several minutes of pure chaos. The mystery infection can take minutes, hours, or days to manifest symptoms, making everybody in the building a liability. Talk about tension.

While the pacing is a bit slow at times, there are some amazing scenes. Before I saw "REC", there had been only three children in cinema history that truly frightened me; The Exorcist, Pet Sematary and Night of the Living Dead. Add another to that list. Jaw-dropping performance. The final act is a masterpiece of suspense and intensity. With the power cut and the police outside practically waiting for everyone inside to die, Pablo and Angela -with their camera as the only available light in the building (genius)- attempt to escape upstairs, hoping to find an attic leading outside. What they find is a supposedly abandoned room that contains the answers to the story's mysteries and one of the most terrifying apparitions ever seen in a horror film. There are some amazing shots, genuine scares, violence with a little gore, and plenty of screams along the way. My God, are there screams. I have to say that in spite of the fact that much of this had been done in previous films, I wanted more of "REC". The film is a short hour and fifteen minutes and the ending was annoyingly abrupt and ended with lame music.

Either you enjoy these kinds of films or you do not. For fans of the emerging shaky-cam horror genre, this is for you. If you're not a fan, either skip it or take some dramamine beforehand; this one's not for the faint-hearted. A lesson in low-budget intensity in this movie. It is unexceptional considering what has come before, but it is executed well enough to make it well worth a watch. Consider "REC" a rec.

Message from the soapbox, incoming...

Let's face it, people: foreign horror is kicking our tails. It has been for a decade at least. If we want America's sleeping horror giant to wake up again, we've got to stop supporting the sub-par recycled garbage that is piling on top of it. That means saving your cash for the films that deserve it -independent, controversial, hardcore, R-rated, uncompromising HORROR- and forsaking all others. No Tara Reids or Paris Hiltons, no PG-13s, no Paul Andersons or Michael Bays, and no more God-cursed remakes. Take the money for that ticket and go buy a DVD of the original works instead. It'll make you a real American hero.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Top 10 Horror films of all time, January 11, 2009

By	Carlos C. Castanos (Muntinlupa, Metro Manila Philippines) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Great zombie flick. Very realistic and scary. Shot in grainy, documentary style ala Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield. I've also seen "Quarantine", the US virtually shot by shot remake, this original Spanish-made version with relatively less know starts (versus Quarantine which had the girl who plays Dexter's sister in the lead role, and another actress who appears as a regular in "Two and a Half Men") definitely superior tho the US version wasnt too bad.
I hope they release a Blu-Ray version of this movie, maybe as a back to back with the US version.