[REC] 2 is pretty damn good

[REC] 2 is now available via various video-on-demand services ahead of its US theatrical release in July. I watched it on Amazon VOD last night.

It is a rather different movie than the first installment in a number of ways, but still quite good.

First, if you haven’t seen [REC], GO SEE IT NOW. This sequel will likely make little sense otherwise. Also, the first one is all kinds of awesome. [REC] 2 starts by following a SWAT team that is escorting a health department official into the sealed-off building where everyone from the first movie was trapped. Given the number of surprises and reveals in the plot, I will say that mayhem then ensues, and leave it there.

[REC] 2 expands the scope of the story significantly. While the origins of the infection are hinted at in the conclusion of the first movie, we get the full story here. There is also a wider array of characters in the sequel, as well as multiple points of view. A few rather convoluted scenarios are required to preserve the “always looking through someone’s camera’” conceit across these multiple points of view, but for the most part, it works.

My main complaint about [REC] 2 is that it takes a rather significant detour at roughly the mid-point of the film in order to introduce a group of new characters. While this bunch does eventually meet up with the main storyline, it takes a bit longer than necessary, and there isn’t any real plot-point driving the change. I found it to be an unnecessary distraction from the overall story.

One other minor gripe is that I didn’t find much of a connection with any of the characters. While Angela Vidal and her cameraman Pablo are occasionally irritating in the first movie, seeing the whole story essentially through their eyes forced me to identify and sympathize with them. In the sequel, with its multiple points of view and somewhat less sympathetic characters, I never found myself connecting with any of them. Having said that, there is an exception (sort of), but I can’t really go into it without spoiling the plot.

Something I was a bit worried about with this movie was that the directors would succumb to sequelitis and make it wall-to-wall zombies. Thankfully, that worry ended up being unfounded. There are plenty of good scares, but with the exception of the aforementioned plot detour, the movie does a good job of maintaining the tension without being over-the-top.

Apparently the directors have two more movies in the works—a prequel, and another sequel. If subsequent installments are even close to the quality of the first two, this will end up being a great series of horror films. As it is, I’m looking forward to the DVD release of [REC] 2, as I think back-to-back viewings will be pretty rewarding.