REC 4: Apocalypse

I’ve been waiting what seems like ages to watch this film, I got it for Christmas so now was the time to settle down and see how the REC series plays out. I’ve reviewed the others on this site REC Review, REC 2(2009) Review and REC 3 – Genesis (2012) Review. This is supposed to be the last REC film from what I’ve read although I think there’s still some legs in it yet. Anyway here’s my thoughts on REC 4…….

Director: Jaume Balagueró

Writers: Jaume Balagueró, Manu Díez

Stars: Manuela Velasco, Paco Manzanedo, Héctor Colomé

Run Time: 95 minutes

Budget: $3 million estimated

Trivia – Tristana Medeiros (the possessed girl who started the outbreak) is the only character to appear in all four films.

Trivia – Comic book artist Charlie Adlard known for his work in The Walking Dead (2010) comics drew a poster for this film’s US release, as did Tony Moore for [REC] 3: Genesis (2012).

So if you watched REC, REC 2 and REC 4 back to back without the end credits they’d run together as one big long film, I’m in the minority that really enjoyed the third film despite it moving away from the found footage genre I felt it was the most enjoyable in the series. However this fourth film carries on directly from the end of the second one, making the third not really fit at all with the overall story the films want to tell.

So for this film we head to the end of the second one as Guzman and Lucas head into the apartment block and rescue Angela. Before we know it they’re all on a boat/floating laboratory. Angela wakes strapped down but manages to escape, she stumbles into Guzman and after a meeting with the Doctor in charge the two begin to try and work out what the hell is going on.

With the help of the ship’s captain and his mate who luckily for everyone happens to be a hacker Guzman finds out they’re working on a a cure for the infection that has ravaged people in the previous three films. Things as you would expect turn to crap pretty soon, someone releases the animal they are testing the cure on.

Unluckily for everyone on board the monkey attacks the chef and soon enough there’s possessed zombie beasts everywhere. Leaving Guzman, Lucas and Angela to not only fight the zombies but also the motives of the man in charge. We get some great fights and some very good gore as you’d expect from a zombie film.

Everything comes down to two characters making an attempt at survival, I won’t say who as it’s better to watch and find out for yourselves as it might not be who you’d expect!

The Good

• Main good point is the development of the overall storyline of the REC films.
• Everyone mostly seems solid and Manuela Velasco who plays Angela is great at playing her role once again.
• Make up and SFX are spot on, the gore is great and some of the kills are fun as well. Hell even the monkey doesn’t look that bad!
• I loved the pacing of the film, it builds everything up really well and the last half hour or so was real good fun to watch.
• Héctor Colomé as Dr Ricarte the one in charge of finding the cure is a really good villain, I always think it’s quite hard to have a good villian in a zombie film.

The Bad

• There’s not too much bad but the main point would be the ending, it’s claimed this is the last film but it’s left somewhat open ended. This won’t be a bad point if we get another film if not I’m not a fan of that end.
• Whilst the film fit well with the first two it’s a shame they seemed to end the religious aspect of the possessions.
• The old woman felt like she was included simply to show the third one was related to this film, I wasn’t a fan of her scenes really.

That’s about it for the bad, not too much to complain about really. Overall it’s a good film but for me not quite as good as the other three, however it is a better fit to the series than the third film was which felt more like a standalone zombie flick. If you’ve spent the time watching the others you really need to see this one.

Overall Score – 7/10