REC 4

[REC 4] has been a pretty nice surprise. I wanted to leverage the Cinespanha festival in Toulouse to go watch some film, but I didn't feel like spending much time going through the program, so when I found they were showing one more instalment of the [REC] franchise, the plan was done.

I had great memories from [REC 1] and [REC 2], but [REC 3] was crap (this is not just my feeling, it seems common to most critics), so much that I have to admit that I even hesitated about stepping back and save me the 7 euros of the ticket. Well, maybe [REC 3] would not feel so bad if you just looked at it as one more Zombies film, but if you put it along with its prequels, it's just crap. So, I was intrigued (and a bit scared) as to whether this 4th instalment would be in line with the good ones or with the shit one. Hopefully, it's been the former.

[REC 4] is a perfect continuation of the story developed in 1 and 2. It's as thrilling and intense as its predecessors. Though also set in a closed space (a ship rather than an old building), it does not achieve the same claustrophobic atmosphere, but it's just excellent anyway. I quite liked the turns given by the 3 films in explaining what is happening. While [REC 2] moved us from the infectious disease realm into the paranormal, demonic posession territory, [REC 4] moves us back into the infectious disease land.

The [REC] series (except for the third, crappy film, on which he was not involved) are the best known works by Spanish/Catalonian (I have no idea of which are his feelings of identity) director Jaume Balaguero, but his previous films: The Nameless, Darkness and Fragile are pretty good (Darkness in particular). I have realised that I had missed "Sleep Tight", so I'll have to put it in my ToDo list, aong with watching again [REC 1 and 2].