Film Review: ‘[REC] 3: Genesis’ Showers Wedding Guests in Blood

CHICAGO – Gorehounds, unite! You fans of the slimy red stuff, those of you who love decapitations and disembowlings while you munch your popcorn, and those looking for something that feels honestly alive after inert horror films like “The Apparition” and “The Awakening” are required to support the ridiculous splatterfest “[REC] 3: Genesis,” opening in New York and L.A. this weekend and now available On Demand. This thing has a pulse. It may be pushing blood through a gushing jugular but it’s beating.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza’s “[REC]” (2007) is a gloriously tight little horror flick (that was remade as the decent “Quarantine” [2008]) that used the found footage concept effectively before you were exhausted with it. A news crew went to investigate a disturbance in an apartment building and was trapped there as a zombie infection broke loose. It was a tight, scary little piece of experimental cinema and it worked. It’s one of the best horror flicks of the last decade.

Read Brian Tallerico’s full review of “[REC] 3: Genesis” in our reviews section.

“[REC] 2” is decidedly less successful. Balaguero and Plaza tried too directly to mimic the impact of the first film but lost a lot of the claustrophobia. With “[REC] 3,” Plaza takes sole directorial credit now and cleverly decides to completely blow up his own concept. After a 20-minute pre-credit introduction using the found footage concept, Plaza switches to traditional camera work. He also expands his setting, still staying in one place but giving up on claustrophobia for pure chaos.

“[REC] 3” takes place at one of the happiest of all occasions — a wedding. Friends and family chant “Long life!” and the groom sings “I can’t live without you.” A bridesmaid hooks up with a groomsmen, people dance, people drink, and then a drunk uncle falls off a balcony before biting off the neck of the woman who comes to his rescue and puking blood on another. It’s time for chaos.

Continue reading for Brian Tallerico’s full “[REC] 3: Genesis” review.

[REC] 3: Genesis
Photo credit: Magnolia Pictures