During Clara (Leticia Dolera) and Koldo’s (Diego Martín)
wedding a deadly plague begins to spread through the guests that turns them
into violent zombie-like creatures.
This Spanish horror series, which began as a typical found
footage flick about a television reporter trapped inside an apartment complex
where a rabies-like virus begins to turn everyone into zombies, has not only
spawned a number of sequels, but also an American remake (Quarantine) with a sequel of its own. There’s even a fourth movie ([REC]4: Apocalypse) being
made right now in Spain that will continue the storyline from the first two
films. I think it’s safe to assume that these flicks are popular.
This third film begins like the others in the found footage
style. Wedding guests film the pre-ceremony events with cell phones and
handicams, even a professional filmmaker (with a convenient steadicam rig) was
hired to shoot the extravagant reception. We meet the happy couple-to-be via
these types of scenes and are introduced to the other major players over the
first twenty or so minutes. But once the plague breaks out the movie switches
over to a standard film style and abandons the handheld camcorders altogether.
It’s at this point that the film completely lost me. I didn’t realize just how
much the handheld found footage style added to the spookiness and atmosphere of
these types of flicks until it was completely stripped away. Once the story
begins to be told via conventional means I found the events silly and cheesy
beyond belief. The serious nature of the first two entries went AWOL and a sort
of Evil Dead 2 horror/comedy aspect
kicked in and curdled this mofo like a glass of milk in the hot sun.
Director Paco Plaza, who co-directed the first two films
with Jaume Balagueró, seems completely lost without the support of his
compatriot. His style, while effective for the found footage scenes, goes
completely down the toilet and into CW soap opera territory once the style
switches over. He cannot wring one single ounce of scariness from the script he
co-wrote with Luiso Berdejo and his actors are hammy and unconvincing in the
extreme due to his choices. As much as I dislike found footage as a sub-genre,
for some reason it would have given the events of this film some sort of
immediacy and wouldn’t have been presented such a boring and pedestrian way. It
could also have been that the screenplay completely sucks.
The two leads, Leticia Dolera and Diego Martín, have zero
chemistry and act like they are in a completely different movie. It’s almost as
I they were told they were in Bride Wars,
only with zombies thrown in instead of Kate Hudson. Virtually all the
performances made me think I was watching a Spanish language sitcom that was drenched
in blood.
The gore is the only saving grace. It’s ridiculous and over
the top, but it’s the one thing that’s consistent. There’s plenty of
eviscerations, beheadings, people getting split in half and more. Some of it is
somewhat comical, but at least it gave the gore fans what they expect when it
comes to a movie like this.
I’ve seen plenty of found footage flicks, zombie flicks and
horror flicks, both of the serious and comic variety. This is pretty bottom of
the barrel. Nothing really works, the unwelcome comedy falls flat, the
characters are one note and mildly annoying and when the finale kicked in I
didn’t give two shits about anyone involved or the poor attempts at high drama
being displayed. This flick makes the tedious and worthless Paranormal Activity series look like Jaws in comparison.
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