[REC]

Is this the greatest found footage horror movie? Probably, yeah. I can't believe I've left it this long to watch Rec. I think I even saw the American remake Quarantine years ago and never found time for this, but boy howdy did this movie grab me by the throat and not let me go. I got less than halfway through and, even though I was watching it on my own, said out loud "this is a fucking great movie". I love Terminator 2, and one of the reasons I love it so much is because of how unrelenting it is. The T-1000 does literally everything it can to achieve its goal, it doesn't put a foot wrong, doesn't make any mistakes and just does not stop trying to kill John Conner. And that's a surprisingly rare thing in movies, the best example is the horde of henchmen politely taking it in turns to get their assess handed to them by Jackie Chan or whoever. The point being, in all the ways I love Terminator 2 for starting strong and just never stopping, those are all the reasons I love Rec. There's a little bit of set up (journalist follows a fire crew around for the night) but when they get to the apartment building the movie is as unstoppable as a freight train. In the 15 years since its release, it's been next to impossible not to have a few things spoiled. The final scene was not only recreated for Quarantine but graced the cover of the DVD for crying out loud. And the jump scare in the attic was stolen by director Rob Savage when he pranked all of his friends on Zoom back in 2020, prompting the creation of the amazing movie Host. But it still has so much going for it that Rec is still insanely good, even if you know a few things going in. I'll need to rewatch it a few more times and give it some time to avoid recency bias, but this might be my new favourite found footage horror movie.