Rec-Jaume Balaguero

Rec is a 2007 foreign film Written and Directed by Spanish citizen Jaume Balaguero which narrative followed on to make 3 films. Each film had a 3 year time gap between them, however they managed to use the same setting and environment, and this makes the narrative more believable as they look more linked. The first Rec is the film Im basing this essay on as I feel it had the best outcome and was the most grabbing. The main start through Rec 1&2 was Manuela Velasco who played the main protagonist Angela Vidal. Angela played the role of a Journalist who’s interview of a fireman’s life took a turn for the worst, when Angela and camera man Manu (Ferran Terranza) become trapped in a council estate with a variety of different people, one of which carries a deadly disease…

Balaguero based the genre of these films upon Horror and Thriller as he wanted to scare yet intrigue the viewer. He kept the themes to a minimal as he mainly focused on survival. I think by keeping the themes to a minimal it created a more intense feel. The plot of this film constantly changed throughout as it began with the intension of making money and a career (recording of the fireman’s life), to escaping the life threatening situations, to pure old survival. I really like the way each person in the film was a protagonist as there goal was to survive and protect there family however as Angela Vidal was the only character to survive into film 2 it makes her the strongest protagonist as she experiences many different goals, including survival, finding her friend and getting answers the murders that happened.

The things that turned me off this film the most was the fact I spent more time reading the subtitles than I did actually watching the actors. Also because the film was based on the first person prospective the camera quality was not of good density it made seeing certain parts of the film hard to understand. Although saying that I think towards the end of the film  when the camera changed into night vision it added a great deal of effect and made seeing the characters and their actions easier to identify.

The sound was clear as you could understand what each character said; although the characters were constantly shouting meaning the sound could get muffled sometimes. When the characters were in hiding from the ‘thing’ there voices dropped from a shout to a whisper which tells us the situation they are in. When the shot was too quiet you could tell a something drastic was about the happen and the camera angles change and the shot becomes wider, like its making space for entry of another character of object.

Overall if I was asked to rate Rec I would give it 4 stars. As the performance, setting and acting were amazing however the subtitles sometimes made the narrative hard to follow.